The Associated Press has just called the Alaska Senate race for Anchorage’s Democratic Mayor Mark Begich.
Congratulations United States Senator Elect Begich!
This victory for the Democrats is a major defeat for Ted Stevens and the Republican party. Since first being elected to a full term in 1972, Sen. Stevens has never received less than 66% of the votes and is currently the longest serving Republican in the Senate. After his conviction on 7 felony counts a week before the election, Stevens found himself in a tough spot — he was way behind in the polls.
Undeterred by, and seemingly in denial about his conviction, Stevens stayed in the race. On November 5th, it looked like Stevens had miraculously pulled out a victory, despite what the polls had projected.
The incumbent Republican’s apparent victory was short-lived though. The number of uncounted Alaskan ballots kept rising by the day. One week after election day, it topped 90,000 — about 30% of the total votes. All of a sudden, Stevens’ 3,257 vote lead did not seem very large, victory was in sight for Begich.
After the ballot counting on Nov. 12th was completed, the tables had turned and Begich had not only erased his three thousand plus deficit, he was ahead by 817 votes. Things were not looking good for Mr. Toobz as most of the 40,000 ballots that had yet to be counted were from Begich-friendly areas.
More results were released on Nov. 14th. With 90% of the votes counted, Begich’s lead had increased to 1,022.
More than 90 percent of the votes are now counted, and Friday’s count of absentee and questioned ballots could have been Stevens’ best chance to make a comeback. That’s because it included all the ballots left from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, where Stevens has enjoyed his most unwavering support.
However, with 24,000 votes still left to be counted, it was still too early to celebrate.
Today, Alaska election officials counted the remainder of the votes. The first result they released was more bad news for Stevens, Begich had increased his lead to 2,374 votes. The next vote tally was released later in the evening. The result? Another Democratic win!
Happy Birthday Senator Tubes.
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I feel a Haiku coming on…
Back in a few (Snoopy dancing)
;~P
Schuster seemed a bit befuddled…
Sweeeeeet!
Yay!
Yay!
P.S. That graphic is almost better than Begich’s win.
HULK SMASHED
One down, two to go!!!
buh-bye Ted.
That door that’s about to hit you in the ass…. I think that if you both stand just right and real close, it’s big enough to hit you and Sarah both. Also.
Great news for Republicans! It always is!
Now, back to your regularly scheduled Lieberman.
Congratters, Alaska!
At least some good news today on the senatorial front. Shuster just reported on it on Kieth Oberman. It is amusing watching David Shuster trying to be snarky and funny at times during the show which is a FAIL.
Balrog, interesting posts on DKos recommended and at Driftglass re Lieberman – another viewpoint, Rather good, really.
Looks like Mark Begich is the only man who actually got to screw Sarah Palin, his victory keeps her from running for the senate seat if Stevens got the boot after being re-elected.
Talking head on msnbc assures us that all O needs to do is tick down the unemployment rate to get us all aflutter.
Let us also jump for joy as Darth and Gonzo have been indicted.
Thanks, I was following those earlier. I hate Joe as much as anyone here but I think we need to keep sight of the positive.
-Pollyanna the Concern Troll Balrog
Oh do tell us the positive. I’ve been searching for it for almost 8 years.
here’s drifty’s. Includes such festive terms as ‘balls-in-a-vice’ and “dancing monkey’.
Says drifty:
If Lieberman shuts the fuck up, geeks on command and shits Tiffany cuff links, it’s a win.
http://driftglass.blogspot.com…..-reid.html
WOOHOO!!!!
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORAY
John McCain and Sarah Palin were not elected on November 4th.
I am so happy because this puts Palin in a cage.
Oh Goody, another Democrat.
How things will change now.
Heh, heh!!
Based on Obama’s leaked nominations so far, same old shit, different driver.
I have unsubscribed from every last Democratic/Obama/activist organization I have been subscribed to. They’ve all gotten my last dollar.
This whole process was a charade for the gullible.
NO MORE!!!
Awesome!
Best laugh in a long time. Thanks for the wonderful reminder. (Try to keep in mind: it could always be worse. But then I forget.) *g*
We should be positive. How many votes would Obama have lost with Joe Lieberliar campaigning for him. Thank you Joe for supporting that Crazy Old Manchurian Candidate McCain.
Have any of you read what Nate Silver has to say about that sleazy survey “proving” the studipity of Obama supporters?
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
Makes for good reading if you haven’t come face to face with a crazy wingnut like the one Silver interviewed. Someone ought to make sure that Zogby reads this interview. Maybe he’ll realize just how filthy the toilet bowl is that he eats out of.
I’m withdrawing from the Democratic Party this week myself. I’ve pondered it for a year now and after we got the finger today from Senate Democrats, well, I will not lift a finger for them. In 2 years, it could be a different story, but for now I feel good about leaving.
Along Balrog’s reminder that it could always be worse, Huckabee sez that gays don’t equal blacks on civil rights because they (gays) have not been murdered, tortured, mutiliated, etc., as much as blacks were.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/…..ay-rights/
A couple years ago in either Clearwater or Tampa a guy convicted of killing somebody was sentenced on his birthday (life without parole). The felon went ballistic and started fighting with deputies while being led away when a relative of the victim shouted
Happy Birthday, motherfucker!
Sorry, no utoobz, but it was on local teebee at the time.
I’d like someone to argue the other side for me – this thought has been rolling around in my head ever since Election Night:
The reason so many Democrats won is that the Rethugs were not organized well enough this time to steal the election.
Am I nuts? Am I right? Compare and contrast for 15 points.
Classy, that Huckabee.
How very un-D of you to take pleasure in another’s downfall, especisially on that human being’s birthday. /s
Well, here’s the 20 point Q: How in the hell did Ds get to be better organized than the Rs?
