Ken Berwitz

NOTE:  This blog was originally written only about www.dailykos.com.  But since www.crooksandliars.com doing exactly the same thing, I've added an addendum about it.

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This is a riot.

Here, in its entirety, is the election analysis done by Steve Singiser for www.dailykos.com.

See if you find a strange order of importance:

Election Night 2009: The Post-Game Show

by Steve Singiser

Wed Nov 04, 2009 at 06:48:08 AM PST

Well, the off-year elections are now, for all intents and purposes, all over but the shouting. Except for a handful of recounts (I did see a Virginia House of Delegates race that had a 16-vote margin with 100% of precincts reporting), the 2009 election cycle is now in the books.

Of course, there will be no shortage of spin during the balance of the week. That said, it has to be pointed out that, despite the pre-spin that permeated in the week before the election, the Democrats will find at least a handful of things to crow about post-election:

• NY-23: At the top of the list, of course, is the New York 23rd district. Sure, they'd all deny it right now, but there are a lot of folks in the right-wing political sewing circle who would chuck Christie and McDonnell to the curb right now if they could have their Doug Hoffman in Congress. What's even more amazing is that, in the final analysis, it wasn't terribly close--the margin of victory wound up being more than 4%. And had those 11,000 absentee ballots known that the choice was between Owens and Hoffman, there is good reason to believe that his margin would have been even wider.
• CA-10: No, the outcome of the race was not a surprise, but the margin may well have been. Republican David Harmer had raised a lot of money, more than enough to be competitive. Polls showed that the race might fall into the single digits. It did not. Democrat John Garamendi scored a fairly decisive win. What's more--Garamendi is likely to be a political upgrade from former occupant Ellen Tauscher, who maddened progressives often with her stubborn belief that she was still representing a 50/50 district. Garamendi is liable to, at long last, be a strong progressive representing a progressive district.
• WASHINGTON STATE: Many joys are apparently coming from the Evergreen State (although, since they are now a vote-by-mail state, the returns are crawling with glacial speed). Democrat Dow Constantine won the King County Executive's race, despite some fears that the "stealth campaign" of Republican Susan Hutchison might push her over the top (she was a popular TV personality, and had carefully hid her partisanship). Referendum 71, which sought to confer the same rights on domestic partnerships as civil marriages, was narrowly ahead in the latest returns. As in Maine, a TABOR-style tax/budget reform that was teabagger-heaven was decisively thumped. And a Democrat won the Seattle mayor's race (of course, both candidates were Democrats).
• LOCAL ELECTIONS: Leaving aside the amazing spectacle of the totally unsung Bill Thompson coming within five points of the $100 million man in New York City, there was a lot of reasons for Democrats to smile in Mayoral races. For the first time in a long time, a Democrat will lead Charlotte, North Carolina, as African-American Democrat Anthony Foxx scored a narrow win over Republican John Lassiter. Democrats also held onto Chapel Hill, in a race many expected to fall to the GOP. Democrat Mark Mallory also survived a very competitive re-election race in Cincinnati.

Now, it goes without saying, there was a lot for Democrats to be disappointed about, as well. Virginia wound up just being a bludgeoning for Democrats. Not only was Republican Bob McDonnell a runaway winner for Governor (59-41), but the GOP claimed the other two downballot races by double digits. On top of all that, it looks like the GOP claimed a half-dozen seats in the House of Delegates, pushing their edge to a substantial 59-39-2 advantage (though a couple of races will go to recounts, for sure).

New Jersey was disappointing, if only because the state will be saddled with the unimpressive Chris Christie for four years. Though he squandered a fifteen-point lead (mostly by his own missteps), it was tough for a Governor with a 30-something percent approval rating to hang on. In the final analysis, it was a four-point race (49-45-6), virtually identical to the NY-23 outcome.

Of course, there is a key difference--a Republican has represented New Jersey as a governor since the Civil War.

There was a small victory for the Democrats in New Jersey. They managed to hold onto almost all of their legislative majority, despite some predictions that the GOP could gain enough seats to reclaim the majority. When all was said and done, the GOP gained a single seat, leaving Democrats with a 47-33 majority in the Assembly.

And then there was Maine. In many ways (and, of course, in human terms), this was the most disappointing outcome of the night: Question 1 passed, and it appears as if it passed with enough of a margin that a recount will not be necessary. Of course, all available polling data teaches us that this is a battle that the forces of intolerance are going to lose--their base is withering away through the passage of time. But asking our gay friends for a little more patience seems incredibly wrong.

They will win their cause, we can only hope it will be sooner rather than later.

Fascinating.

Virtually the entire rest of the world considers the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections to be, far and away, the most important of them all.  Those are the biggest elections, the ones President Obama put his name and prestige on.  Additionally, both states have had a Democratic governor for the past 8 years, and were won by President Obama in 2008.

But this is not the rest of the world, is it?  This is the kos site. 

To Mr. Singiser of www.dailykos.com, the biggies are a couple of congressional special elections, Kings County Executive in Washington and some local elections.  Much, much more important than those trifling governor's mansions.

I wonder if dailykos.com does its political polling with the same high level of neutrality and balance we're seeing in this "analysis".

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Incidentally, dailykos.com ain't the only ones.  click here, and see that its mirror-image web site, cooksandliars.com, is doing the same thing - i.e. featuring every election but Virginia and New Jersey, which are listed last and downplayed as much as possible.

What whimpering crybabies.