After long day of promoting the show door to door it’s nice to come home to good news like this:
Finally, after weeks of canvassing, absentee ballot counting, and legal challenges, Rep. Dan Maffei (D) has conceded to Ann Marie Buerkle (R) in the NY25 race.
A press conference is scheduled for 4PM today.
Ann Marie is a treasure and I didn’t realize her pro-life credentials were so strong
Remember that (a) Buerkle was endorsed by Sarah Palin, and (b) Buerkle is pro-life and was a former spokeswoman for Operation Rescue.
I wonder what Morning Joe will say about this race where Palin endorsed and nobody outside of Me Stacy and the Lonely Conservative thought was a winner?
Ann Marie is a fine woman and will be an even finer representative, I just wish more of the stories were “Ann Marie Wins” rather than Maffei concedes.
There is also good news of a non political nature as not only is BBC America going to be showing the Dr. Who Proms this year but the Christmas Special actually be shown, on Christmas.
BBC America have confirmed they will be showing the 2010 Doctor Who Prom on Christmas Day, the same day they show the 2010 Christmas Special A Christmas Carol.
And if that’s not enough the new preview of the Christmas special is out:
There are quite a few bloggersunhappy with various republicans who are hitting Sarah Palin on a regular basis:
This annoys the hell out of me, because I’m not some rabid Palinista. Crap like this from Barbara Bush leaves one no alternative but to respond to it. What, does she have another son, or a grand kid lined up for the job of President? Reagan handed your husband his, despite some misgivings, and he blew it, Barbara…And as for Mona Charen’s, Why Sarah Palin Shouldn’t Run item at Townhall, congrats Mona, you finally found something to write about and make yourself relevant, again.
I’m sure Dan will elaborate more when he visits DaTechGuy on DaRadio on Dec 18th. Sissy Willis who is visiting on Dec 5th said this:
“I think they really hate that she not only is who she is, but she’s happy not to be like them,” twittered Kurt Schlichter earlier this afternoon as we were reading the entrails of the once proud Barbara Bush’s fall from grace in a forthcoming Larry King interview where the wife and mother of two former presidents stoops to give that “force of nature,” Sarah Palin, some ill-advised, unsolicited advice
I think everybody is missing a real important point here as republican after republican hits Sarah Palin and earns the attention and sudden interest of the MSM. What is interesting is not that who is hitting Palin but who is not, namely Republican candidates for president.
And there is a reason for this. The republican candidate who openly attacks Sarah Palin may or may not succeed in stopping her from getting the nomination but there is one thing for sure. It will definitely stop said candidate from getting on the ticket in any way shape or form. Even worse if I am wrong and such a candidate does manage to get on the ticket I can guarantee a conservative third-party that will either replace republicans or at the least cost them republicans elections for decades to come.
None of the current non-Palin people running want this. So what to do?
Proxy Proxy Proxy.
These various republicans are in my opinion working sub rosa for individual candidates. Their job is to make the statements and draw the media’s attention to Sarah Palin’s “failings”. Additionally each person who does this brings yet another series of negative press to the forefront. The hope is something, anything will stick deep enough to wound her come Iowa and New Hampshire.
The hope is that it drives sufficient negatives to keep her from winning primaries so that if another candidate breaks from the pack then they can ask Palin for support while denying any actions against her.
To those of you who don’t think your vote matters the Worcester 6th district says think again:
Republican Peter J. Durant maintained the slimmest of margins — one vote — and declared victory over state Rep. Geraldo Alicea in the 6th Worcester District race yesterday afternoon, based on the last of five recounts held this week.
However, Mr. Alicea, D-Charlton, said he will challenge the result in court, based on an uncounted absentee ballot in Southbridge.
In the final recount here yesterday, the two-hour tally produced four candidate challenges, but no changes in the result of the Nov. 2 election.
So after 5 recounts the republican is still ahead by a single vote, so what is a democrat to do? Why go to court of course!