SOP R.
Ahem,
YEEEHAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thank you
Uh, lessee, da intertoobz?
A. Howard Dean/Barack Obama
So they say. But that just peels the onion back one more layer. How the hell did the Ds catch onto the intertoobz before the Rs? Dya think that technology has a leftwing bias? (I’m not immune to that hypothesis.)
The reason they lost is that the GOP “brand” only appeals to people living in very isolated areas of the country, or too old to accept changes all around them or just plain nuts. The GOP graphics at the governor’s conference showing the age groups the campaign reached and the precincts that lost by a little, polled about the same as 2004 and polled better than 2004 show that the GOP is holding a losing hand…isolated people, old people and quacks comprise “the base.” How else Sarah Palin explainable?
And, to your point, you can only cheat so much. A landslide is tough to “cage.”
The Great Man Theory of History? So, even if you believe that, why were they Ds instead of Rs?
You are guilty of presentism, i.e., inferring everything from the pov of the present. What would your analysis been from the pov of 2000 and why would you have been wrong for 8 years?
W00t Begich!!!111
Huckleberry’s new book is titled. Do The Right Thing. That was the title of Spike Lee’s great film from 1989. Once again, right wingers steal from African Americans. That is what they do best steal (and lie).
I like this pov thing you’ve been on lately.
Useful intellectual challenge to sloppy thinking, n’est pas?
The internet was developed specifically to exchange ideas and information. The first email program personalized it. The world wide web expanded it. Thinkers used it, lizard brains mocked it. Now the lizard brains are trying to understand something beyond email. Problem is their constituency doesn’t like to read anything more complicated than My Pet Goat.
I smell a pardon
Veco might employ
Toobz knowledge not required
Fancy A-Frame home
Begich takes your seat
Know any good contractors?
As I said, not immune to hypothesis that technology has a left wing bias. After all, I think I’ve seen stats that Silicon Valley contributes in an outsized way to Ds.
On the other side of the arguement, Rs caught on to mass mailing long before & much better than Ds ever did. That was its technology of its day. Why did the Rs get mass mailing & the D intertoobz?
Sissy hogs desktop
Haiku in limbo
Homework is more important
(written whilst waiting for Baby Bong to finish homework on MY desktop)
This is a grand slam:
Goodbye convicted felon and Repug Stevens
Welcome US Senator-Elect Begich (Dem)
No Senator Palin
Caribou Barbie left in the tundra for now!
Grand Prize!
Intertoobz was free, mass mailings not.
Then what were all those young church group kids, high school and college age kids, standing out on street corners in the suburbs of Los Angeles holding up Sarah Palin signs during the campaign? A mirage?
It’s gonna be a long long winter in parts of Seward’s Icebox.
I hope the good Senate-soon-to-be retiree will remember not just to run out his front door, now that it’s on the 2nd floor.
We rec’d an invite to travel (on our own dime a-course) to visit the wonders of AK today, from the guv’ner, complete wit her picture ‘n all. *shudder*
I’ve known Ted Stevens for 35 years. I first met Mark Begich when he was a kid, at a fundraiser his mom, Pegge, held for Patrick Rodey, who was then running against Don Young in 1976. Mark was 16.
I’m not at all sorry for Ted, even though I liked him up through the mid-90s. Mark has the capability of being our greatest Alaska Senator, and has far more leadership potential than Ted had.
One of the “chosen few”?
congratulations, ed the teller.
Al Gore invented the Internet.
Howard Dean used the Internet to raise money.
Howard Dean organized 50 states!
Brad, over at BradBlog.com, and some others dedicated to better elections fixed a lot of election systems.
Barack Obama ran a pretty awesome campaign…disregarding the content for now.
A few people tossed in some cash to help.
Oh, and John McCain is a weenie.
Thanks. Between Ms ET, Etette and myself, we easily put 3,000 hours of volunteer work into this election cycle. Getting one high-level Alaska victory out of it makes it a whole lot sweeter than if we’d gotten no high-level victories, eh?
good fucking riddance
Obama never campaigned as a left wing liberal. It’s only your hopes that have led to your profound disappointment. Be thankful that McCain wasn’t elected, and keep hoping for the best.
“Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!”
caribou carcass
hung three weeks for seasoning
skewered and sizzling
In case you were interested in adding an additional amount of “truthyism” to this article, you could change this to state that Mark Begich is the Mayor of Anchorage, Alaska…. Not the Governor.
That would be — I feel a little silly having to tell people who Alaska’s Governor is — Sarah Palin.
Human error creeps in occasionally, thanks for pointing it out.
and he fimds out he lost on his birthday for poetic justicce
it’s going to be tough to hang on to this seat for a democrat, a third party voted recieved a ton of votes that would have went to stevens, those voters won’t be that stupid again, but for this term at least we have a dem in alaska
Bizarre response…
Don’t know who you would like to govern, or have governed, but Barack Obama has to and chooses to govern the entire United States. This will inevitably lead to some disgruntlement on the part of Uberpartisans.
Hate to see you withdrawing from these exciting times.
This is the way the Rev. Huckabee applies God’s/Christ’s justice? He sure hasn’t been reading the Gospels I am familiar with.
St. Matthew 7: 1-2
The Huckster could be in trouble with the Lord.
The base, who seem to conveniently leave out Jesus’ teachings on justice are the millstone around the neck of the GOP.
And let them try this one out, also from St. Matthew:
Pretty unequivocal, IMO.
Katy if you go to bat for them when they need you then turing your back on them so they can stab you in the front isn’t a very tactical move, is it?
I became an independent after the 2006 cave-in by Kerry and I am putting all my energies and money into the Working Families Party. Screw the Democrats, each and every one of them.