Update 2:30 AM Central: Jebus I fell asleep, sorry. Looks like the exit polls were right and McAuliffe pulled ahead in VA after all. But by about 1 to 2 points instead of the 4 or 5 confidently predicted. That’s worrisome, Cooch was running not just to curtail reproductive rights, he’s was hoping to make it harder for women in abusive marriages to get divorced and he was running in the wake of Bob McDonell, who is facing possible indictment and prison time. But a win is a win and that point and a half will mean thousand of Virginians won’t needlessly suffer or die when healthcare is expanded to include them. We should all be so lucky. Christie won as expected in NJ but his coattails were non existent.
Update: Networks now calling NJ for Christie. VA too close to call but MSNBC says as yet unseen exit polls show McAuliffe ahead. Know idea why, looks to me like Cooch has a solid lead. That would be sad for a lot of people in VA and really weird with no clear winner in Teaparty vs Establishment.
It remains to be seen if McAuliffe will live up to the polling hype in VA. But the result in NJ is assured: Christie will win in a landslide. What’s interesting to me is Christie supported the ACA, allowed a state exchange to be set up, and went ahead with the state legislature’s desire to accept the Medicaid expansion. Presumably McAuliffe would do the same (There are an estimated one-million residents of Virginia who currently lack health insurance). If so, a win for McAuliffe and Christie could easily be construed as a sweep for Obamacare. I’ll post results as they come in.
Rural areas are always the first to report in, and cities always the last. The places with the most votes to count (i.e., cities) tend to break Democratic. Looking at the vote totals, what had been a solid ten percent spread is now down to less than two percent, and there are a good many urban districts where there are no reports at all yet.
I should add, I’m following via this map:
http://www.nytimes.com/projects/elections/2013/general/virginia/map.html
1.2% difference now, with three urban counties the only counties not yet reporting (many counties are not at 100% report yet, though)
….aaaaaaand now McAuliffe is on top by a fraction of a percent.
HuffPo is calling it for McAuliffe. Ewww Jackson seems to have been decidedly beaten, thank goodness.
Bill DeBlasio is the new mayor of NYC.
All in all, it looks like a good day for the good guys.
Sodomites rejoice! :D
Once again, Virginia is for lovers!
40+% of Virginians still voted for a guy who wanted to ban blowjobs.
Great news – very glad to see Kookinelli has lost especially.
Maybe Mann can now do his climatological work in peace?
Also perhaps this marks a turning tide with the Repubs heading back towards the middle as Christie’s win shows?
@9: Only in TeaParty America is Christie “the middle”.