Outside Counsel

A few post-Election Day notes from home:

A. spent the day canvassing in Cayuga County, Ohio. I picked her up at about quarter to eleven in the UAW parking lot, and we hadn't driven a mile before the Buckeye State was called. I credit her for the win.

Chris Matthews mentioned it last night: this is the first time since FDR that a Democratic Presidential candidate has won 50% twice.

The Hoosier State went red, I think because EGA moved to the Show Me State (also red). Not a total loss though-- Indiana Republicans threw Dick Lugar out after six terms-- a record for an Indiana senator-- and nominated Richard Mourdock to replace him. As you might expect from a guy who's name sounds like a Harry Potter bad guy Mourdock proved to be a horrible candidate. He sealed the deal with an idiotic remark about rape, and now Indiana has a Democrat in that seat for the first time since 1977. I had to look up who was there before Lugar: it was Vance Hartke. Funny to think that there was a time when Indiana had Hartke and Birch Bayh as its senators. Both of them were liberal even by the standards of the time. Come to think of it, there was a time when Lugar was regarded as an arch-conservative.

As a middle aged white dude I suppose I ought to be upset that women and Hispanics are the key demographic going forward, but I'm not. Good luck women and Hispanics! You can't possibly do a worse job than we did!

I was surprised by Iowa. I was not surprised by North Carolina.

I'd like to take a moment to thank Nate Silver for helping to get me through this.


Eight years ago Karl Rove engineered having marriage equality referenda on ballots in key states in order to drive up Republican turnout. Funny how things change.

The people of Puerto Rico voted (53%) to change their political status to that of statehood (65%). But Congress has to approve the change. For the past thirty years or so Republicans have been saying that they need to court the Hispanic vote-- here's their chance. Anybody think the House will approve it? Me neither.

I really hate Chris Collins, and I'm sorry that Kathy Hochul lost. Funny to think of Collins in the seat that once belonged to Jack Kemp. And Bill Paxon. And Tom Reynolds. It's a safe Republican seat that has traditionally been held by someone in a national leadership position, and I wonder if that's what Collins has in mind.

Can we have hockey back now?