Acting governor Earl Ray Tomblin has won Tuesday's special election for governor in West Virginia, according to the Associated Press. Tomblin, the Democratic state senate president since 1995, defeated Republican businessman and first-time candidate Bill Maloney.
In November 2010, Tomblin succeeded Joe Manchin, the popular Democratic governor who won a special election to the U.S. Senate. The West Virginia state supreme court ruled that Tomblin had to face an election within one year of his succession to finish out Manchin's four-year term, which ends in 2013. Tomblin will have to face the voters again in November 2012, when Barack Obama is at the top of the ticket.
Maloney had made great strides in the polls during the last few months, and a poll yesterday showed the race was in a dead heat. But in the end low turnout for a special election favored Tomblin and the Democrats, who outnumber registered Republicans in West Virginia nearly two to one.
In yesterday's special election for Congress in Nevada, Republican Mark Amodei trounced Democrat Kate Marshall in the Second Congressional District. Amodei received 58 percent of the vote, while Marshall received only 36 percent. The Las Vegas Sun has more:
Republican Mark Amodei chalked up a crushing victory in Tuesday’s special election for U.S. Sen. Dean Heller’s old House seat, routing Democrat Kate Marshall by 22 percentage points.
The latest poll from the surprisingly contentious special election in New York's Ninth Congressional District shows Republican Bob Turner with a small lead over Democrat David Weprin. Magellan Strategies, a firm associated with Republican political candidates, surveyed 2,055 likely voters for next week's election.
With just over a week before the September 13 special election, could Republicans be inching closer to taking over disgraced former Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner’s New York district?
President Obama has united Democrats and Republicans on a single issue: Israel. That's the premise of a new Emergency Committee for Israel ad targeting the special election in New York's 9th Congressional District:
At last night's debate for Pennsylvania's special election to fill John Murtha's seat, Republican candidate Tim Burns concluded his opening remarks with a push for repeal of Obamacare. His remarks, echoing his new campaign ad on repeal, could easily be the script used by Republicans across the country this fall. The choice voters face, said Burns, is sending someone to Washington who supports "Nancy Pelosi's health care bill and someone who will go to Washington and fight to repeal it."
Scott Brown appeared on the "Today Show" this morning, where a slightly sad Meredith Vieira asked him about how he was able to pull off his historic win.
Well, it's no Rape Mail (the closer from the politically gifted minds at Camp Coakley), but Scott Brown's counting on his calmer argument being more effective: "There's only one tax cutter in this race, and it's not Martha Coakley."
Pithy and appropriate: "I've been called a lot of things, but never, and I mean never, could anyone ever make the mistake of calling me a Yankee fan. Well, check that, if you didn’t know what the hell is going on in your own state maybe you could…."
