Democrats didn’t just lose last night, they got slaughtered up and down the ballot:
More later.
Brief Blurbs on a Brilliant Bloodbath
November 5th, 2014Liveblogging Election Night 2014
November 4th, 2014
This is what a wave looks like. http://t.co/oj8q1BBpjR #Election2014 pic.twitter.com/MSxThYaH1D
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) November 5, 2014
Davis is currently at 38.1%. Just for the record, I called Wendy Davis dropping below Tony Sanchez’s 39.96% back in September.
Back
In local election news, Williamson County Republicans Tony Dale and Larry Gonzalez both won decisively over their Dem challengers.
OK, I’m heading home. This isn’t a Republican landslide, it’s a Republican tidal wave. Enjoy it now. Tomorrow the hard work begins.
Congratulations to Greg Abbott on being elected governor of Texas!
News media now saying Ernst wins and Republicans take control of the senate.
Republican Joni Ernst takes lead in Iowa.
A very solid victory speech, with lots of family thanked.
Wendy Davis called Abbott to congratulate him.
Nope, family members first. Daughter Cecelia Audrey Abbott.
Lights went down and they’re about to introduce Abbott.
Fox just called Kansas Senate race for Republican Roberts.
Wendy Davis didn’t even win Texas women.
Right now Wendy Davis is running behind Tony Sanchez’s 39.97% in 2002. $38%.
Ran into Sen. John Cornyn on my way to the bathroom. Congratulated him. Now he’s being interviewed 3 feet away from me.
Wisconsin Governor’s race called for Republican Scott Walker.
We project that Scott Walker has SURVIVED his fight with Mary Burke. #WIGov
— AoSHQ Decision Desk (@AoSHQDD) November 5, 2014
Governor Perry speaking after a huge round of applause.
Whoa!
Cory Gardner (R) projected to defeat incumbent Mark Udall (D) for the #COSenate race. Per @BretBaier
— Kate O'Hare Writes (@KateOH) November 5, 2014
Not a shock, but someone calling it this early is.
Scene from Texas just a few minutes ago. pic.twitter.com/FOzotKgFr3
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) November 5, 2014
Abbott spokesman saying they crushed Democrats AND BattleGround Texas. “Helping them waste their money, the way Democrats always do.”
Calling West Virginia Senate race for for Republican Capito. Not a surprise, but that’s a flip from D to R.
#BREAKING: AP calls Dan Patrick as the next Lieutenant Governor of Texas. #TXElections
— Karen Borta (@CBS11Karen) November 5, 2014
Welp RT @kherman: Exit polls show Abbott carried women by 52-47 margin over Davis.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) November 5, 2014
Republican Rounds projected to win SD Sen. No surprise.
Republican Ed Gillispie beating Warner in VA; not final, but if true that would indicate a truly epic Republican wave.
GOP Sen pickups: Cotton beats Pryor in Arkansas,
OK, now I’m in on Twitter, but on another browser…
Hi there! I’m blogging from the Greg Abbott Victory Party at the ACL theater. Can’t seem to get Twitter to take my password, so this may just be LiveBlog rather than LiveTweet.
Go Vote!
November 4th, 2014Williamson County voting information.
Travis County polling locations.
I hope to live tweet/live blog election results tonight.
And Now News of Another ObamaCare-Related Rate Hike: My Own
November 3rd, 2014I’ve been covering ObamaCare since before it was even passed. Along the way I’ve documented numerous ObamaCare-related insurance cancellations and rate hikes. But now I have a special insurance rate hike to report on: my own.
Yes, my monthly rate will be going up by $100, a hefty 27.33% hike.
Background: As a contractor, I currently pay for my own health insurance. I have a Humana HMO Platinum Plan for myself only, with a fairly low deductible and solid prescription drug coverage (I’m not on any truly budget-busting medication, but I am on one slightly pricey one that essentially makes the pricier plan more cost effective than the cheaper ones.) I bought my plan through the private insurance market and not the ObamaCare website. (And the children’s dental is on there only because it was a buck more and I didn’t want to go through the bother of the paperwork hoops necessary to get it taken off.)
It’s not that I’ve never seen an insurance hike before, but before ObamaCare I never experienced one so breathtaking. Judging from results, ObamaCare seems designed to fatten both the bottom lines of insurance companies and to force people on affordable plans that Democrats disapprove of onto Medicaid.
