Fascinating analysis by a self-desribed "political consultant and web developer for pro-life female candidates and elected officials in DC, Maryland, and Virginia" and "a political independent."The special election for the 34th District seat in the Virginia House of Delegates was on Tuesday, January 6, 2015. Turnout was anticipated to be and was indeed low. There was also a freak snowstorm.All this should spell doom for the Democrat Kathleen Murphy against the Republican Craig Parisot in a toss-up district, correct?I ran this by a few Dems I respect. Their reaction was cautious, mostly "we'll see," with one adding: "if Republicans take their chances for granted in safe-ish seats, then yeah, this is a harbinger." I'd also note that a few other factors have changed recently: 1) Republicans now control the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, meaning they can no longer even semi-plausibly argue that everything's the Democrats' fault; 2) the economy has really improved, with economic confidence into positive territory (according to Gallup) for the first time since they started tracking this in early 2008; 3) President Obama's approval ratings are up, with Gallup pegging them at 46%-48% as of yesterday; and 4) Republicans now control both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly, which means that Virginians will get to see just how extreme they are.Anyway, the bottom line is this: Democrats picked up a House of Delegates seat last night, in a "purple" district that had been held by Democrat Margi Vanderhye until the 2009 Deeds-McDonnell disaster led to delegates like her losing (in Vanderhye's case, to right wingnut Barbara Comstock, now hanging out with her fellow right wingnuts in Congress). The fact that Dems were able to do this in a special election in early January, during a snowstorm no less, has got to be encouraging. Or am I missing some reason here why it might not be a "bad omen" for Virginia Republicans after all? |
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