Election 2008: Idaho's First CD

For Idaho Democrats, Tuesday night was all about Barack Obama and Walt Minnick.

After Boise election-night gatherings went wild as Obama’s historic win was announced, Democratic candidate for Senate Larry LaRocco conceded his loss to Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, and sentiment for the hard-working stalwart and former congressman LaRocco influenced the mood.

Then the waiting began as the votes were counted for the race for the 1st Congressional District seat between businessman Walt Minnick and one-term incumbent Bill Sali, and the candidates traded places for the lead several times. It wasn’t until about 11:00 this morning that results were final. Minnick took 51% with 175,567 votes; Sali 49%, with 171,324.

Minnick formally declared victory at the Idaho Historical museum at 11:15 in front of a demanding line of cameras and reporters, and was pulled in all directions for many interviews. He and his campaign staff had been up nearly all night waiting for results, and his two younger kids, home from school today, leaned on him from time to time as he was talking.

A conservative Blue-Dog Democrat, Minnick told New West he would make "working across party lines" mean something, and had already spoken with 2nd District Congressman Mike Simpson, who won reelection to his seat. They talked briefly about working on public lands and water issues, the Boulder-White Clouds Initiative and other big projects already being undertaken by the Idaho delegation. [more]

Montana Election 2008

Late on election night, Montana voters -- who historically have shown themselves to be inveterate ticket-splitters -- seemed to have handed resounding victories to Democrats, especially as the results of statewide candidates were tallied.

But the slower count on the legislative districts have given Tuesday's late night tale another twist. It seems the GOP has recaptured control of the Montana Senate, with a 27-23 majority, and will likely be deadlocked with Democrats in the House, tied at 50-50. The party that controls the House gets to set the agenda in this winter's legislative session. As for the Senate, all of the governor's appointments to department heads, boards and commissions get approval there.

"First of all, to have John McCain win, with very little presence, shows Montana is still, philosophically, a center-right state. We just haven't done a good job of winning elections recently," said state Republican chairman Erik Iverson. "The Democrats had every single structural advantage -- four times the money. For the first time in history, a presidential candidate set up shop in the state, with all these offices, and for seven or eight months raided all this money, put in all this structure. What we've learned is something we've known for a long time, Montanans are ticket-splitters. You had people voting for Denny Rehberg and Barack Obama, for John McCain and Brian Schweitzer."

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A few Western Montana races and measures on Tuesday's ballots were, when boiled down, all about growth -- how (if at all) to plan for it and protect land from it.

On the whole, proponents of growth management didn't have a good night.

In Ravalli County, voters repealed the Growth Policy, thereby blocking any planning and zoning regulations, and reelected Republican County Commissioner Greg Chilcott over John Meakin, a pro-streamside setback, pro-Growth Policy, pro-zoning Democrat.

In Flathead County, voters shot down a $10 million open space bond, and voted overwhelmingly in favor of pro-development, self-described property rights champion County Commissioner-elect Jim Dupont. [more]

Staples in Ballots are no good

Update: Gallatin County completed counting the remaining 10 precincts at 5:30pm. Obama won with 23,984 votes over McCain with 22,375 votes. Click more for complete Gallatin County results.

Gallatin County is still processing ballots through the counting machines, with over 15,000 ballots left and are not expecting to finish until late this afternoon.

The clincher is that over 21,000 of the absentee ballots returned were pocked with staples marks and could not be processed by the automated reader. All unreadable ballots were then presented to a 3-person board that recreates a duplicate ballot for scanning. Another setback was the courthouse still had a line of 150 people when the polls closed at 8pm.

These 10 remaining of the 36 Gallatin County precincts are the only ones in the state not counted. Some of the statewide close elections may hinge on Gallatin County's results, such as Secretary of State that currently holds a 2,000 vote difference. [more]

Obama garnering more democratic votes in Utah than any other candidate since 1968, when Hubert Humphrey was on the ticket. 35 percent of the vote went to Obama while 65 percent went to McCain. [more]

Obama-Mania Hits Boulder

Ohio was the turning point. When Barack Obama won the crucial Midwest state last night it popped the release valve on eight years of pent-up outrage, frustration, and shame for millions of Democrats and independents across the U.S.

Up to that point the several hundred Obama supporters gathered at the Boulder Theater had reacted with a mixture of anticipation and anxiety as early returns were reported by MSNBC and CNN on the big screen. [more]

Election 2008

Near midnight on Tuesday night, it seemed Democrats had swept all but one of Montana's statewide offices in what seems like a stunning referendum of the state's modern Republican Party, leaving some GOP leaders wondering how to return to politics with something like an appealing message. Yet even as state Democrats credited the Obama effect for much of their strength, the Democratic Presidential-elect appeared likely to lose the state to John McCain.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer handily beat opponent Roy Brown of Billings, and Democrats dominated the rest of the ticket.

Steve Bullock was well ahead of Tim Fox for Attorney General, Monica Lindeen was beating Duane Grimes for State Auditor, Denise Juneau easily prevailed over Elaine Sollie Herman for Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Mike McGrath topped Ron Waterman for Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court. (All with more than 70 percent of precincts reporting.) Linda McCullough was running ahead of Brad Johnson for Secretary of State but the race remained close.

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All Three Wyoming D.C. Spots Stay With GOP

Bolstered by a last minute appearance by Vice President Dick Cheney, Former Wyoming treasurer Cynthia Lummis handily defeated Democrat Gary Trauner Tuesday in the most expensive U.S. House race in Wyoming history.

By 10 p.m. Tuesday with more than 98 percent of the ballots counted, Lummis held an insurmountable 20,000 vote lead, 50 percent compared 43 percent for Trauner.

Not even the 10,000 votes gained by Libertarian David Herbert, a potential spoiler, could have changed the fate of the two-time Democratic candidate.

Lummis joined GOP U.S. Senate candidates Mike Enzi, the incumbent seeking his third term, and John Barrasso, an interim appointee vying to replace the late Sen. Craig Thomas, in a clean sweep of the state’s three Congressional seats. The election marked the first time in more than a century that both Wyoming U.S. Senate seats and its single U.S. House seat have been up for grabs.

And true to recent form, all three remained in GOP hands. [more]

President-Elect Obama

It took a while, but Democrats in Colorado got almost everything they wanted in today's election results.

For more than an hour after the polls closed around the state neither the national nor local news organizations had called the presidential race in Colorado. Finally, at about 8:30 – moments before CNN called the national race – and with 32% of the precincts reporting, The Denver Post reported, "Colorado, a traditionally red state, swung blue tonight as voters chose Democratic Sen. Barack Obama for president and Congressman Mark Udall for the state's open Senate seat."
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Montana Election 2008

At midnight, when it appeared Denise Juneau had won Superintendent of Public Instruction in Montana in Tuesday's election, she was poised to become the first Native American to win a statewide executive level position in Montana.

"As an American Indian, the Montana voters didn't pigeon-hole us, put is into one category," Juneau said. "It was based on who was qualified. It's very heartening, and it's significant to Montana right now."

On a night when voters mostly handed Montana's statewide races to Democrats -- even as voters seemed to split their votes down the ticket on legislative races -- the state embraced this first with only a touch of fanfare and controversy.

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