Posted by: McQ on Thursday, November 06, 2008 That is the unofficial Senate count for the Dems as they appear to have picked up one more seat. The possibility of 58, although slim, resides in the Coleman/Franken race in MN. Coleman holds a 449 vote lead prior to an automatic recount of the 2.8 million votes cast. The 57th seat involves the apparent defeat of Sen. Gordon Smith (R) in OR. His opponent, Jeff Merkley, holds a 2,000 vote lead with a sizeable amount of the vote still to be counted. Unfortunately for Smith, those votes are from heavily Democratic counties (why they've not been counted to date is not clear). The remaining two involve Saxby Chambliss in GA and Ted Stevens, the convicted felon, in AK. Stevens will most likely end up winning the election but have to resign because of his felony convictions. As the Weekly Standard blog reports, it is unclear, by Alaska law, whether a special election must be held or the Governor, Palin, can appoint someone to fill the term. I would guess that's because it wouldn't be a partial term, but instead a full term. There's been some speculation that if she could make an appointment she'd appoint herself (or her husband). I think she has better political instincts than to do that. As for Chambliss, I find his case to be an interesting one. He ended up with 49.9% of the vote in GA (.1% short of the 50% needed to avoid a runoff). The Libertarian candidate for the Senate picked up 3.4% of the vote. But Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate for president, only picked up 1%. That tells me that 2.4% of the vote for the Libertarian candidate may have been voters sending a message to Chambliss who just could not pull the lever for a Democrat. I think given the gains by Democrats in the Senate and the election of Obama, Chambliss will comfortably win the runoff. It remains to be seen if he's received the message however. UPDATE: Smith has conceded the race in OR. |
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