Dems Up To 20 In House, But Reichert Holds On
Two big House races were called late today as officials continue to count ballots in several close contests.
Earlier this evening, the AP officially called the open Eastern Shore-based MD-01 for Queen Anne's Co. Atty Frank Kratovil (D), marking the 20th pickup for Dems in the fall election. Kratovil has led by a relatively comfortable margin since 11/4, and subsequent vote tallies have only padded his total. In the end, Kratovil defeated state Sen. Andy Harris (R) 49-48%, or by a little over 2K votes.
Harris defeated moderate Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R) in the primary, and Gilchrest crossed parties to endorse Kratovil in the general. This is a solid GOP CD, but Harris also suffered from the fact that he was from the Annapolis area, while Kratovil was from the Eastern Shore, where a majority of the voters lived. Both of those factors combined to doom his bid.
Meanwhile, in the Seattle suburbs, the AP has projected tonight that Rep. Dave Reichert (R) has defeated '06 nominee Darcy Burner (D) 51-49%, with 80% of the vote counted. Burner has conceded the race.
Reichert again overcame a strong nat'l Dem trend to win this Dem-leaning CD against Burner. He was able to hold off Burner by taking a "sizable" lead in Pierce Co., and by winning Seattle's King Co. by a smaller margin. His lead expanded to 8K votes as officials continued to count mail-in ballots.
The AP has yet to call winners in four CDs -- Rep. Don Young's (R-AK AL) seat, where he leads by 16,887 votes; In CA-04, where state Sen. Tom McClintock (R) leads '06 nominee Charlie Brown (D) by 889 votes; in OH-15, where state Sen. Steve Stivers (R) holds a 393-vote lead; and in VA-05, where atty Tom Perriello (D) has declared victory with a 646-vote lead over Rep. Virgil Goode (R). All four seats are held by GOPers.
(TIM SAHD)
The 4th Congressional District in California is a big sprawling thing that stretches from just north of Sacramento all the way to the Oregon border. It contains all or parts of several counties and there are a ton of uncounted ballots left to tally. The outcome in CD-04 won't be known for several days, maybe even a week or two.
Nobody is more deserving that Tom Periello. A true humanitarian whose work in the security field has taken him to Darfur and Afghanistan. He'll do well by VA.
VA-5 the Goode campaign says the should pull ahead when all overseas military ballots come, in addition the McCain campaign filed a lawsuit to allow additional military ballots to be counted because the were unfairly held up by state workers.
VA-5 the Goode campaign says the should pull ahead when all overseas military ballots come, in addition the McCain campaign filed a lawsuit to allow additional military ballots to be counted because the were unfairly held up by state workers.