Jim Webb ran as a Democrat in Virginia and barely won. He pleaded with the leadership to consider the bloc of voters that brought him into office, but he was ignored. And then last Tuesday happened. Real Clear Politics caught up with the moderate Dem and he shared his thoughts on what happened and why… [...]

Dino Rossi conceded about an hour ago and gave Patty Murray her 4th term in the Senate. From The Seattle Times comes the reality: As of Thursday evening, Murray was leading Rossi by more than 45,000 votes, taking 51 percent to Rossi’s 49 percent. That’s up from a 14,000-vote lead on Election Day. According to [...]

The race is now divided by 2% or 27,000 votes. That doesn’t seem like much, but Murray’s lead was just 14,000, so that’s a big jump when you consider how much ground her challenger, Dino Rossi, would have to make up. In fact, The Seattle Times thinks it’s a done deal: Rossi’s vote percentage slipped [...]

If you thought 2010 looked nightmarish for Dems, take a peek at two years from now. No less than 16 23 Dem Senators will be up for reelection. Many A lot are from purple or red states. Here’s the list of the most vulnerable… Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (PA) Thumped Rick Santorum in 2006 by [...]

He wasn’t supposed to win a month ago, but he pulled into the lead late and was able to hold. From Denver Post: Appointed U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet will be elected to the U.S. Senate after pulling ahead of challenger Ken Buck this morning. Long after most Coloradans — including the candidates and their supporters [...]

Ezra Klein throws it out there, and I could see it working. From Wash Post: On Feb. 5, 2011, the president signed the Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction Act of 2011 into law. The legislation lifted the employer-portion of the payroll tax for a year, approved more than $50 billion in infrastructure investments, and cut [...]

She’s leading 41% to 34% right now with 76% reporting. Not an insurmountable lead, but things would really have to start going Joe Miller’s way in order for him to overtake the incumbent. From NY Times: The Murkowski campaign had used unconventional means to wage her unconventional campaign — from wristbands to homespun jingles and [...]

It wasn’t the squeaker that was once reported. Looks like he’ll win by 5%, which is a pretty big swing from what the polls were projecting. But we all know it wasn’t a matter of Reid being good. Angle was just that bad. From the LA Times: Reporting from Las Vegas — Democratic Sen. Harry [...]

It doesn’t look like it’ll even be close. From TPM: As the Republican wave spreads across the country, it’s time to say goodbye to one of the big-name progressive champions of the past 18 years: Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), champion of campaign finance reform and longtime opponent of the Patriot Act, has gone down in [...]

This is one seat that the Dems probably won’t get back any time soon. From LA Times: Lincoln, who reluctantly voted for Obama’s healthcare insurance overhaul, carried the flag for Democrats but often disagreed with her more liberal colleagues. For example, she was one of the few Democrats to vote for the Bush administration tax [...]

One! Two! Three! With less than 1% or precincts reporting, Blumenthal leads by 62%-36%, and has been projected as the winner by Fox News and NBC News. (Keep in mind that with so few precincts in, the margin is likely to fluctuate considerably throughout the night — the current numbers are not final.) McMahon apparently [...]

This one was close for a while, but Manchin started to pull away after he made some ads that targeted Obama and his health care bill. That apparently helped him with independents and moderate Dems. Here’s more from TPM: We now have a result in a key red state — where Democrats have been saved [...]

Kit Bond’s old seat stays with the Republicans. Robin Carnahan ran a very anemic campaign and she never really felt like a leader. This is no surprise, but at one point some thought this could be a pick up. Done and done.

So far the Tea Party candidates are 2 for 3 when it comes to the Senate. To me, Rubio’s win is much more important to the Tea Party than Paul’s. Especially since Rubio is so young, from a very populous state and is much smarter than Paul. Keep your eye on him. Christine O’Donnell, yeah, [...]

Well, of course the answer is no and Nate Silver offers five reasons why. I’ll summarize here, but you should really check out this blog post. It’s pretty long, but a great read. Of course it will all be null and void in about four hours. Reason #1 – The Cell Phone Effect: This one [...]

First off, I think almost all of the major Tea Party Senate candidates will lose. That means O’Donnell, Angle and Miller will not be going to Washington. However, I think Rand Paul will squeak out a victory in Kentucky. So what will the split end up looking like? SENATE Dems – 52 Repubs – 48 [...]

NY TIMES LINK I like to consider myself a moderate and prefer voting for the best candidates regardless of their party origins. But I can’t see too many Republicans that are willing to push aside this simplistic view and try to make this government work. But when you are dealing with ignorant voters, you have [...]

I’ve been following an interesting multi-blog discussion trying to sort out an apparent polling discrepancy between voter attitudes and voter intentions in the midterms. We do not need to invoke “unconscious bias” to understand a straightforward preference for divided government. If you prefer the spending restraint, greater oversight, and better legislation we get as a direct consequence of a divided government state, the most rational vote is the vote most likely to create that state.

With another decisive and bitter election coming up, it looks like further gridlock as Americans split further apart politically, socially and economically.  Names and labels are replacing concepts and ideas that once brought people to the table.  Not to be too romantic or idealistic but what ever happen to the concept of What you can [...]