Vote Counting Widens Eric Massa's Lead In A Big Way

Republicans consider counting every legal vote electoral fraud. I'm not joking; they really do. Here's what the rightist Wall Street Journal Editorial Page had to say about the efforts to count the votes in Minnesota:

You'd think Democrats would be content with last week's electoral rout. But judging from the odd doings in Minnesota, some in their party wouldn't mind adding to their jackpot by stealing a Senate seat for left-wing joker Al Franken.

"Stealing a Senate seat" means making sure every vote is counted. Norm Coleman is doing all he can to prevent that-- including running to the far right 8th Circuit Court, a Bush-appointed travesty of partisan hypocrisy. So far, though, all of Coleman's tricks to disenfranchise voters have failed... so far.

During our live blog session with Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH) today, she let us know that John Boehner's creepy little handpicked choice for the congressional seat being vacated by another of his puppets, Deborah Pryce, went running to a stacked Republican court trying to shut down the vote count-- just like Bush did in 2000 in Florida and like Norm Coleman did in Minnesota last week. Mary Jo:

Thursday night the Republicans on behalf of Steve Stivers showed that they were scared that this election is over and filed suit over some provisional ballots with the Ohio Supreme Court, trying to skip lower courts to a 7-0 Republican controlled court.

...Well there is some good news to report. The lawyers moved the case to the U.S. District Court because of federal issues pertaining to the provisional ballots. They held a hearing this morning and we are waiting for the judge to rule. We could hear as early as Monday.

The Helping America Vote Act prohibits votes from being discarded based on poll worker error and many of the ballots that Republicans are contesting clearly fall in that category. This is nothing more than Republicans trying to disenfranchise voters.

Earlier today I got an e-mail from Congressman-elect Eric Massa. Sore loser and pitiful Bush hack Randy Kuhl has refused to concede defeat even though Eric was projected the winner with a 4,414 vote margin. Eric, like all Democrats, was perfectly happy to have every last vote counted and yesterday the Monroe County Board of Elections "concluded their count of the absentee and affidavit ballots, and [Eric's] lead grew tremendously. Additionally, the recanvass of Monroe and Chemung Counties also concluded. As of right now, the district-wide recanvass is complete and all that's left to do is count the remaining absentee/affidavit ballots in Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chemung, Ontario, Schuyler, Steuben and Yates counties." Here's a "by the numbers" run down of where the race in NY-29 now stands:

• 4,487 - Eric's lead prior to Friday, 11/14
• 299 - Votes he gained from the Chemung/Monroe Recanvass
• 954 - His lead over Randy Kuhl from the Monroe County absentees and affidavit ballots opened today
• 11,000 - Total estimated number of absentee/affidavit ballots
• 5,100 - Approximate number of absentee/affidavit ballots opened in Monroe County
• 5,900 - Approximate number of remaining absentee/affidavit ballots that have yet to be opened in the other seven counties
• 5,740 - Eric's total combined margin of victory

Short version: 5,900 absentee ballots and affidavits left to be counted compared to a 5,740 vote margin. If you see Eric, feel safe to address him as Congressman-elect.

As long as we're talking about vote counts, the one in Alaska is progressing well. The latest count shows Mark Begich with 138,959 votes to 137,937 for convicted GOP felon Ted Stevens. Sarah Palin's husband's secessionist Alaskan Independence Party candidate Bob Bird is in third place with 12,144 votes. Looks like they screwed it up for Stevens. Remaining to be counted are about 16,000 questioned and absentee ballots from Anchorage and around 8,000 absentee ballots from Southeast and the Kenai Peninsula.

And in California vote counting is proceeding and it is still too close to call between Charlie Brown and the far right extremist the GOP is trying to replace indicted crook John Doolittle with.

