Time For A Democratic Majority In The House...

[Bicycle Bill]

Nail biter in Wisconsin for Governor

Yeah it is! Absentee ballots counting now! Would love to see Walker gone!

You ain't the only one.  I've been waiting almost six years to see him get sent back to Wauwatosa.

-"BB"-

[Lord Jim]

Bye bye Trump in 2020 2019.

Fixed.

[Jarlaxle]

About what I expected.

[Crackpot]

To be fair I think Trump can take a lot of the credit for this election.

[Lord Jim]

About what I expected.

Well, in that case Jarl, congratulations on being a more realistic Trump supporter than our wes:

the GOP will hold both houses.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=18766&p=259487&hili ... se#p259487

[Lord Jim]

In off year and special elections, the Dems had managed to win back about 60 of the nearly 1000 state legislative seats they lost during the Obama era...

After the dust settles, it will be interesting to see how many more they won back yesterday...

They will also be up a net number of governorships, which will be important for 2020 redistricting...(Though they didn't pick up the big prize in Florida)

This one was called just about 45 minutes ago:

Scott Walker loses bid for third term in Wisconsin

(CNN)Democrat Tony Evers will oust Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker from office, CNN can project, denying the Republican a third term and accomplishing something Democrats have long looked to achieve.

Evers, the Wisconsin state superintendent of public instruction, hammered Walker throughout the campaign as a career politician who has been around too long with too few results. Evers, like Democrats across the country, ran in clear opposition to the Republican health care plan, but he also seized on the widely held view in the state that education had suffered under Walker.

The governor was on defense for much of the campaign, accusing Evers of being a Democrat who wants to raise taxes on all Wisconsinites and arguing that he was wrong about his health care attacks.

More:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/07/politics ... index.html

[Scooter]

About what I expected.

Well, in that case Jarl, congratulations on being a more realistic Trump supporter than our wes:

the GOP will hold both houses.

Lest we forget:

I predict that the GOP will gain seats in both houses

I wonder how the crow tastes today.

[Econoline]

This one was called just about 45 minutes ago:

Scott Walker loses bid for third term in Wisconsin

Beat me to it.

With 99 percent of the vote counted

• Tony Evers, D: 1,310,141 (50%)
  Scott Walker, R: 1,279,994 (48%)
  

[Guinevere]

A good day yesterday. If you don’t think yesterday’s wave was big enough - think again. I’ve been watching the state level races all along and have been impressed and buoyed by Dem gains at the state level - 7 governorships and 333 state legislative seats, adding 6 states where Dems control both houses of the legislature and the governor. This is the room where it has to happen before it can happen on the national stage. This is where we protect districts and fight voter suppression. This is where we grow our candidates.

And final tally in the US House will be Dems at 230 +/-. That outperformed average polling projections by +5 seats or more. 100 women elected to Congress, gays, lesbians, military vets, native Americans — which will be more diverse and look a lot more like American. This is MUCH to be proud and satisfied about — and still lots of work to do for 2020, starting tomorrow!

ETA: the new chairmanships in the House will be wonderful. Pelosi, Schiff, Waters. And Trump will have to deal with them. They will get things done and not just investigate or inquire. They will govern. We need to make our country a better place for all Americans and they will.

ETA2: one of my personal fave highlights of the night - Kris “voter suppression” Kobach beaten by a female Dem! Go Kansas!!!

[Crackpot]

Welcome back Guin!

[Lord Jim]

333 state legislative seats,

Thanks for answering my question, Guin; that's a pretty good chunk of what was lost regained in one whack...

(And of course, nice to see you posting... )

[BoSoxGal]

My heart is bruised over Beto, Andrew & Stacy - and Tester, if he loses

But I'm thrilled we got the House back with a mandate and elected so many women and such a diverse group of new Congresspersons. I will breathe easier and sleep better with a check on this President and his GOP. Onward & upward to 2020!




Nice to see you, Guin.

