The Election Administrator’s prayer was apparently not answered in Virginia.
The Washington Post reports Democrats’ hopes of maintaining their party’s hold on the state Senate are “very much in doubt” and hinging on a 86 vote lead in a single Senate district. A recount is likely.
Karen Kraushaar, who settled a sexual harassment complaint against Herman Cain in 1999, “complained three years later at her next job about unfair treatment, saying she should be allowed to work from home after a serious car accident and accusing a manager of circulating a sexually charged email,” the AP reports.
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Ohio finds President Obama leading all of his Republican opponents by margins ranging from 9 to 17 points.
Obama leads Mitt Romney, 50% to 41%, tops Herman Cain, 50% to 39%, beats Newt Gingrich, 51% to 38% and crushes Rick Perry, 53% to 36%.
The same poll got the final result of the collective bargaining referendum correct to within one point.
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John Avlon: “In past recessions, populist anger was directed at either big business or big government. Now voter anger is directed at both, and the two parties are having a hard time adjusting their left/right playbooks to account for this shift. The anti-incumbent narrative likewise failed last night, as Kentucky Democrat Beshear was easily reelected. Instead, there seem to be a consistent impulse to reject ideological overreach, a reassuring sign of rational ticket-splitting even in this overheated political environment. Neither party should feel false confidence heading into 2012.”
First Read: “Voters punished elected officials for going too far. They might not be
happy with public-sector unions, but they don’t support taking away
their collective-bargaining rights (especially for first-responders).
They might be against abortion in Mississippi, but don’t want to
potentially outlaw things like birth control. They might be troubled by
illegal immigration, but they don’t want their elected officials to look
like they are targeting on specific community. They might believe
government should do something about health care, but they don’t want to
be forced to buy insurance. And they might be concerned about the idea
of voter fraud, but they don’t want to lose rights they had. Politicians
may be pushing absolutes, but voters are sending a different message.”
“It’s time to pause. The people have spoken clearly.”
— Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), quoted by the New York Times, after voters rejected a law limiting collective bargaining rights.
While Grover Norquist’s group Americans for Tax Reform boasts that 238
current members of the House of Representatives have signed its Taxpayer
Protection Pledge, The Hill speaks on the record with numerous lawmakers who seem ready to have their names taken off the list.
“In
its publicly displayed list of signers ‘in the 112th Congress,’
Norquist’s group includes several members who say they have specifically
refused to sign the pledge during their most recent campaigns. The
sheet of paper they signed years ago, the lawmakers say, is no longer
valid… Some Republicans have disavowed the pledge not based on a
dispute over its duration, but because they say it constrains their
policy choices.”
Eight Republicans take the stage in Michigan tonight at 8 p.m. ET for their ninth presidential debate.
Politico: “When the GOP presidential candidates meet in Michigan Wednesday for a CNBC debate on the economy, they’ll no longer be looking to make a first impression. With less than two months to go before the Iowa caucuses, there’s a much more urgent objective: survival… With the exception of frontrunner Mitt Romney — and perhaps Ron Paul, the libertarian congressman whose devoted base of support never really diminishes or grows — nearly every candidate in the race is almost one misstep away from political death.”
The AP notes the field “will gather just outside Detroit, a city whose fortunes have fallen with the decline of the American auto industry.” Each of the candidates “say they wouldn’t have offered government loans to save two of the three U.S. auto giants. It’s a position that may play well in a GOP primary, where a conservative electorate and tea party backers are calling for less federal spending. But the stance could alienate independent voters – critical players in close general elections.”
Voters apparently recalled Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce (R), the author of the state’s controversial immigration law, according to the Arizona Republic.
“If the vote totals hold, Pearce becomes the first sitting Senate president in the nation and the first Arizona legislator ever to lose a recall election. He would be required to step down immediately once the results become official.”
Pearce appeared resigned to defeat, saying “if being recalled is the price for keeping one’s promises, so be it.”
The Austin American-Statesman
reports that Texas will have to defend its redistricting plans in
court, as a “panel of federal judges…ordered a trial on the state’s
new redistricting plan for the state House, state Senate, and the U.S.
House of Representatives.”
“The redistricting maps drawn earlier this
year by the Legislature must get approval from the federal government –
in this case the Washington court – before the new maps can be enacted. A
history of racial and ethnic discrimination in Texas and several other
mostly southern states necessitates pre-clearance, which is outlined the
Voting Rights Act… Another panel of federal judges in San Antonio has
been hearing from the Mexican American Legislative Caucus and other
plaintiffs suing the state for creating redistricting maps that they say
dilute the minority vote and violate the U.S. Constitution. As the
Washington court ponders pre-clearance of the maps, the San Antonio
court has been working on creating interim maps to be used for the March
primaries.”
Maine voters “repealed a law requiring voters to enroll at least two
days before an election, restoring a four-decade policy of allowing
registrations as late as Election Day,” the Portland Press Herald reports.
“The referendum was put on Tuesday’s ballot through a ‘people’s veto’
initiative after the Republican-controlled Legislature passed a law in
June requiring voters to register at least two business days before an
election is held. Maine’s tradition of allowing “same day” voter
registrations began with a law passed in 1973.”
Mississippi voters overwhelmingly rejected a ballot initiative to legally define “personhood” as beginning at fertilization.
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) trounced challenger David Williams (R) and Gatewood Galbraith (I) to win another four-year term as Kentucky’s governor, the Lexington Herald Leader reports.
Phil Bryant (R) won the Mississippi governor’s race, headily defeating Johnny DuPree (D) to succeed Gov. Haley Barbour, who couldn’t seek a third term as governor, the Clarion Ledger reports.
“The 56-year-old Bryant makes history as the first Republican to succeed another Republican as Mississippi governor in modern times. Barbour unseated a one-term Democrat in 2003.”
Ohio’s new collective bargaining law was defeated “after an expensive union-backed campaign that pitted firefighters, police officers and teachers against the Republican establishment,” the AP reports.
“In a political blow to GOP Gov. John Kasich, voters handily rejected the law, which would have limited the bargaining abilities of 350,000 unionized public workers.”
National Journal: “The repeal of Issue 2 is also a blow for Kasich, whose approval
numbers have already been lousy this year. Republicans in the state who
supported the measure will also have to carry the baggage of vouching
for something that was overturned. And looking ahead to 2012, that’s
something that could potentially affect races at the federal level, as
Democrats will surely blast Republicans who supported SB 5 and cast its
repeal as a rejection of the GOP agenda.”
Karen Kraushaar, one of the two women who settled sexual harassment claims against Herman Cain, spoke to the New York Times for the first time about her allegations.
Kraushaar said that she “was upset that her name had leaked into some press reports. But she said that she had decided to speak out now that her identity was publicly known.”
Said Kraushaar: “When you are being sexually harassed in the workplace, you are extremely vulnerable. You do whatever you can to quickly get yourself into a job some place safe, and that is what I thought I had achieved when I left.”
She added she had been warming “to the idea of a joint press conference
where all of the women would be together with our attorneys and all of
this evidence would be considered together.”
A voter in Ohio told told WEWS-TV that he was bitten in the nose today by a poll worker.
The man said the incident started when he saw the poll worker arguing with a woman about signs she had outside the polling location. The voter stepped in to try to help the woman and was bitten by the worker who fled the scene.
“I don’t even know who this lady is.”
— Herman Cain, in an interview with ABC News, denying he even remembers Sharon Bialek, the woman who accused him yesterday of sexual harassment.
The Daily Beast has the seven top highlights from Bill Clinton’s new book, Back to Work, which is full of ideas about reviving the economy.
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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