Posts Tagged ‘big red wave’

Two great nurses for a sick congress

Posted: November 20, 2010 by datechguy in congress, elections, politics
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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.

As for NY 25 just before my interview with Ann Marie Buerkle I said this:

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.

Now Maffei’s strategy is just more counting, it’s not like the democrats are going to be pulling new voting machines out of their trunks or something.

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 corrupt involved 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.

Stacy is feeling his oats:

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.

Update: Jazz Shaw is on it

NY-25 and the Mystery of the Lost Election

Posted: November 13, 2010 by datechguy in congress, elections, opinion/news, politics
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You might remember Ny-25 as one of the stops on my pre-election road trip. Well strange things seem to be going on over there.

The first strange thing is the absence of media attention, apparently this is a request from the Maffei campaign that has apparently not fallen on deaf ears:

any vote totals reported before every absentee ballot is counted are grossly incomplete and premature, particularly before ballots in Onondaga County are counted…While the media has responsibility to report the daily developments during the recanvass and tallying of absentee ballots, they also have a responsibility to characterize the early steps in this process accordingly.

Please please please reporters don’t report on the count at this time.

And what is going on that they don’t want reported on? Stuff like this:.

While the reasons for this effort are unclear, many agree it could be an attempt by some to identify who each person voted for in an effort to disqualify certain eligible ballots from being counted,” Buerkle said. “I would like the public to know that my campaign is not connected to this current effort. Further, no American — in upstate New York or anywhere — is in anyway under obligation to provide information to anyone on how he or she voted in any election, including my own.”

Buerkle’s statement did not name Maffei’s campaign as the party responsible for the calls, but a spokeswoman for the Maffei campaign confirmed they are calling voters in the district.

Maffei campaign communications director Abigail Gardner said Monday that while she believes they are asking how people voted, the reason for the calls is to ensure all votes are counted.

“It’s totally legal and there’s nothing really shady about it,” Gardner said. “I think we are asking how people voted, but the most important thing is to make sure that, if somebody cast a vote, that it’s going to be counted. There have been some problems.”emphasis mine

I think we are asking how people voted? I think! You don’t know?

Sure a campaign trying to play with the secret ballot? Nothing shady about that at all. Ann Marie Burkle’s campaign put out this statement:

Buerkle calls on voters who are contacted to ask who is calling and not feel that they must reveal how they voted.

“If anyone is contacted in this effort please know that your vote is privileged and under no circumstances should an individual be pressured into revealing how their vote was cast,” she said. “If you are contacted, ask them to provide their full name, for whom they work, why they are seeking this information and if you are required to provide this information.”

I’ve been wondering why this recount hasn’t gotten the attention others like NY-1 have. As the Maffei campaign lawyers up and activists start heading up to the area to try to salvage a seat from the big red wave, I guess we know why.

More to come.

Update: Looks like that count is heading in the right direction

The difference means that Buerkle has now widened her overall lead in the four-county district to 729 votes, according to unofficial election returns.

Buerkle picked up a net gain of 24 votes in Cayuga County (59 to 35 over Maffei) from absentee ballots, according to Cayuga County Election Commissioner Kate Lacey. Buerkle also had a net gain of 18 votes in Monroe County (630 to 612 over Maffei) after absentee ballots were opened from its three towns in the district, according to figures supplied by both campaigns.

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.

Update 2: Added missing link

The Globe discovers that Massachusetts has shot itself in the foot…AGAIN

Posted: November 12, 2010 by datechguy in congress, economy, elections, opinion/news, politics
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The Boston Globe reports that things are looking grim for Massachusetts:

Massachusetts could lose more than $200 million in funding this year — and quite possibly similar amounts each year for the foreseeable future — as the incoming Republican congressional leadership and President Obama take aim at earmarked spending projects.

At risk are a host of projects across Massachusetts. The Paul Revere House in Boston’s North End could lose $400,000 in funds for a crucial renovation project. The University of Massachusetts Amherst could see $2 million intended for a science building slip away. And a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate could lose $10 million — providing an unintended case study in the politics of federal spending.

Hang on a second didn’t we just hear all during the last election how much our delegation was able to “bring home the bacon” so to speak?

Massachusetts Democrats have long boasted of their ability to win hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarked funds for such projects. But speaker-in-waiting John Boehner, the Ohio Republican, has said earmarks must end,

Oh republicans are in charge in the House now where all spending much come from. Well I’m sure the Massachusetts members of the new House Majority will use what pull they have to help protect the state.

What that you say? While practically the entire country joined the big red wave Massachusetts once again elected only democrats? We don’t have any committee chairmen anymore or even a single member in the majority to try to help protect the state? Funny how the globe finds bad news now that the election is over.

Let’s be blunt. For months we have known the democratic majority in the house was doomed and as the president’s popularity continues to drop, 2012 is looking just as dark for Democrats.

Yet Massachusetts voters (perhaps with some help) choose to return Barney (Fannie/Freddie are fine) Frank and John (it was only 7 million my wife helped hide from Taxes) Tierney and the entire Massachusetts delegation. We knew about these things and voted them back in.

In a republic we always get the government we deserve. You wanted a delegation from the left. You’ve got it. As I said the day after the election:

…it will be the shock when you discover that all these democrats that you returned to congress are now in the minority and all of those tax dollars taken from you that they returned in lump sums at .82 cents on the dollar will not be coming back since they don’t have the clout to gain them and the republican house where all spending must originate is unlikely to approve them. If you had sent even a single republican to the house at least in one district there would be clout, but nope, no can do. You will miss that .82 cents on the dollar, but don’t worry the feds will meet you halfway. They will still take that dollar it was part of.

I don’t want to hear a single complaint from anyone on the left in the state over this.

And as for everyone else, you get another chance in two years. Don’t blow it.

Voter Fraud in Worcester Ma.

Posted: November 9, 2010 by datechguy in elections, politics
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Martin Soloman bluntly says aloud what I’ve been hearing only in whispers.

Attached is a photo I took when a Neighbor to Neighbor organizer escorted a voter into the booth as an “interpreter” [See above]. Funny; the ballots were bi-lingual so I didn’t see the need for an interpreter. She was coaching voters to vote all “D’s” and on a few occasions she actually had the pen in her hand.

I was almost kicked out by the police officer who was sitting in the room when I took this photo but I told him I’d be more cooperative and sat back down. Soon after this photo the Baker legal team [Charles Baker, Republican candidate for governor] was able to convince the warden and the officer that this woman was not allowed to escort any more voters to the booths. She quickly changed tactics and started sending people in with a sample ballot filled out so the voter would just copy it. Incredible!

well that’s only one example, oh wait:

These “interpreters” were certainly the call of the day. At the location I was working, the “interpreter” was a priest — or some cat with a priest collar on from a church that sounded anything but sacred. I reported him numerous times to the two wardens who did talk to him, but argued with me about him being an interpreter. I informed them that typically interpreters don’t talk with their hands unless they’re in the deaf community. And they usually don’t need polling pens, to interpret, either. I also mentioned that the ballots were bilingual except for the names that were all over the TV, radio, lawn signs, etc. for the past year. None of this seemed to impart any wisdom on the wardens.

Read the whole thing and you won’t wonder why the results were so contrary to the polls around here.

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