[Guinevere]

With respect to the Senate - I’m as guilty as anyone for getting caught up in hype — and I really really really wanted Beto to win (and thought he could pull it off). BUT Democrats were never flipping the Senate this year. They defended 26 Senate seats, with Bernie Sanders and Angus King (more than half of their caucus), including five seats that voted for Trump by 19 points or more. Rs defended only nine seats (fewer than a fifth of their caucus); all but one are states Trump carried.

Finally - in my experience, successful change is made by increments. Today’s world doesn’t seem to have patience for that, and I think many many Americans were not paying attention to the gains the Rs made at the state level, or in congress, until Trump exploded in their faces. But as I said above — the Dems did almost everything they needed to do to set the table for 2020. There is more work. There will always be work. We can never sit back and rest on our laurels - we have seen what can happen, and it’s terrifying. But we are taking our country back and we will keep advancing.

[Guinevere]

And yes, as a nation, we have to figure out why we remain caught up in racism, fear, and hate (it’s as much about power and control as it is about anything else), and Florida and Georgia state-wide results are disturbing and sad. But there were gains down ballot in GA and also in TX (not sure about FL). I have to hang my hat on the notion that eventually, seat by seat, in those small increments, we will change those states for the better.

I really do believe the era of the privileged white male is ending, but it’s going to be the generation after me (and not mine - which frustrates me to no end) that finally pushes us past that barrier.

[Lord Jim]

Dasvidaniya Dana :

Dana Rohrabacher — ‘Putin’s favorite congressman’ — loses to Democrat Harley Rouda

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher — infamously known as “Putin’s favorite congressman” — lost his re-election campaign in California.

The Republican lawmaker was narrowly defeated by Democrat Harley Rouda, a real estate executive and former Republican, in the deeply conservative 48th House District.

Rohrabacher has been a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, and he earned his nickname after using information he got from the Russian government to promote one of Vladimir Putin’s top priorities — removing the name of murdered lawyer Sergei Magnitsky from a sanctions act.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/11/dana-r ... ley-rouda/



Maybe there's a nice dacha waiting for you on the Black Sea, you traitorous sonuvabitch...

[Big RR]

Guin--I agree those changes are coming with the next generation, just as the generation after us brought tolerance of sexual preference differences and gay marriage (when many our age were arguing that civil unions were the more pragmatic way to advance). So I have some hope for the future.

For 2020, IMHO the biggest challenge for the democrats will be to tell people why they are the party/candidates to vote for; the backlash to keep trump in check was phase 1, and now they have to show why they deserve to be the party in power by showing results (or at least significant and public effort towards these ends). By all means let the investigations of Trump commence, but don't make them the only thing that you do; otherwise this good will might well be lost.

[Guinevere]

BigRR - they have to govern, not just investigate. Top voter issues were health care and immigration. We have to come up with rational long term solutions for both. If that can happen, and we can at least articulate what those solutions are (or even get pieces of them done), Dems can run on that in 2020.

ETA: spelling corrections

[Crackpot]

My advice for the Dems is act like you are going to be there for a while. Do what has broad support first and build broad support for your “new” policies before you try to enact them. Our governance really needs to shift from what politicians want for the future and what the people need now.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Dasvidaniya Dana :

Dana Rohrabacher — ‘Putin’s favorite congressman’ — loses to Democrat Harley Rouda

Wow. I didn't know that until I read it here. For years I had, pinned on my wall next to my desk, a quote from Rohrabacher (I can't find it now, of course) which called the idea of climate change at best, a hoax. Probably from 1995 or so. Truly an asshole of the first magnitude. A stunning example of Dunning Kruger. Just knowing that he is gone makes up for some of the disappointment of the night. But as Guin so sensibly says, we have to see these small steps as what they are, progress.

[Guinevere]

My advice for the Dems is act like you are going to be there for a while. Do what has broad support first and build broad support for your “new” policies before you try to enact them. Our governance really needs to shift from what politicians want for the future and what the people need now.

Yes, agreed. That's very much the point of my post above re: health care and immigration. And to get anything actually passed, we will probably have to work with Trump and the Rs. The absolutists on both sides need to understand compromise is just about the only way to get results. Its how Congress used to work. We have to try and bring that back (and I'm not putting the blame only on the Rs on that failure, the Dems own some of that as well).