McCain Wants To Talk About Dangerous? OK

coattails

This morning CBS News reported that Lagging In The Polls, Palin Shifts To Fear Tactics. Can anyone in their right mind take A Know Nothing Winky-Dinky seriously enough to fear the nonsense that comes randomly shooting out of her lipsticked trap? Apparently not in Virginia, where Obama now holds a double-digit lead over McCain. She keeps using words like "dangerous," "fearful" and "afraid" in the increasingly hysterical and desperate speeches the McCain team writes for her and it only reminds voters of John McCain's career-long erratic behavior, hair-trigger temperament, and of the serial hysteria his campaign has degenerated into.

USAToday noted that today was the end of a record-breaking registration campaign in half the states in the nation-- record-breaking for Democrats, heart-breaking for Republicans.

Democrats have added more than 800,000 voters and Republicans have lost 300,000 in eight of the most tightly fought states in the presidential race: Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico and New Hampshire. Changes occur when voters switch parties or are removed from registration lists because they moved, died or haven't voted in recent elections.

No wonder McCain is so desperate and has decided to turn the rest of the campaign into a brutal slash and burn gutter exercise that even Karl Rove says is over the top and even Tom DeLay has qualms about!

And like Virginia, Ohio is also slipping further and further from McCain's clammy grasp. Yesterday's Columbus Dispatch reported that Obama is now up by 7 points statewide. If that holds, McCain needn't bother staying up late for the 2 remaining debates. The sweetest part of McCain's nosedive is that he's dragging the entire Republican Party down with him, just the way he did in the special congressional elections in Illinois, Louisiana, and Mississippi, where 3 red districts rejected McCain and his candidates-- running the same kind of viciously negative campaign McCain is doing now-- for moderate Democrats supported by Obama. McCain's coattails look like they will be the most toxic in the history of the Republican Party.

In 2006 rubber stamp Republican Randy Kuhl beat security-oriented progressive Democrat Eric Massa 52%-48%. This year the two campaigns have around the same amount of money on hand (Massa- $534,000 and Kuhl $572,000). According to a Republican polling firm, McLaughlin & Associates, January showed Kuhl way ahead, 46-26%. That's a steep hill to climb. Eric has climbed it. Today's release of a Beneson Strategy Group poll has Eric at 47% and Kuhl trailing with 42%.

We're seeing results like this on the local levels everywhere in the country. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Al Franken (D-MN) have pulled ahead of incumbent Republican rubber stamps Gordon Smith and Norm Coleman. And national Republicans have virtually written off any chance Elizabeth Dole has for keeping her seat in North Carolina. Politico: "Top Republicans say they have no hope for Dole in North Carolina. 'There’s no point in even counting the votes,' said a top McCain official." They say the only Republican chance for a pick-up in the Senate is if Lieberman makes his jump to their side official.

Similarly, there are no Democrats with endangered seats except for Chris Carney (PA) who has been voting like a Republican and deserves to lose his seat; unfortunately, even a reactionary scumbag like Carney will be helped by an Obama landslide. Heavily red House seats that are looking like they will elect Democrats in November include the at-large Alaska seat, currently held by bribe-taking Don Young, but even non-criminal types in the GOP are getting ready to start hunting for jobs on K Street after November. Some of the most likely Democratic prospects (all races where the Democrat is currently polling ahead or even):

Charlie Brown (CA-04)- up 5%
Alan Grayson (FL-08)- up 4%
Parker Griffith (AL-05)- up 5%
Jim Himes (CT-04)- dead heat
Walter Minnick (ID-01)- up 6%-- and yes, that's Idaho in a district with a PVI of R+19!
Betsy Markey (CO-04)- up 9%
Frank Kratovil (MD-01)- dead heat
Mark Schauer (MI-07)- up 6%
Gary Peters (MI-09)- up 4%
Ashwin Madia (MN-03)- up 5% (brand new poll)
Larry Kissell (NC-08)- up 11%
Martin Heinrich (NM-01)- up 6%
Harry Teague (NM-02)- up 4%
Dina Titus (NV-03)- up 11%
Michael McMahon (NY-13)- GOP has given up
Dan Maffei (NY-25)- up 1%
Steve Dreihaus (OH-01)- dead heat
Vic Wulsin (OH-02)- dead heat
Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15)- up 5%
John Boccieri (OH-16)- up 8%
Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-03)- up 4%
Gerry Connolly (VA-11)- up 31%
Gary Trauner (WY-A-L)- dead heat

