the election ended. now what?

dear elizabeth dole,

you lost.

love, north carolina.

dear kay hagan,

you won.

love, north carolina

unfortunately, this is my last blog post as our.state.beverage.is.milk! and for that, well, i don’t think you could understand the complexity of my emotions in this moment. but, as they say, as one door closes, another one opens. for me and elizabeth, this means more time. for kay, this means more responsibility.

since i never veer from my path of unbiased analysis, here is a bipartisan look at the conclusion of this election. some facts, in random order:

*kay won with a 52.7% (higher than estimates!), while liddy received 44.2%. chris scraped by with a 3.1%.

*north carolina hasn’t given a democrat love since the election of jimmy carter inn 1976. wowza- both kay and obama took the state this cycle. (they’rre both deomcrats, in case you missed the connection)

*kay took the vote of blacks (9 in 10), women (1 in 2), young voters (7 in 10), and those making less than $50,000 (3 in 5)

*liddy took the vote of older voters

*north carolina newspapers denounced the “godless” ad, and many contribute that to liddy’s loss.

*n.c. turnoout increased by 8%!!!! woot woot! (thats a jump from 65.8% in 2004 to 65.7% in 2008)

good luck to kay in the senate!

good luck to elizabeth in…. whatever she does next!

good luck to you, the constituents of north carolina, may all your endeavors be fruitful and fulfilling!

i’m going now!

last minute decisions

if you are waiting for some sort of undeniable sign of who you should vote for, like a tiny gnome who jumps out of your mailbox with the answer, stop waiting. gnomes can be really unreliable, and its november 4th.

its time to use (dun dun dun) critical reasoning

don’t worry, i’m here to help.

elizabeth

• endorsed by the americans for legal immigration pac (generally recognized to have “stood with the people” against amnesty for illegal immigrants and for better border security)
• opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest, and in the interests of the mother’s health
• “we should not ask main street to bail out wall street“
• we need to end the war

kay

• opposes immigration enforcement legislation at the state level, but wants stricter laws for employers who hire illegal immigrants
• abortion should be legal, but late term only when mother’s life is endangered
• “its a fix for wall street, not main street”
• we need to end the war

some things to keep in mind:

ONE: these are politicians. they want to win. their views appear fundamentally the same and differ only in details because they are sticking closely to what they think you want to hear. some of these viewpoints may change once one of them enters the senate, but overall, don’t forget that they work for you. it is up to you to decide who will represent you in the senate. make demands, we won’t call you needy.

TWO: policy position and effectiveness are of equal importance when deciding on a representative for the senate. if she agrees with you but can’t accomplish anything, that does not help you. on the other hand, if she disagrees with you and can accomplish things, that is not so beneficial to you either. so the win-win for you would be to elect a senator that shares your views and is going to kick ass in the senate. girl power!

good luck north carolina. it’s been a hard run of things, but, for better or for worse, it will all be over soon/tonight. hang in there.

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

turnout! and money!

PART ONE

everybody’s doing it!!! have you?

by mid-october of this year, registered democrats had increased by 9.7%. the number of registered republicans increased by 2.7%.

by the time the early polls closed on friday, 38% of registered voters had cast their ballot. thats 2.3 million people! woot woot!

after today, the number of registered voters who actually voted is expected to rise above 1968 levels. people are hoping for a 70% turnout rate, which would be approximately 30% higher than the national average, a great accomplishment for the state of north carolina.

you can contribute to this historic election by voting. i highly recommend it.

PART TWO

in sum, $34.26 million has been spent on television advertising in north carolina alone.

break it down:

• elizabeth + the nrsc = $12.6 million
• kay + the dscc = $16.7 million
• elizabeth alone = $6.8 million
• kay alone = $5.7 million

nationally: (tv ads for every state senate race)

• nrsc= $33 million
• dscc= $57.8 million

these are big bucks, people. that’s what makes it so important to analyze these television ads with impartiality, and then become biased later.

unless your me, who remains impartial throughout, at least in the blogosphere

you can vote absentee, but you can’t be absentee

elizabeth has been heavily criticized for not spending enough time in north carolina.

obviously, as the incumbent, she works in washington. she holds residency in north carolina (again, duh) but her husband (bob dole– heard of him?) votes in kansas.

here are some hard statistics on days spent in north carolina:

• 2003- 55 days
• 2004- 34 days
• 2005- 33 days
• 2006- 13 days
• 2007- 50 days
• 2008- a lot more

unfortunately, i couldn’t find the average number of days a senator spends in their “home state,” so we don’t have a basis on which to compare these stats.

if we gage public opinion, however, it seems practically unanimous that everyone wishes liddy had come home a bit more often. it is also an issue heavily pushed by kay’s campaign, who have used inefficency and absence as the primary factors in their attack ads.

to reassure you that she does, in fact, hold your interests dear to her heart, elizabeth released this [insert your own adjective here] ad:

a quickie, in the godless vein

this is the conclusion (on my blog at least) of the godless drama:

elizabeth did not release a counter-ad to kay’s counter-ad to elizabeth’s godless-ad.

probably because, well, today is election day, early voting was last week, hence, time has officially run out.

instead, she pulled the ad from the waves but defended it by saying “it’s definitely truthful and in no way attacks her faith. it questions her agenda. i think that’s a fair question.”

well that’s that. we can further analyze the effects of this last ditch effort to garner the attention of the north carolina electorate after all the poll results are in.

early today, pollster marked the race with—

kay: 48.2%

elizabeth: 44.1%

christopher: 3.7%

where is “the line?”

in an exciting, three day pre-election turn of events, kay hagan brought a lawsuit against elizabeth dole.

why?

remember the little post called “atheism: follow up” (i recommend scrolling down and reading it before you digest this post) that premiered recently on my blog? well…

that attack ad, which linked kay to the “godless americans” pac and insinuated that she holds their views, was risky to begin with, but in the last hours (literally) before the election, the dole camp is desperate to knock kay away from her tiny lead in the polls.

after the ad premiered on state television stations, kay’s attorneys issued an ultimatum: if the ad wasn’t removed in 24 hours, they would sue.

and sue they did. for defamation and libel, to be exact.

kay’s attorneys claim that the ad “injures hagan’s good name and reputation in her community.”

the hagan camp also released a follow up ad rebuking the claims made by the dole ad, while tying in the economy and job creation, and alluding the idea that elizabeth had violated the ninth commandment by “bearing false witness against other christians.”

the liddy campaign obviously did not give in to threats by the legal team of kay hagan, and responded by calling the idea of a lawsuit a “frivolous” and “silly political gimmick.”  they also wrote to the aformentioned legal team to remind them that everything in the ad was factually accurate (its all about spin) and that their intent was to question kay’s agenda and her associations, not her faith.

the voiceover of executive director (a woman) of the godless americans declaring that “there is no god!” while a picture of kay hagan (also a woman) rests on the screen would suggest otherwise.

drama drama drama.

the polls today:

kay- 47.5%

elizabeth-43.6%

christopoher (if you hadn’t forgotten about this guy, you might think that he is above all these negative mudslinging ads since he hasn’t aired any, but the truth is that he can’t afford to)- 3.6%