Mr. Alicea said as votes were being counted yesterday that if nothing changed in the recount in Oxford, he would go to court over an uncounted absentee ballot from Southbridge.
“It’s a process that could take several months,” Mr. Alicea said.
The recount that cut Mr. Durant’s lead from 4 votes to 1 votes has been….interesting:
Questions arose after Durant supporters noticed that the ballot storage box for that precinct did not appear to be properly locked.
Hardwick Town Moderator Ryan J. Witkos, who was observing the count for Mr. Durant, said the box was affixed with one rather than two locks. He said he asked Town Clerk Madaline I. Daoust to try to open the box before cutting the lock and “it was able to be opened like it had never been sealed.”emphasis mine
The disputed absentee ballot, which was deemed spoiled, was from that precinct.
With less than 18 hours to the show premiere I’ve had little time for blogging but I see there is great news from two districts where Registered Nurses rather than career politicians are changing the face of the congress.
Renee Ellmers has won in NC-2. My congratulations to Renee, Lorie Byrd and all those who supported her but the real congratulations go to the people of NC 2 who will have a spectacular lady in congress. I had the pleasure to meet and interview her at Blogcon and wrote about her here NC 2 is in good hands.
In case you missed it here is the interview with the congresswoman elect.
By my calculations Maffei needs to win the Absentees in Onondaga county by twice the spread that he won the vote of to come out ahead, that’s not even counting any spread in Wayne county. I think it’s looking good.
Well it’s officially not over yet but the news is REAL good:
At the last official count earlier this week, Republican challenger Buerkle lead by 824 votes. Friday, elections officials in Wayne County found a discrepancy in votes from election night, giving Buerkle another 144 votes, for a lead of 968 votes.
Onondaga County finished counting its absentee ballots Friday afternoon. Democrat Maffei picked up 557 votes over Buerkle, which gives her a total lead of 411 votes.
557 votes is just not going to cut it but the Lonely Conservative knows that the missing Maffei is going to put those lawyers and union activists to work if he can:
But that doesn’t mean it’s over. Maffei will probably wait until after the absentees are counted in Wayne County. And there’s a very good chance he’ll call for a full hand recount of every ballot cast in the district as he bitterly clings to his seat in the House. If he does that, it could take another month before we have an official outcome.
Update: A re-canvass (not the absentee count) in Wayne County netted Buerkle another 144 votes, bringing her lead up to 411.
I’ll wager that Maffei wishes he had some of the money or activists that we 300 Spartans in Massachusetts pinned down:
But the price was high; the state democratic party and candidates had emptied their war chests. John Olver spent over $800k on television and Richard Neil $1.5 Million. Barney Frank was forced to lend his campaign $200k and gave a victory speech so full of vitriol that it produced scorn around the nation.
He had cause to be upset, Massachusetts money and candidates who normally spent their time and cash helping the party nationwide were tied town as the GOP rolled through Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York and New Hampshire in a wave not seen in nearly a century. The MA delegation held their seats but lost their chairmanships and the power that came with them.
We all have heard of ballots being found in the trunks of cars, and elsewhere during recounts. In a hotly contested race for the State Senate in New York, Democrats have gone one better, and found two new (and uncounted) voting machines.
This is in buffalo however, lucky for Ann Marie corruptinvolved local democrats in the state are more worried about stealing winning the three contested State Senate seats necessary to give them a majority then to reduce a national republican landslide by one.
C’mon, Ann Marie. This one’s for the history books, sweetheart.
Did I hear somebody say “mandate”?
And here is Ann Marie talking to the press back from our road trip:
Remember this optimism was the day after an “interesting” poll claimed she was down 12. I’ll wager Stacy and I were the only reporters at that press conference that didn’t think the campaign was over.
This race will be a cause for celebration for Axis of Fedora!
I’m sure the mainstream media will celebrate and report in-depth on the election of these two republican women in the same way they sometime after they give total scrutiny to Candidate Obama’s record 2008.
Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog 