Election Day 2021

Herdfan

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Today is election day in some areas of the country. Not sure why some states/cities like to have elections in off years, but they do.

Anyway the big prize up for grabs is the VA Governor's Mansion. NJ's as well, but it is mostly a foregone conclusion. VA is not. Two months ago, Terry McAuliffe had a nice 5-6 point lead. As of yesterday, it is pretty much a dead heat. So it will be interesting for sure. Biden won VA by 10 points so McAuliffe should be cruising towards and easy win, but he isn't.

The question is why not.

The other somewhat big election is in Minneapolis where voters are going to choose whether or not they want to overhaul the city's police department.
 
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ronntaylor

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Today is election day in some areas of the country. Not sure why some states/cities like to have elections in off years, but they do.

Anyway the big prize up for grabs is the VA Governor's Mansion. NJ's as well, but it is mostly a foregone conclusion. VA is not. Two months ago, Terry McAuliffe had a nice 5-6 point lead. As of yesterday, it is pretty much a dead heat. So it will be interesting for sure. Biden won VA by 10 points so McAuliffe should be cruising towards and easy win, but he isn't.

The question is why not.

The other somewhat big election is in Minneapolis where voters are going to choose whether or not they want to overhaul the city's police department.
The VA Gov race has essentially been dead-even for months. The Dems played up the ties to Mango pretty late and McAuliffe was stupid enough to utter a couple sentences that the GOP played out of context in TV spots nonstop. One night while watching Wheel of Fortune the same damn commercial played in-between two other political ads. There were five political spots in a row: the anti-McAuliffe --> Anti-Dem --> anti-McAuliffe --> anti-GOP --> anti-McAuliffe. It must drive people crazy hearing nothing but negative ads constantly.

McAuliffe did finally place a positive ad about his family, his record as Governor and his plans should he win again. I don't recall Youngkin running anything similar. A couple think it's too close and crazy to call with the Pandemic and early & mail-in voting. Some VA insiders think McAuliffe has it in the bag, with others thinking that there may be shenanigans and/or delayed results that come down to later arriving ballots and provisional ballots. I'm not in VA and won't hear from the ground till later this week, maybe Thursday.


The GOP's Lt. Gov. candidate is a real loon. She just looks like she would fit right in with those walking around Penn Station talking to themselves with dazed eyes. Some think it was a calculated decision to run a Black woman and hope some would vote for her simply because she's a Black woman. Not too sure that'll do anything for Youngkin.
 

lizkat

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I’ve been stunned watching some of the coverage today about Virginia. Youngkin has bet the farm on what he’s calling education, but is really only the dog whistle of CRT. The voters don’t know what it is, but they don’t like it.

I’m concerned.

Meanwhile the antics of Manchin and Sinema have tended to make people figure Biden can't make good on anything, and the Dems' messaging as usual is haphazard and otherwise left to planting pieces in major metro media that ordinary Americans don't much read, except whatever headline pieces get aggregated into FB and yahoo feeds etc (and then offset by loud GOP op eds). I'm concerned too.
 

ronntaylor

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I’ve been stunned watching some of the coverage today about Virginia. Youngkin has bet the farm on what he’s calling education, but is really only the dog whistle of CRT. The voters don’t know what it is, but they don’t like it.

I’m concerned.

the Dems' messaging as usual is haphazard and otherwise left to planting pieces in major metro media that ordinary Americans don't much read, except whatever headline pieces get aggregated into FB and yahoo feeds etc (and then offset by loud GOP op eds). I'm concerned too.
I was more concerned when I was in Virginia about a week or so ago. Some think Fairfax County would be key to a McAuliffe win and now there are delays in counting the vote there. It's going to be close, but I'm not looking at the current partial count as any indicator for the final result. Especially with McAuliffe thought to be favored among early voting and absentee/mail-in votes that are being counted ever so slowly. Youngkin did break the mold and encouraged early voting among his base. Even going as far as walking voters to early poll sites from heavily GOP areas during campaign stops.

No matter what happens, Mango will take the credit: Youngkin lost because he tried to distance himself from me. Foolish, foolish, foolish!! - OR - Youngkin won because I supported him Bigly! I pick winners!!
 

Herdfan

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Meanwhile the antics of Manchin and Sinema have tended to make people figure Biden can't make good on anything, and the Dems' messaging as usual is haphazard and otherwise left to planting pieces in major metro media that ordinary Americans don't much read, except whatever headline pieces get aggregated into FB and yahoo feeds etc (and then offset by loud GOP op eds). I'm concerned too.

Compared to Clinton & Obama, he can't. Those two are hard to follow in terms of charisma and convincing people to their side. Both had their own styles, but they could get it done.
 

lizkat

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Compared to Clinton & Obama, he can't. Those two are hard to follow in terms of charisma and convincing people to their side. Both had their own styles, but they could get it done.
In fairness the Rs have grown more obstructive and the left of the Dems more difficult to keep in the fold. It's not like Biden doesn't know his way around the hill. True that he's not as charismatic as his Dem predecessors in the Oval. Americans were looking for dialed-down-drama after Trump. We got it.
 

GermanSuplex

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Sorry for cross-posting, but I posted this and some edits in another thread..
———-
Looks like Youngkin is going to win VA. And the message should be “republicans don’t need Trump to win”. Which could be good or bad, because Youngkin did not reject Trumpism, just tried to keep Trump at arm’s length. He’s now free to embrace him, so we will see how this plays out.

It also means suburbanites didn’t reject Trump’s policies, they rejected him.

Biden had an excellent first six months, the last four haven’t been too good. They’ve got to pick up the momentum, keep it and fight back harder against the GQP’s lies and racism. Youngkin won on CRT, which isn’t even a thing in VA. It would be like democrats running on banning Republicans teaching Critical Incest Theory. Not a thing. I say we try anyways.

Not to diminish Youngkin’s victory, but it’s normal for VA to flip-flop their governors. Hopefully we won’t have to hear any stupid voter fraud arguments. Now, democrats need to pressure Youngkin if his election was as secure as Trump’s. Keep pressing him on his support for the big lie.

*The race hasn’t even been called, and Trump is already claiming credit for tonight. For what, I don’t know; Youngkin outperformed him.

**A big f-you to Joe Manchin. He’s not a democrat-equivelant of a RINO (DINO?); he made some tough votes with dems during Trump’s term, which was not an easy thing to do if you’re from WV. But he and his buddy from AZ have prevented democrats from advancing the Biden agenda, which would have given democrats a HUGE boost this evening. The average American has a short memory; that stimulus and vaccination push was months ago; masks, gas prices and inflation are today. I guess it’s refreshing to know there are independents who will vote for Biden and Obama, but also Youngkin. Or Trump and Obama. They are either fiercely independent or stupid, but I honestly think they’re true independents and largely intelligent.

Thanks for listening to another rant…
 

ronntaylor

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Looks like Youngkin is going to win VA.
Some are saying it's Clinton fatigue. I think it's McAuliffe fatigue. He's seen as arrogant and aloof and I think he didn't really foght for African American turnout a la HRC. It's all on him and his lackluster finish. Again, he waited too long to respond to negative ads that used out of context statements (especially about not letting parents have a say in education) and was too timid in tying Youngkin to Mango.

Dems need to step up their game for next year. They should already be prepping as some primaries will essentially be decided in the next 100 days.

In New Jersey, Murphy is getting a wake-up call. His arrogant rebuke of those hating his tax policies backfired big time. I thought his GQP opponent would be repulsive enough to give him a comfortable win. I understand in heavily Dem areas that there is a tremendous amount of votes outstanding, so Murphy may still win. But it's closer than expected. Especially given his opponent's shitty recent history.
 

lizkat

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It also means suburbanites didn’t reject Trump’s policies, they rejected him.

I think that's a fair reading, and a welcome one, at least to me.


*The race hasn’t even been called, and Trump is already claiming credit for tonight. For what, I don’t know; Youngkin outperformed him.

Well everything is about The Don according to Trump, so no great surprise there.

But the overall election results hold something for everyone. I'd prefer that the Dem had won, but it's a wake-up call for the Democratic Party. The exit polls in VA are quite revealing. The Dem leadership definitely need to do something about Manchin and Sinema. It's bad enough when the other party is the naysayer all the time, but when you get two of your own helping the other side beat that drum, it's time to play hardball with your own team. Not negotiate with them. Read them the riot act.
 

GermanSuplex

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On one hand, I’m glad democrats will look within and accept the defeat. That’s normal behavior. We’ve been having the discussion the last few weeks Youngkin had been surging.

But on the other hand, had Youngkin not won, it would either be “he didn’t embrace Trump enough”, or “it was rigged!”. Or both. But they wouldn’t have the reaction they had when Romney lost, which was to do some soul-searching. No, republicans don’t accept defeat or take blame anymore. So maybe democrats should immediately start attacking Youngkin and his misinformation campaign. So what the race is over? Go on offense. Democrats acting like normal politicians is allowing republicans to rig the game to their rules.
 

ronntaylor

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Murphy may pull it off with a large % of votes left to be counted in two of the largest counties in New Jersey, Essex & Hudson. IIRC, he won Essex by nearly 100k votes last time and it's estimated that he'll win by about the same amount. The outstanding votes are more than twice the amount of Murphy's deficit. And I don't know how the mail-in and absentee ballots are being counted.

McAuliffe is toast. Looks like white women in the VA suburbs caved-in to fear mongering again. I'm shocked, shocked I say. Not!! *sigh*
 

Herdfan

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On one hand, I’m glad democrats will look within and accept the defeat. That’s normal behavior. We’ve been having the discussion the last few weeks Youngkin had been surging.

Do you really think so?

I can't remember who posted it in either this thread or a similar one that the reason the polls were close was because the Dems hadn't gone far enough left. If that is what you mean by looking within, then I think you will have a hard 2022 and 2024 ahead of you.

I mainly watched CNN last night (surprise, but I really like the way John King breaks things down on his map) and the panel was questioning where the Biden agenda goes now. The wondered if these elections may give cover to a few other Dems who aren't comfortable with the hard leftward shift.
 

Herdfan

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Also, Minneapolis citizens handily rejected a ballot measure to disband the police department and replace it with a Department of Public Safety.
 

ronntaylor

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Facebook reminded me of my post/tweet from 2009:

Dems lost big in VA. Will they lose NJ as well? No one to blame but themselves. #ActLikeDemsMaybeYouCouldWin

2021 meet 2009! *sigh* Dems once again pulling defeat out of the jaws of victory. McAuliffe out-Clinton'd Hillary. At what point do these career pols look at the past and learn, really learn to not take anything for granted?

Watched CNN for most of the coverage and it was amazing how wrong so many of these so-called pundits were. Both those making the case for the GOP and the DP. No one really touched on the racial/racist tactics of Youngkin in Virginia. How these people can say Biden went too far to the left and then out the other side of their mouths state he didn't do anything. Which is it? He did too much or he didn't do anything?

The other takeaway from reports all over: IIRC, exit polling shows that 57% of white women voted for the GOP in Virginia. While they were in court trying to take away the right to choose. While they appealed to racist tendencies. While they use hate and fear to scare them. So many use "They're voting against their best interests" to describe poor/working class voters that vote Republican. That phrase more accurately applies to white women that vote Republican and then almost immediately cry about how bad they are. Forget the "white working class" dogma, it's more "The White Whining Class"

With Eric Adams becoming only the 2nd Black mayor of New York City, it reminds me of Gotham's 1st Black Mayor David Dinkins and his mantra: "Vote your hopes, not your fears"
 

Herdfan

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Facebook reminded me of my post/tweet from 2009:



2021 meet 2009! *sigh* Dems once again pulling defeat out of the jaws of victory. McAuliffe out-Clinton'd Hillary. At what point do these career pols look at the past and learn, really learn to not take anything for granted?

Watched CNN for most of the coverage and it was amazing how wrong so many of these so-called pundits were. Both those making the case for the GOP and the DP. No one really touched on the racial/racist tactics of Youngkin in Virginia. How these people can say Biden went too far to the left and then out the other side of their mouths state he didn't do anything. Which is it? He did too much or he didn't do anything?

The other takeaway from reports all over: IIRC, exit polling shows that 57% of white women voted for the GOP in Virginia. While they were in court trying to take away the right to choose. While they appealed to racist tendencies. While they use hate and fear to scare them. So many use "They're voting against their best interests" to describe poor/working class voters that vote Republican. That phrase more accurately applies to white women that vote Republican and then almost immediately cry about how bad they are. Forget the "white working class" dogma, it's more "The White Whining Class"

With Eric Adams becoming only the 2nd Black mayor of New York City, it reminds me of Gotham's 1st Black Mayor David Dinkins and his mantra: "Vote your hopes, not your fears"

Sorry, but these same "white women" and other racist voters elected the first ever black female to statewide office. And they also elected a new AG whose parents fled from Cuba. Those racist voters must be stopped.
 

ronntaylor

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Sorry, but these same "white women" and other racist voters elected the first ever black female to statewide office. And they also elected a new AG whose parents fled from Cuba. Those racist voters must be stopped.
That woman is a crazy loon. They'll regret it shortly. They love voting for Black pols that serve the interests of white racist pols. The GOP used her as a mop-up lady to defend Youngkin's racist ads and rhetoric throughout the race.
 
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