Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Northam Wins In Virginia; Murphy In New Jersey (UPDATED)


Democrat Ralph Northam won a much bigger than expected  victory (53% 54% - 45%) over Republican "Enron Ed" Gillespie in the gubernatorial race in Virginia tonight. Despite foul weather over much of the state and active Republican vote suppression activities, the turnout for Democrats was heavy in vote- rich Northern Virginia, as well as in the Norfolk and Newport News areas. Gillespie ran a nasty, Trump- like campaign characterized by race baiting and smears, which apparently has backfired with voters.

Dems are also expected to sweep the Lt. Governor and Attorney General races as well. In one closely watched race, transgender Virginia Democrat Danica Roem defeated powerful long- time Republican skunk and "chief homophobe" Del. Bob Marshall (see tweet below).  Additional pickups in the Virginia state Senate and House of Delegates are expected tonight as well, possibly flipping the lower chamber to Democratic control.*

As expected, Democrat Phil Murphy won the gubernatorial race in New Jersey, defeating Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.

Well done, Virginia and New Jersey! Suck on that, Republicans!

*UPDATE: David Wasserman at Five Thirty Eight --
Again, I never thought I’d be saying this, but by my back-of-the-envelope count, Democrats are currently in the lead to pick up Virginia’s House of Delegates. They started the night with 34 of 100 seats and have already picked up 12 GOP-held seats. There are eight more GOP-held seats that are still too close to call, and Democrats are currently in the lead in six of them. If those leads hold, the speaker of Virginia’s House of Delegates in 2018 will be a Democrat. Given the GOP’s aggressive gerrymander of Virginia’s delegate districts in 2011, this is what you’d call a tidal wave. (our emphasis)

 UPDATE II:


UPDATE III: Re the Danica Roem/ Bob Marshall race --



Posted by at
Labels: , , ,