Most district have no polling available. If you're interested in helping your favorite Democrats in House races, there's a People For the American Way contest going on right now, where you can leverage even a small donation for your favorite candidate into a big check. Right now Judy Feder (VA-10), Gary Peters (MI-09) and Russ Warner (CA-26) are battling it out for the top slot, but it's very early going and already Marin Heinrich (NM-01), Dennis Shulman (NJ-05), and Debbie Cook (CA-46) are starting to move up. Click here to take a look.

And if you're wondering why Eric Massa took that gigantic jump in the polls, I think this video will help you understand:




UPDATE: GOP HOUSE CANDIDATES CRUMBLING

I spoke to a friend of mine in Minnesota tonight who told me the GOP has pretty much just thrown in the towel on holding on to Ramstad's seat with right-winger Erik Paulsen. Ashwin Madia has been beating him in the polls and Paulsen is hiding from the press. And it's not an isolated phenomena. Tomorrow's Roll Call paints a grim picture (grim if you're a Republican).

Democrats have opened up significant leads in seven marquee House races that are rematches of 2006 contests, according to new polls conducted exclusively for Roll Call.

Whether the race involves a Republican who was ousted last cycle and is seeking a political comeback, a shaky GOP incumbent who might be in even greater jeopardy this time, or a Democrat who won an open-seat race in a conservative district, Democrats everywhere seem to be benefiting politically from the recent wave of bad economic news. Democratic Congressional contenders are even leading in districts where Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) trails Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the Roll Call survey.

...In Illinois’ 10th district, marketing consultant Dan Seals (D) led Rep. Mark Kirk (R) 52 percent to 44 percent. In Indiana’s 9th, Rep. Baron Hill (D) led ex-Rep. Mike Sodrel (R) 53 percent to 38 percent. In New Hampshire’s 1st, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D) led ex-Rep. Jeb Bradley (R) 50 percent to 41 percent. In New York’s 29th, retired Navy officer Eric Massa (D) led Rep. Randy Kuhl (R) 51 percent to 44 percent. In North Carolina’s 8th district, teacher Larry Kissell (D) led Rep. Robin Hayes (R) 49 percent to 41 percent. In Pennsylvania’s 4th district, Rep. Jason Altmire (D) led ex-Rep. Melissa Hart (R) 54 percent to 42 percent. And in Wisconsin’s 8th district, Rep. Steve Kagen (D) topped former state Speaker John Gard (R) 54 percent to 43 percent.

Did you read Glenn's piece at Salon today? He reprised a warning from last summer, warning he's ready to take action on:

What is the best course for those who want to battle against these civil-liberties-destroying, rule-of-law-trampling, war-making policies that the GOP leadership pushes and the Democratic Party leadership supports, enables, and/or passively accepts? In a two-party system where blind support for either party will do nothing but perpetuate these policies, how can they be undermined?

And some of the Democrats above are that type of Democrats-- nominal Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. There is no reason-- none whatsoever-- to rejoice because of the election of reactionaries like Baron Hill or Jason Altmire. They are useless in important battles and their cowardice and instinctual conservatism moves the Democratic caucus inexorably to the right.

Many of my friends are overjoyed that Miss McConnell may lose his seat. No one deserves that fate more. And no one wishes him worse than I do. But his opponent is Bruce Lunsford who will either replace Ben Nelson as the worst Democrat in the Senate or just jump the fence and become a Republican the first time that seems like a promising proposition, the same way Richard Shelby did in 1994. As much as I abhor McConnell, there's nothing in the world that would ever get me to vote for Bruce Lunsford.