2014 US Election Open Thread

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Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) over challenger Robert Asterino (R-NY) for a second term as Governor.
 
gamewell45 said:
Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) over challenger Robert Asterino (R-NY) for a second term as Governor.
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In his concession speech, Asterino seemed genuinely surprised (as well as sad) that he lost. While it is true that Upstate New York, as well as parts of Long Island and Westchester, have more Republican voters, he must or should have been aware that large numbers of voters from New York City, apart from Staten Island, would support Cuomo. Personally, I voted for the Green Party candidate.
 
Here are some great comments from Ross Douthart:
In this particular case, what was overestimated and misjudged was the permanent effectiveness of the Democratic blueprint from 2012, whose mix of social-issue appeals and tech-savvy voter targeting was supposed to work in tandem with demographic trends to cement a new socially-liberal, multicultural coalition, and render the G.O.P.’s position entirely untenable absent a major ideological reboot. That blueprint really was effective in ’12, and the underlying demographic trends are real, and one bad midterm election does not prove that the coalition cannot hold together, as Republicans may learn to their cost two years from now. But from a lot of the commentary after Obama’s re-election, you would have thought that the combination of ethnic-interest appeals on immigration policy, “war on women” rhetoric on social issues, and brilliant get-out-the-vote operations run by tech-savvy Millennials (who, we were told, were too liberal to ever build a website for a Republican) posed a kind of immediate and existential challenge to the G.O.P., requiring immediate capitulation on a range of fronts, with no time for finesse or calculation and no room for resistance.
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Not so, as it turned out. Events have intervened, Republican politicians and their party have managed to adapt, and — as often happens — issue appeals that resonated in one political context have turned out to be less important than the fundamentals in another. The politics of immigration, for instance, turned out to look somewhat different once the issues were a sweeping executive amnesty and a child migration surge rather than the DREAM Act and the vague promise of something bipartisan and “comprehensive.” The politics of contraception turned out to be pretty easy to finesse by G.O.P. politicians with an ounce of savvy and no Akinesque tics, and the politics of abortion absolutism, as pursued by Wendy Davis and Mark “Uterus” Udall, turned out to be maybe not the way to turn Texas blue or keep Colorado from turning red. The turnout surge among minority voters that was crucial to Democrats in 2012 wasn’t easily replicated, notwithstanding efforts to use Ferguson and Trayvon Martin as rallying points. That amazing Democratic get-out-the-vote operation, staffed by geniuses and whiz kids, turned out to matter a lot less to who voted, and for whom, than more old-fashioned indicators like the president’s approval ratings. And nobody, but nobody, cared how many millions liberal billionaires spent trying to make climate change an issue.
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Again: It’s one election, it’s a midterm (with the lower, whiter turnout that entails), the long-term structural forces still look good for Democrats, their presidential coalition can still be plausibly reassembled by Herself in 2016. But sufficient to the day the election thereof. And on this day, in this election, the Republican Party successfully told liberalism’s arc of history to get bent.
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ProVobis said:
I think it was more like 98% for Republicans of those who attend the Latin Mass. But they don’t break it up that way.

In the cities is probably where they get the higher Democratic numbers. Plus a lot of them don’t vote in the off-year elections.
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I think your numbers are way too low. I’m guessing the percentage is closer to 99.99%. I can pretty safely say it was 100% at our parish, especially since the Democrats from our state are adamantly Pro-Choice.
 
I just read that Wendy Davis’s State Senate spot, which she abandoned to run for Texas Governor, was won by a pro life Republican. And to top it off, a Catholic. Maybe now she will fade off into the sunset.

DGB
 
Alaska might actually have an independent governor. As an independent, it is nice to see that one can get elected without being aligned to a party.
 
DoGodsBidding said:
I just read that Wendy Davis’s State Senate spot, which she abandoned to run for Texas Governor, was won by a pro life Republican. And to top it off, a Catholic. Maybe now she will fade off into the sunset.

DGB
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I heard she was going to join forces with Cindy Sheehan
 
When Independents put more value in the Church teaching on the sanctity of life, we will hopefully see an end to abortion.
 
Sy_Noe said:
To get the Prez 2 yr election started, I just completed an online interactive Electoral map. And even IF the Republicans were to take back all of these states: OH, VA, WI, IA, CO,& NV, Hillary is still elected POTUS with 270 Electoral votes. Of course in that scenario she would have to win FL. But considering Rick Scott has won 2 Gubernatorial elections there with less than half the vote and by merely 1% each time and Barack Obama won FL twice, that’s not out of the question.
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It’s also not out of the question that Hilary Clinton would lose.

Hilary Clinton has been tied up or within the margin of error in numerous swing states with leading republican challengers.

As far as the FL governors race is concerned, comparing that to a 2016 match-up with Hillary and a republican in that state is apples and oranges.

What % did the libertarian get in the FL race? Also, Crist switched parties AGAIN, was a former FL governor and still lost.
 
Path_Finder said:
When Independents put more value in the Church teaching on the sanctity of life, we will hopefully see an end to abortion.
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For all practical purposes, independents are interested in two things:
  1. The economy
  2. Foreign policy/national security
They don’t care about party loyalty so much (although many may be former GOPers upset with moderates) and they don’t care about which ideology is implemented as long as it works.

Of course, an informed voter knows that liberalism fails, but not all independents are informed nor wish to be. In fact, some of the just like the status of being independent and may be some of those get a kick out of watching the Rs and Ds vie for their vote. :rolleyes:
 
adawgj said:
Alaska might actually have an independent governor. As an independent, it is nice to see that one can get elected without being aligned to a party.
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The issues as defined most important by the Church ought to matter more than political affiliation.

Ask Minnesota how electing Jesse “The Body” Ventura worked out for them. :rolleyes:
 
madtom said:
completely agree, except that I wouldn’t use the term duopoly. It’s actually worse than that. we have a plutocracy, i.e. a system ruled by the small minority of wealthy elites who pull the strings of the two major parties.
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Yes, we live in an oligarchy with a duopoly for our political system.
 
SuperLuigi said:
All a third party will do in the USA is help the party opposite.
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Myth. The party opposite to what? The other party? 😃
SuperLuigi said:
I like UKIP’s stance on the EU, but they are not that influential.
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Really? You might want to revisit that issue as the UK PM has been taking Nigel Farrages talking points verbatim for the last few months.
SuperLuigi said:
I’m amazed at how almost NO ONE is talking about how libertarian candidates pulled votes away from the GOP that could have made this even more of a wave. The exception being the Maine gubernatorial race.
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A libertarian vote would not necessarily go for the GOP otherwise. Most would rather not bother voting at all if the GOP vrs the Dems is the only choice they have and I don’t blame them.
 
meltzerboy said:
In his concession speech, Asterino seemed genuinely surprised (as well as sad) that he lost. While it is true that Upstate New York, as well as parts of Long Island and Westchester, have more Republican voters, he must or should have been aware that large numbers of voters from New York City, apart from Staten Island, would support Cuomo. Personally, I voted for the Green Party candidate.
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I think Asterino’s “let them eat soup” barb directed towards senior citizens helped to tank his candidacy. A number of elderly people that I know took extreme offense at his off handed remark.
 
All I have to say is that I now have regained my confidence in the voting process and the sanity of the American public.
 
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