House race updates - Sister Toldjah

We retained a couple of seats in Ohio and New Mexico:

More than a week after Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-N.M.) claimed a razor-thin election victory, her Democratic challenger conceded yesterday, saying that a recount would cost too much and that there was no guarantee it would reverse the result.

In Ohio’s 2nd District, Rep. Jean Schmidt (R) also clinched reelection yesterday when additional ballot counts gave her an insurmountable edge of about 3,200 votes over Democratic challenger Victoria Wulsin.

Wilson won by 875 votes. The final tally showed the five-term congresswoman with 105,921 votes to 105,046 votes for Patricia Madrid, New Mexico’s attorney general.

Madrid could have requested a recount, but she would have had to pay for it, and she estimated that a districtwide recount could cost $300,000.

Considering this ad, which to me showed Madrid at her absolute worst, I’m surprised the Wilson/Madrid race was as close as it was.

There are still some undecided races, including one right here in NC:

Â· In North Carolina, a recount is underway in the 8th District. Rep. Robin Hayes (R) led Democrat Larry Kissell by 339 votes after the results were certified Friday night. Kissell then asked for the recount.

Â· In Ohio’s 15th District, Rep. Deborah Pryce, a member of the House Republican leadership, led Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy by 3,717 votes yesterday amid a count of provisional ballots.

Â· In Florida, state officials certified Republican Vern Buchanan the winner over Democrat Christine Jennings by 369 votes, or by less than 0.02 percent of the total. Jennings challenged the result Monday, asserting that touch-screen voting machines had malfunctioned. She asked a judge to order a new election.

Â· Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), the subject of an FBI bribery investigation, will face fellow Democrat Karen Carter in a Dec. 9 runoff, and Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-Tex.) will face former congressman Ciro D. Rodriguez (D) in a Dec. 12 runoff.

Here’s more on that contested Buchanan/Jennings race. This is the race that Kos and Co. went ballistic over, holding a fundraiser in an effort to “get Diebold.” when it was pointed out to them that evil “Republican-controlled” Diebold machines weren’t used in that race, it still didn’t matter to the perpetually outraged far lefties at Daily Kos.

Speaking of the elections, something I’ve been thinking lately is that, in spite of all the hype surrounding what a ‘great job’ Rahm Emanuel and other Dems supposedly did during the campaign season which many are crediting with Dems taking over Congress, perhaps their strategy had very little to do with Dems winning. Considering the ratings for Congress were in the tank all year, I think there’s a strong likelihood that the Dems would have won without any sweeping comprehensive strategy. I mean, the media is almost treating the Dem takeover as a “surprise” – but was it?

TedintheShed says:

November 22, 2006 at 5:09 pm

“Considering the ratings for Congress were in the tank all year, I think there’s a strong likelihood that the Dems would have won without any sweeping comprehensive strategy. I mean, the media is almost treating the Dem takeover as a “surprise” – but was it?”

Ladies and gents, we have a winner.

It was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart who was interviewing Howard Dean. He asked Dean, “So, how does it feel to win even though you had no strategy or no plan?” (paraphrasing). Dean laughed and then caught himself, like he was thinking “Hey, you;re supposed to be on our side!”.

The Democrats winning were more a result of the Republicans incompetency than that of anything they did. Kerry responses to questions were most always “I have a plan.” but he never articulated it. I guess the best strategy in politics nowadays is not to attempt to improve upon your opponents points and win the war of ideas, but to wait to allow your opponent to screw up so much that you get the nod.

That way, no need to work for it.

geezer says:

November 22, 2006 at 9:13 pm

One could develop some serious mental health issues picking over these bones too much. Let the Dems worry about who gets the credit for their one seat majority in the Senate and 20-something majority in the House. That kind of split sounds more like the thing is on loan to them, vs. having been “won.”

Let us worry about getting on track again, but take some time out for Thanksgiving, the most American holiday of all. Remember our troops and all others who’ll keep us safe while the rest of us get fatter, dumber and happier. Time enough later for politics and all it’s attendant BS.

November 22, 2006 at 9:29 pm

Well, with a much larger majority, the Dems managed to fillibuster the crap out of issues.

I expect the same from the Republicans- the “loyal opposition” based stalemete.

Mwalimu Daudi says:

November 23, 2006 at 3:13 pm

If only they would! Stalemate would be a better service to the nation than anything they have done for the last two years.

I suspect that it is far more likely that Republicans will follow a decades-old tradition of caving under the merest hint of pressure from the MSM and their Democratic pets. “Lack of bipartisanship” is an MSM phrase guaranteed to make Congressional Republicans soil their underware.