Washington Post: “Speaking to supporters at about 11:34 p.m. Eastern time, Moore said he thought the race might go to a recount, which state law requires when a race is within 0.5 percentage points.”
Said Moore: “When the vote is this close . . . it’s not over.”
“Jones’ lead, at that point, however, still exceeded 0.5 percent“
President Trump congratulated Doug Jones (D) in a tweet for his Senate victory in Alabama:
Congratulations to Doug Jones on a hard fought victory. The write-in votes played a very big factor, but a win is a win. The people of Alabama are great, and the Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends!
Doug Jones (D) has defeated Roy Moore (R) in Alabama’s special election U.S. Senate race.
The defeat is a massive blow to President Trump and costs Republicans what should have been a safe seat in a deep-red state.
Most interesting: It looks like Jones may have won by less than the write-in vote margin.
The Senate Leadership Fund issued this statement:
This is a brutal reminder that candidate quality matters regardless of where you are running. Not only did Steve Bannon cost us a critical Senate seat in one of the most Republican states in the country, but he also dragged the President of the United States into his fiasco.
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A new USA Today editorial:
With his latest tweet, clearly implying that a United States senator would trade sexual favors for campaign cash, President Trump has shown he is not fit for office. Rock bottom is no impediment for a president who can always find room for a new low.
A president who would all but call Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean the toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or to shine the shoes of George W. Bush.
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As we wait for the votes to be counted in Alabama, Jake Tapper’s interview today with Roy Moore (R) spokesman Ted Crockett is priceless.
“At some point, we’ve got to stop looking like idiots to the nation.”
— Former NBA star Charles Barkeley, campaigning for Doug Jones (D) in Alabama.
The last polls close in Alabama’s U.S. Senate special election at 8 p.m. ET.
Nate Silver: “Because Alabama rarely hosts competitive races, the benchmarks we might use in another state won’t be as reliable as usual. Furthermore, it’s not just the margins in particular counties that matter, it’s also the level of turnout. As a result, everyone (including us) is going to be more cautious than usual in ‘calling’ a winner or even characterizing who’s ahead until a fair number of votes have been counted… Buckle up for what could be a long night.”
David Wasserman has an excellent follow-at-home model estimating the vote shares Jones and Moore need to exceed in each of Alabama’s 67 counties to win tonight.
NBC News and FiveThirtyEight have good live blogs featuring analysis as the results come in.
The New York Times has live election results.
CNN: “The earliest the state could certify a winner would be December 26, but the secretary of state’s office does not expect the canvassing board to be able to do so until January 3, and it could be even later, delayed by slow canvassing by the counties and jam-packed holiday schedules between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Once it does, that certification would be sent to Washington immediately. Once the winner is certified, the Senate would likely in swear that person quickly.”
President Trump’s approval in the early Alabama exit polls is very interesting: 48% approve, 48% disapprove. Trump won Alabama in the 2016 presidential election with 62%.
But what’s even more interesting is the intensity: 32% strongly approve, 41% strongly disapprove.
Nate Silver: “From the tidbits the networks have released, it’s fair to characterize the exit polls — showing Trump’s approval rating only breakeven, a relatively high proportion of nonwhite voters, and a relatively narrow gap between Democratic and Republican turnout — as containing mostly favorable news for Jones. In general, these numbers are more consistent with the pre-election polls that had shown Jones tied or ahead, and not the ones that had Moore winning.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “is privately telling colleagues he will not back off of an ethics investigation if Roy Moore (R) is elected,” CNN reports.
“Senate Republicans plan to convene a meeting Wednesday morning to discuss their next steps if Moore wins the race.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who has said that the country is at risk of a “coup d’etat” by special counsel Robert Mueller. says he warned President Trump personally last week that Mueller’s Russia investigation is “infected with bias” against the president, Politico reports.
“Gaetz said he stopped short of encouraging Trump to fire Mueller, though he has recommended that step repeatedly in public statements.”
Although leaders from both political parties called on him to resign, Kentucky Rep. Dan Johnson (R) said that an allegation he sexually assaulted a teenage girl four years ago “absolutely has no merit,” WLKY reports.
Johnson is accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl at a New Year’s Eve party while he was acting as her preacher.
The alleged victim detailed her story to Louisiana Public Media.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) issued a rare rebuke of two of President Trump’s most controversial judicial nominees, telling CNN the White House should rethink the picks.
Grassley said that he is advising the White House to “reconsider” the nomination of Jeff Mateer, who was selected to become a federal judge in Texas. He said the White House “should not proceed” on the nomination of Brett Talley, whom Trump picked to become a federal judge in Alabama.
Said Grassley: “I would advise the White House not to proceed.”
“Alabama is allowed to destroy digital voting records created at the polls during today’s U.S. Senate election after all,” the Birmingham News reports.
“By granting the stay, the court effectively told the state that it does not in fact have to preserve the digital ballot images – essentially digitized versions of the paper ballots voters fill out at the voting booth – created today.”
Rick Hasen: “It is very disturbing because the AL Supreme Court’s order effectively decides the case. The ballot images will be destroyed, even if plaintiffs ultimately win on the merits weeks later. Goes against principles of preserving the status quo.”
New York Times: “With only hours until the polls open on Tuesday in this unlikeliest of battleground states, Democrats are deploying a sprawling, multimillion-dollar get-out-the-vote operation in an effort to steal away a Senate seat and reduce the Republican majority to a single vote.”
“A constellation of liberal groups outside the state has showered money and manpower on turnout efforts aimed at helping Mr. Jones. But they are working discreetly, hoping to avoid the appearance of trying to dictate whom Alabamians should support.”
Chamath Palihapitiya, who joined Facebook in 2007 and became its vice president for user growth, said he feels “tremendous guilt” about the company he helped make, The Verge reports.
Said Palihapitiya: “I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.”
He added: “The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works. No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. And it’s not an American problem — this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem.”
A new Quinnipiac poll finds President Trump’s approval rate is a dismal 37% to 57%.
In an open ended question asking for the right word for Trump, voters are overwhelmingly negative with the most popular word being “idiot,” followed by “liar” and “incompetent.”
Said pollster Tim Malloy: “President Trump is known for hurling insults and he’s getting slammed right back.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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