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8 a.m. ET: Having entered Election Day with so many questions, our brains are now absolutely filled with election results. The Rundown's head actually hurts this morning from processing all this information -- though the pain might also be attributable to an excess of caffeine over the last 24 hours or the noisy revelers outside his apartment window most of the night (in case you hadn't heard, D.C. likes Obama).
We know so much more today than we did yesterday, particularly about the exhaustively covered presidential race, and yet there's still much we don't know further down the ballot. Here are at least a few of the outstanding questions:
Can Norm Coleman pull this one out? He's up by less than 800 votes over Al Franken, with 99 percent reporting. A fitting end to a brutally tough race. (Late update: AP has now called the race for Coleman.)
Will there be a runoff in Georgia? Saxby Chambliss needed to get a majority last night to avoid a Dec. 2 runoff. With 99 percent reporting, Chambliss is at 50.3 percent. Election junkies are probably rooting for that total to go down a bit so we can have one more big race to decide.
Is Ted Stevens a Cyborg? The man just can't be stopped. Last week, he was convicted on federal felony charges. And yesterday, Alaskans said, "Eh," and (apparently) decided to re-elect him. The good news: Now we may get to see what it's like for the Senate to expel someone.
Do scandals matter? Stevens isn't the only embattled member to survive Tuesday. William Jefferson -- yes, Mr. Cash in the Freezer himself -- won re-election last night by 14 points. Also winning: John Murtha, who called his constituents "racist," and Michelle Bachmann, who wanted that probe of "anti-American" members. Lesson: It's VERY hard to beat an incumbent.
Did House Democrats underperform? It's not clear yet. As of this writing, Democrats had picked up at least 18 seats in the House with more close races still being counted. Not too shabby, but maybe not quite as many pickups as some party strategists had hoped.
What happens now to Joe Lieberman? One thing is almost certain -- he won't have the escape hatch of a Cabinet post, the way he likely would have if John McCain had won. Democrats aren't getting to 60 votes in the Senate anyway, so will they boot Lieberman? The party base wants his blood; will be interesting to see what Pres.-elect Obama thinks.
By
Ben Pershing
|
November 5, 2008; 8:00 AM ET
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Posted by: howlless | November 5, 2008 11:03 AM
Once Stevens is expelled, Alaskan law says there has to be a fairly prompt special election. I bet Palin will run--how are you gonna keep 'em down on the tundra after they've seen Nieman Marcus?
Posted by: Dan4 | November 5, 2008 1:42 PM
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The AP can "call" the Minnesota race for whoever they want, but it's irresponsible. The candidates are separated by a few hundred votes; that's a rounding error. Minnesota law mandates a recount in elections decided by less than 1%.
We simply will not know the official winner of the Minnesota senate race for a while yet.