The 2006 Election Season is Over

[Ramo]

Tonight, Ciro Rodriguez (D) beat incumbent Congressman Henry Bonilla (R) in TX-23 in a surprising upset with a 9 point margin. This is the second pickup in Texas, the other being DeLay's seat. And unlike DeLay's seat, this will probably be held by the Dems for a long time.

This means that the Dems have had 30 pickups and will have 233 seats. The Republicans haven't had a House majority as large as the Dems will have in the next Congress since 1952.

Let the 2008 season begin (or 2007 if you're in Louisiana or Kentucky).

[MrFun]

Slowwy is probably crying like a baby.

[SlowwHand]

I have a pickup, so this can't be right. I know there's more than two.

MrFun, you cornpone-head. I voted Independent for governor.

[MrFun]

independent voting = delusional behavior

[SlowwHand]

No.

[germanos]

Independent =? secession

(in Texas?)

[Flubber]

Why did this happen "tonight " (ie Dec 12 ) and not back in Novermber with the rest of the election?

[LordShiva]

WTF is cornpone?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Flubber
Why did this happen "tonight " (ie Dec 12 ) and not back in Novermber with the rest of the election?

It may have been a runoff election.

[SlowwHand]

cornbread often made without milk or eggs and baked or fried (southern)
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Corn pone is a dish, related to corn bread, made of corn meal or hominy, baked or fried in butter, margarine, lard or bacon grease. Corn pone has been a staple of the Southern U.S. cuisine, and has been discussed by many American writers, including Mark Twain. Typically corn pone is formed in two to three inch oval shapes and features a crunchy and/or chewy texture. Many recipes can be found online.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornpone





Ask that bastard, Paiktis. He stole mine from my meal when it was brought to my cell years ago, while I was at Mingapulco.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by germanos
Independent =? secession

(in Texas?)

No. In the US "voting independnent" means you vote for any party other then the main two parties. All of those third parties are so small and weak that no one actually bothers to name then and since those parties will never win anything more then the position of a dog catcher in some podunk town everyone just says "Independent".

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Oerdin


No. In the US "voting independnent" means you vote for any party other then the main two parties. All of those third parties are so small and weak that no one actually bothers to name then and since those parties will never win anything more then the position of a dog catcher in some podunk town everyone just says "Independent".

Correction. In those few states where a third partys previous election results can more easily win them a permanent (more or less) ballot line, named parties are more important. In most states however they dont, and so when a pol wants to run not as Dem or Rep he generally runs as independent (I) as Joe Lieberman did in Conn. In many states Libertarians run as Libertarians, not independents, and a few years back the Reform party made a serious go of keeping ballot lines. New York State is however the best home of small parties, with typically a dozen or more on the ballot. The Liberal Party has been around since 1946 (originally founded so union workers could vote for national Dems while voting against the local Dem machine, without splitting their tickets) the Conservative Party (founded cause New York GOP was too moderate) the Right to Life Party, various socialist lines, etc.

[SlowwHand]

They probably said much the same about Republicans when Lincoln ran.

Maybe we should go back to Whigs and Tories?

[Ramo]

Why did this happen "tonight " (ie Dec 12 ) and not back in Novermber with the rest of the election?

Due to the DeLaymander, SCOTUS ordered a limited re-re-re-districting affecting three districts a few months back. One of the effects was that a conservative Rep, Henry Bonilla, was made slightly less secure (his district went from voting for Bush in 2004 by 62% to 57%). Because this was after the TX primary, they ordered a Louisiana-style (why Jefferson also just recently won) open primary on election day, with a run-off if no candidate gets a majority. The six Dems ended up with only 51% (Rodriguez with only about half that), and the seat was written off as Bonilla's by most observers. Furthermore, the Republican Governor scheduled the election at just about the earliest possible date and on a Mexican-Catholic holy day to screw over Rodriguez as much as possible. While both Bonilla and Rodriguez are both Mexican - in fact Bonilla is the only Republican in Congress of Mexican descent - Bonilla's base is decidedly Anglo since he's quite conservative. But this move monumentally pissed off a lot of people, and the DCCC and Bill Clinton came in to save the day (Rodriguez isn't a strong campaigner), leading to a lop-sided Dem victory. Yay.

[Ramo]

No. In the US "voting independnent" means you vote for any party other then the main two parties. All of those third parties are so small and weak that no one actually bothers to name then and since those parties will never win anything more then the position of a dog catcher in some podunk town everyone just says "Independent".

The two prominent non-major party candidates for Governor, Kinky Friedman (getting about 10% - Sloww's candidate) and Carole Strayhorn (about 20%) didn't run under any party. They were listed as Independents.

Correction. In those few states where a third partys previous election results can more easily win them a permanent (more or less) ballot line, named parties are more important. In most states however they dont, and so when a pol wants to run not as Dem or Rep he generally runs as independent (I) as Joe Lieberman did in Conn.

Technically, Joementum wasn't an Independent. He ran as a member of the Connecticut for Lieberman Party.