Overnight Results Open Thread

by: Chris Bowers

Wed Nov 04, 2009 at 01:24


California Democratic Lt. Governor John Garamendi has been declared the winner in the CA-10 special election. Garamendi will be more progressive than Tauscher, who was the chair of the New Dems when she was in Congress.

As Crisitunity says at Swing State Project:

So that's two nice upgrades in the House (from McHugh to Owens, and from Tauscher to Garamendi).

Democrats now have 258 seats in the House, up from 257.  Whenever a party gains seats in congress, the voters simply are not rebuking that party.  With the teabagger vanquished and an upgrade from Tauscher, that is a pretty solid night in the House.

Both Owens and Garamendi will be sworn in before the weekend vote in the House on health care reform. The Committee on Rules in the House posted the bill tonight, which paves the way for a vote in as little as 72 hours.  No word yet on amendments, but more on that tomorrow.

Corzine is a real loss, given how few progressives are also Governors.  However, with the economy in its current state, it is a difficult time to be an incumbent party.

Maine, as Adam describes below, is looking bleak.  Enough to make your blood boil.  The only bright side I can offer is that, once again, we are getting closer to winning these elections.  Also, once again, we probably won them among voters under the age of 65.

If Democrats--whether Progressive, New Dem or Blue Dog--are going to succeed in 2010, then the objective economic conditions people face in their daily lives have to improve. It is only through a positive turnaround in the daily lives of average Americans that Democrats will continue to gain seats next year.
Chris Bowers :: Overnight Results Open Thread

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Overnight Results Open Thread | 15 comments
Second Stimulus and GOTV (4.00 / 1)
Inflation is a right wing bugaboo.
How soon can they get sworn in? (4.00 / 1)
The House will vote on the health care bill this weekend!

REID: Voting against us was never part of our arrangement!
SPECTER: I am altering the deal! Pray I don't alter it any further!
REID: This deal keeps getting worse all the time!
I believe immediately (4.00 / 2)
Probably Thursday.
[ Parent ]
Thursday (4.00 / 3)
So says Garamendi's staff.

Further, Garamendi's victory statement closes with the line "I didn't run for this seat to be a backbencher." We're not only getting an upgrade from Tauscher, we're getting a real progressive leader. And at exactly the right time.

[ Parent ]
I can't emphasize enough how valuable a gain Garamendi is (4.00 / 4)
He's not only a liberal, but he's one who supports Medicare for All and wants to fight for it.

From his health care page (http://www.garamendi.org/issues/healthcare):

While I have been supportive of incremental improvements to our health care system, I have always considered universal single-payer access to be the gold standard. In the early 1990s, I proposed a health care model that relied on a system similar to Medicare. My proposal argued that if everyone pays into the same managed care system, healthy competition would emerge among doctors, hospitals, and provider networks. This competition among private and public providers would be built on a need to please consumers, rather than on a need to find ways to deny consumers needed medical coverage to save costs.

If we're ever going to get to Medicare for All, this is the time for us to be adding Medicare for All advocates to Congress.  We start with Garamendi.  Next up is MA Senate.

[ Parent ]
I heard Owens will also be sworn in Thursday (4.00 / 2)
I'm surprised Hoffman conceded. He could've dragged it out long enough to prevent Owens from going to DC for the vote.

[ Parent ]
managers amend? (4.00 / 1)
the managers amendment- what of import does it have. cpc pushed for certain things to be in there and i cant read the thing. let us know please someone here! seems pelosi will try and pass bill this week to blow out the nj loss no? and sen. mods ?
Democrats Sweep House Races! (4.00 / 2)
Democrats Win 100% of 2009 Races

Voters Reject Conservatives for More Liberal Candidates

House Sweep; Democrats Triumphant

National Conservatives Rejected at Polls

(MSM headlines if I ruled the world)

Off-topic, but can someone PLEASE tell me (0.00 / 0)
how to embed links into text, as Chris Bowers does several times above?

I still don't know how to do it and it's driving me nuts!

Do this... (4.00 / 1)
To get this:

Link Label

do this:

< a href="http://www.link.com">Link Label< /a>

Remove the spaces between the '<' and 'a' at the beginning and the end.

REID: Voting against us was never part of our arrangement!
SPECTER: I am altering the deal! Pray I don't alter it any further!
REID: This deal keeps getting worse all the time!

[ Parent ]
Yes! (0.00 / 0)
it works!

Thanks so much!

[ Parent ]
Corzine (0.00 / 0)
Corzine is a real loss, given how few progressives are also Governors.

You're kidding, right? Corzine? Progressive?
Yeah (0.00 / 0)
He was pretty much anti-reform, anti-solution across the board, for example on environmental and sprawl issues. That's why the state chapter of the Sierra Club endorsed Daggett.

I don't know if that made a big difference, but I hope all these right-leaning Dems learn a lesson from this. Progressives do have choices.

http://attempter.wordpress.com

[ Parent ]
Corzine was a very progressive Senator (0.00 / 0)
Once he became Governor I think he had to tamp down on his ideological tendencies, due to the political realities of being a Governor and dealing with budget crises.

Governor Corzine may or may not have been a progressive governor, but he was definitely a progressive who happened to be a governor.

That said, governors in general tend to not govern very progressively because they have to deal with conservative legislators and budgetary constraints.  So the standards for progressivism in governors are a lot lower, and by those standards Corzine was probably better than most.

[ Parent ]
New Jersey should be a warning to Obama and Reid.. (4.00 / 1)
Don't keep your promises and you are OUT!


Nationalism is not the same thing as terrorism, and an adversary is not the same thing as an enemy.
Overnight Results Open Thread | 15 comments
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