I think I may have gotten my hike notice early only because I’m on a private, non-employer plan. If you’re on an employer-covered plan, there’s a good chance your rate hikes will be coming down the pike after the election…
Election News Roundup for November 3, 2014
November 3rd, 2014Election day is tomorrow! Now would be a good time to locate your voter registration card…
LinkSwarm for October 31, 2014
October 31st, 2014Happy Halloween!
Illinois: only state in Midwest in which food-stamp enrollment outpaces job creation since recession ended pic.twitter.com/yKyIdoOHMv
— Corey Brooks (@CoreyBBrooks) October 24, 2014
Election Roundup for October 30, 2014
October 30th, 2014Early voting ends tomorrow in Texas. Plan accordingly…
Antonio Buehler Found Not Guilty
October 30th, 2014From the Austin legal beat, Antonio Buehler was found not guilty of refusing to obey a police officer’s instructions while filming an arrest on January 1st, 2012.
Chalk up another small but real win for the right to monitor government employees doing their work in public.
Houston Mayor Backs Down Over Sermon Subpoenas
October 29th, 2014Better late than never, Houston Mayor Annise Parker comes to the belated understanding that she was getting her ass handed to her on a plate over her subpoenas of church sermons by enemies of her Transvestite Bathrooms Initiative, and has dropped the subpoenas entirely.
However, the clue-by-four still doesn’t seem to have fully registered:
The move is in the best interest of Houston, she said, and is not an admission that the requests were in any way illegal or intended to intrude on religious liberties.
Snip.
The plaintiffs’ attorney in the lawsuit, Andy Taylor, called Parker’s announcement a “head fake,” and challenged her not only to pull down the subpoenas but to drop the city’s defense of the lawsuit and put the ordinance to a vote. The city last summer ruled opponents’ petition to submit the equal rights ordinance to a repeal referendum fell short of the legal requirements spelled out in the city charter, prompting the lawsuit.
“The truth is she’s using this litigation to try to squelch the voting rights of over a million well-intentioned voters here in the city of Houston,” Taylor said. “It’s very simple why we filed a lawsuit: Because they won’t do what the city constitutional charter requires them to do.”
Ms. Parker is obviously what we call a “slow learner.”
The Wendy Davis Campaign Prebituaries Are Already Coming In
October 29th, 2014Has there ever been a campaign with as much national hype behind it as Wendy Davis’ that ended up doing so poorly? Maybe Edmund Muskie’s Presidential race in 1972, Ed Koch’s Governor’s run in 1982, or Gary Hart’s abortive 1988 Presidential run. But all those were already major political players before running smack into Nemesis, and Muskie and Koch still had careers after their debacles.
Perhaps McGovern’s 1972 general election campaign comes closest, with one disastrous decision following another and a healthy streak of bad luck to boot. (Which only compounds the idiocy of Nixon’s dirty tricks team monkeywrenching an election that was already in the bag.) But the McGovern 1972 team can rightfully claim to have displayed real tactical brilliance in winning the nomination in the first place. And McGovern was already a Senator.
Davis doesn’t even have that going for her. This was her first (and undoubtedly her last) statewide race. After this horrendous showing, I’m not sure Democrats would even nominate her for the Railroad Commission.
Various media outlets are already busy writing Davis’ political obituary:
And to top it all off, no one is buying Davis’ book:
Despite enormous levels of media buzz, Nielsen BookScan numbers provided to Slate by a publishing source show only 4,317 copies of the memoir, called Forgetting to Be Afraid, have been sold since its Sept. 9 publication.
Nielsen BookScan doesn’t include all book sales, notably sales at many independent retailers, so the actual number of copies sold is probably higher, although still likely below 6,000. As a point of comparison, Elizabeth Warren’s memoir, A Fighting Chance, sold more than 70,000 copies in its first few months on shelves. And David Limbaugh’s book Jesus on Trial, which was published the day before Davis’, has sold about 65,000 copies, including 6,778 just last week, according to BookScan.
In some cases, selling 6,000 hardback books would be a good number. For a first-time novelist, for instance, 6,000 hardbacks would be a pretty good number. (And it’s more than all but one of this year’s Booker Prize nominees sold in the UK.)
But for a book with a $132,000 partial advance? Not so much…