A few election observations

Not the top stories, but a few interesting things on the side...

• Where will Scott Brown run next? He was born in Maine, but they don't have an election for Senate (or Governor) in 2016. Can he wait four years?


• The flipfloppiest US House seat ever is on a roll. New Hampshire's 1st district. Carol Shea-Porter (who is awesome, BTW, one of my favorite members of Congress ever) won it narrowly in 2006, and got re-elected in 2008. In the 2010 Republican wave, Frank Guinta took it from her. In 2012, she took it back from him. Yesterday, he beat her in yet another rematch. If she runs in 2016 chances are with presidential election turnout she'll get it back, so I suspect she is likely to. As Daily Kos elections put it, "Looking forward to [Guinta's] war with Shea-Porter continuing until Ragnarok #nh01". Or maybe they should just work out a time-share and alternate each year.


• From the 2004 election through this year, Republicans have lost every election for federal or statewide office in Massachusetts, except two: the two times Martha Coakley was nominated for federal or statewide office.


• Minimum wage increases won big: It was on the ballot statewide in Alaska, Illinois, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Arkansas. The lowest margin it won by was ten points, 55% to 45%, in South Dakota. In the other four states it was over 60%, with the highest margin in Alaska - 69% to 31%.


• Attorney General Eric Holder said he was resigning, but would stay in office until a successor is confirmed. Obama hasn't nominated a replacement yet. If one isn't confirmed quickly, Eric Holder may be stuck, since a Republican Senate seems unlikely to confirm any Obama nominee for any office ever.


• Lots of states had new voter suppression measures in force this year, in part thanks to the Supreme Court eviscerating a large part of the Voting Rights Act. But finally, one state went on the offence in the other direction: A "Right to Vote" constitutional amendment passed in Illinois with something like 70%, forestalling discriminatory voter ID laws and similar measures. Maybe it'll inspire similar measures in other states.


• Black turnout was very high, but the white percentage of the electorate was much higher than 2012 due largely to the fact that Latino turnout was waaay down. Obama reportedly put off pushing on immigration and immigrants' rights issues in the past year to try to help vulnerable Democratic red state Senators. Not only did it not help them, but it seems to have backfired and taken out plenty of other Democrats who would've held on with higher Latino turnout.


• Colorado has now voted down "personhood" ballot measures three elections. "Personhood" laws are ones that define a fetus as a person, giving them all sorts of legal rights. Failed in 2008, 2010, and 2014. Will Colorado have to vote on this again in 2016? Personhood also failed on the ballot in North Dakota this year. It hasn't ever won anywhere yet.


• Ballot measures passed in both California and New Jersey that would reduce prison sentences for drug possession and other nonviolent offenders. Yay, finally! We need a lot more of this.


• Most Democratic candidates for governor in races that were polling as close lost, but two won: Hinkenlooper in Colorado and Malloy in Connecticut. One thing the two have in common is that they both championed and signed major new gun regulation laws after Newtowne, and drew a lot of backlash in both states. Coincidence, or did gun regulation help them?


• Colorado Senator Mark Udall was possibly the NSA's top critic in the Senate (or maybe second, after Ron Wyden). His loss is a win for NSA surveillance.


• Michele Bachmann is finally gone! Although dr_memory says "just wait for her inevitable reality TV show".