Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 194
What Just Happened?
“Campaigns and PACs spent at least $3.2 million at Trump-owned and branded properties throughout the two-year midterm election cycle, a CNN analysis of Federal Election Commission filings shows. And the total could rise after post-election financial reports are published by the commission.”
“No single group spent more than the Republican National Committee, which spent at least $1.2 million at the properties since the start of 2017.”
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) said that he’s won his closely contested Senate race against Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and that his opponent is “committing fraud” in an effort to steal back the race from him and is a “sore loser,” Politico reports.
Said Scott: “Senator Nelson is trying to commit fraud to win this election.”
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Harley Rouda (D) beat Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) in one of California’s most closely watched congressional races, the Associated Press projected.
“Rohrabacher’s strong identification with President Trump and his unabashed support for Russia had made him ripe for a challenge in an affluent district that went for Hillary Clinton in 2016.”
Kyrsten Sinema (D) expanded her narrow lead in Arizona’s U.S. Senate on Saturday with gains in Maricopa and Pima counties erasing smaller losses to Martha McSally (R) elsewhere around the state, th Arizona Republic reports.
Sinema’s lead grew to 29,832 votes and gave her a 1.4 percentage point advantage.
While McSally’s vote deficit grew, Republicans took aim at the election process. In a statement Saturday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee attacked Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, saying he “has been using his position to cook the books for Kyrsten Sinema.”
“A Democrat has all but officially won what’s considered one of the most important local races this election, as Republican Rob Poythress on Saturday conceded to Democrat Anna Caballero in the race for the Senate District 12 seat,” the Fresno Bee reports.
“Once her victory is sealed, Caballero would give Democrats in the state Legislature a supermajority in both houses, just as the state also elected Democrat Gavin Newsom as governor.“
Andrew Gillum (D) withdrew his concession to Ron DeSantis (R) in the Florida governor’s race on Saturday, hours after the secretary of state announced a recount of their race and two others, CNN reports.
Said Gillum: “I am replacing my words of concession with an uncompromised and unapologetic call we count every single vote.”
Harley Rouda (D) has declared victory in a hotly contested California race against Dana Rohrabacher (R), the Republican dubbed “Putin’s favorite congressman” who is approaching his 30th year in office, the Sacramento Bee reports.
“Rohrabacher won the Costa Mesa district along the coast of Orange County by 17 percentage points in 2016. The latest numbers have Rouda up by 3.6 percentage points — a lead that is likely to increase as more ballots come in.”
Associated Press: “He aggressively deleted inactive voters from registration rolls, enforced an “exact match” policy that could have prevented thousands of Georgians from registering to vote and launched an investigation that disrupted a major voter registration drive.”
“Now Republican Brian Kemp is declaring himself the victor in Georgia’s race for governor, a race so close that even marginal differences in voting and turnout could make the difference in determining whether the race goes to a runoff.”
“Florida officials said vote tallies from counties, which were due to the state today, show the races are close enough to trigger a recount,” the Washington Post reports.
“A machine recount and possibly a hand recount will be necessary to learn the outcomes of the races between Sen. Bill Nelson (D) and Gov. Rick Scott (R), who is seeking to unseat him, and between former congressman Ron DeSantis (R) and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D), who are vying for governor.”
The Floridian: “The controversy surrounding unaccounted for ballots in Broward continues as provisional ballots were found unattended in a the Tamarac Lakes Community Center.”
“Upon finding them Saturday night, a citizen called the Broward Sheriff’s Office after finding election equipment and two locked boxes marked ‘Provisional Ballot Box.'”
“Miami-Dade County announced today that it has finished counting votes for the 2018 election. But photos obtained by Miami New Times show scores of mail-in ballots sitting inside an Opa-locka mail distribution center.”
Washington Post: “Day by day, the outlook for Democrats in the House has improved. At the offices of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, already high spirits have been rising all week as more races fell into the party’s column. One joke that has been making the rounds there goes like this: “This is actually turning out to be more of a Hanukkah than a Christmas election,” meaning day after day of gifts, rather than just one.”
“This was always an election that would test the strength of the economy, which favored the president’s party, vs. the president’s low approval ratings, which, along with the record of past midterm elections, pointed to Democratic gains. In the end, history and presidential approval combined to give Democrats control of the House by what appears to be a comfortable margin.”
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D) more than doubled her lead over Rep. Martha McSally (R) in the heated Arizona Senate race after a new round of ballots were tallied in the Democrat’s favor late Friday, The Hill reports.
Sinema now leads her GOP challenger by 21,185 votes.
“The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is not actively investigating any matters related to Tuesday’s election, a department spokesperson said Friday, after it was informed by the Florida Department of State that there have been no allegations of criminal activity,” CNN reports.
“The announcement comes just one day after Florida Gov. Rick Scott — the Republican candidate for US Senate in the state — requested the state law enforcement agency investigate possible fraudulent activity in Broward and Palm Beach counties as his race against Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson appears headed for a recount.”
“Republicans in Arizona and nationally are stoking claims of deliberate election fraud in the state’s U.S. Senate race as Martha McSally (R) and Kyrsten Sinema (D) await results of a vote that could swing in either’s favor,” the Arizona Republic reports.
“The tight race has left Republicans in jeopardy of losing a Senate seat in the state for the first time in 30 years.”
“Though McSally held a lead in early vote totals, the tally flipped in Sinema’s favor Thursday night. Updated early results Friday morning kept Sinema with a 9,000-plus advantage, but an estimated 400,000 ballots remained to be counted.”
Exit polls by the Bangor Daily News find Jared Golden (D) is favored to beat Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-ME) in a ranked-choice voting count that could decide the tight race in the 2nd congressional district.
“It means the spotlight is now on the 8% of voters who picked a nonpartisan candidate as their first choice in the 2nd district race. Their later-round choices between Golden and Poliquin likely will decide the election… Though Poliquin has a lead now, that crucial group of independent voters leans heavily toward Golden.”
Nathaniel Rakich: “Unusually, the votes tabulated in Broward County so far exhibit a high rate of something called ‘undervoting,’ or not voting in all the races on the ballot. Countywide, 26,060 fewer votes were cast in the U.S. Senate race than in the governor race. Put another way, turnout in the Senate race was 3.7 percent lower than in the gubernatorial race.”
“Broward County’s undervote rate is way out of line with every other county in Florida, which exhibited, at most, a 0.8-percent difference… To put in perspective what an eye-popping number of undervotes that is, more Broward County residents voted for the down-ballot constitutional offices of chief financial officer and state agriculture commissioner than U.S. Senate — an extremely high-profile election in which $181 million was spent. Generally, the higher the elected office, the less likely voters are to skip it on their ballots.”
“Something sure does seem off in Broward County; we just don’t know what yet.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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