Wednesday’s political round-up

November 22, 2006

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* The race is over in New Mexico’s 1st congressional district and Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R) hung on to beat state Attorney General Patricia Madrid (D) by just 875 votes. Madrid conceded yesterday, saying that a recount would cost too much and that there was no guarantee it would reverse the result.

* Similarly, in Ohio’s 2nd congressional district, Rep. Jean Schmidt (R) also clinched re-election yesterday when additional ballot counts gave her an insurmountable edge of about 3,200 votes over Democratic challenger Victoria Wulsin.

* In New Hampshire, Gov. John Lynch (D) has said he won’t take on Sen. John Sununu (R) in 2008, but yesterday, his predecessor said she might. Former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen (D) said she “has not ruled out” another Senate campaign. If she runs, it will set up a rematch of the 2002 race that Sununu narrowly won, thanks in part to an illegal phone-jamming scheme set up by the state GOP.

* In Connecticut, state Rep. Diana Urban, who considered a fourth-party Senate campaign against Joe Lieberman this year, announced yesterday that she is switching from Republican to Democrat. Of the 151 seats in the Connecticut House, now only 44 are filled by Republicans.

* In 2008 news, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) filed the paperwork yesterday with the Federal Election Commission to create a presidential exploratory committee. The process was, however, a little odd — the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Exploratory Committee was created on Nov. 10, but he held off on filing the paperwork until yesterday, when the documents were hand-delivered to the FEC. Odd.

* And over at Tapped, Sam Rosenfeld had an interesting 2006 election-trivia item yesterday. Among the highlights: this year was the first since the modern party system began that a party (in this case, Democrats) did not lose a single House, Senate, or gubernatorial seat and no House Democrat lost re-election for the first time since ’22.

Regarding NM’s 1st district. Among friends here in the state, we seem to agree that if Madrid couldn’t unseat Wilson then she’ll likely become more entrenched. The 1st district is the most centrist of the three districts, so it’s no surprise that Bernalillo County (the majority of the district) could vote for Kerry while retaining Wilson, particularly by such a small margin. It didn’t help that Madrid came off as somewhat of an idiot in their televised debate.

  • I would just guess that Guiliani didn’t want his announcement to be so close to the Republican’t lose of the House and Senate. Now that is cleared away he can dominate the news.

  • “this year was the first since the modern party system began that a party (in this case, Democrats) did not lose a single House, Senate, or gubernatorial seat and no House Democrat lost re-election for the first time since ‘22. ”

    BUt remember, Fox News says it was not a sea change election. It was all because of anti-GOP sentiment and definately not becaus eof pro Democrat feelings.

    No Plan!

    Stay the course!

    New-Klear!

    Last throes!

  • Dash it, Mean Jean is back, winning twice in 2 years. I hereby officially disown OH-2 from my state. Kentucky, you can have ’em. Any day.

  • So, does that wrap up all the recounts/close races? If so, what’s the final tally?

    And more importantly (even though I, for some odd reason, didn’t make a prediction here), who won the Carpetbaggerreport 2006 Midterm Election Prediction Contest?

  • Sam Rosenfeld: “Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), the only senator elected to 9 full terms, lost his first county since ’88.” Byrd won the state by 291,058 (64%) to 152,315 (34%), but lost Doddridge County to Raese by 1,090 (52%) to 966 (46%). Doddridge Co. is very rural.

  • I can’t wait to see where they stick Mean Jean’s office in the next term. Down in the basement next to the coal chute seems appropriate. 😉

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