There was no blue wave in down ballot races. The GOP has made a net six seat gain in the House of Representatives thus far, picking up eight while the Democrats flipped just two. After the surge in 2018 where the Democrats picked up 40 seats, the GOP can expect to remain in the minority in the House, but the margin will tighten.
In the Upper Chamber, only 31 seats of the 100 in total were up for grabs. This included a Senate seat in Alabama where a special election in 2017 had thrown up an unusual result — Democrat Doug Jones defeated former Alabama Supreme Court judge, Roy Moore who was mired in sex scandals and allegations of paedophilia.
In a highly anticipated result, the natural order of southern politics was restored on Tuesday when Republican Tommy Tuberville was elected to the Senate, defeating Jones 60-40.
The Democrats have flipped one Senate seat apiece in Colorado and Arizona. Results will be some time coming in Alaska but there is no prospect of a Democrat win there.
In North Carolina, Thom Tillis, the GOP incumbent faces a tough battle against Democrat nominee Cal Cunningham. Tillis leads by 97,000 votes with 94 per cent counted but what remains of the outstanding vote will be coming from Metro Atlanta. Post marked ballots received up to November 12 will be counted.
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So, let’s put that in too close to call category.
Putting North Carolina aside for a moment, the numbers are Republican 49, Democrat 48.
Meanwhile in Georgia, where eyes have fixed on the presidential race with Biden looming in the count, two Senate elections took place on Tuesday. The first, a special election had Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock emerge as the winner. He now advances to a run-off in January.
The second, between Republican incumbent, David Perdue and Democrat John Ossoff is unlikely to provide a clear winner. Georgia rules dictate that the victor must win 50 per cent of the vote or more. At present, Perdue has 49.9 per cent with counting continuing.
This leads to the delicious prospect of dual run-off elections in Georgia on 5 January, 2021. Depending on how things go in North Carolina, those run-offs will determine who has the majority in the US Senate.
Let’s just take a moment to imagine what life would be like for Georgians between now and then. Both the Democrats and the GOP will spend roughly the equivalent of the GDP of Poland on their campaigns. Television will become unwatchable with wall to wall political advertising. One wonders why the Dems and the GOP simply don’t just stand on street corners handing out gorillas to passers-by.
Sadly, the $1000 bill is no longer in circulation. The bill, featuring the bonce of now stage star and founding father, Alexander Hamilton, was withdrawn in 1969.
So maybe the baksheesh will have to come in crisp piles of Benjamin Franklins instead.
While campaigning will be at unspeakable saturation points for much of the next nine weeks, the good news is if Georgians ever dreamt of their own personal monorails, now might be a good time to ask.
TATCH RIDES AGAIN
We’ve all been watching one election dawdle to the finish line.
But here in Australia in a count that would make the one in Nevada look positively rapid fire, the winner of the Central Ward in the Victorian Shire of Moorabool, was announced on Wednesday.
Readers may recall, I wrote an article indicating the incumbent, independent Paul Tatchell was under attack from the Labor candidate who wasn’t, Ben Davison, having packed away his red shirt for the campaign.
Preferences were counted this week and Tatch emerged victorious with a 54-46 win. It was a close-run thing with preferences from Davison and the third-place winner, Renèe Robinson being directed against Tatch.
Tatch won 42.58 per cent of the primary vote, Davison 29.84 and Robinson 20.92 but it appears the denizens of Moorabool don’t go much for dodgy preference deals and re-elected the four-time Mayor of Moorabool for four more years.
I sent my congratulations to Tatch who was more relieved than exultant with the result.
On Facebook, Davison graciously accepted defeat and offered congratulations of his own to Tatchell. But he couldn’t help himself and extended the strange back hander on his way out the door, “While the current councillor does have the most primary votes, over 57 per cent of people cast their primary vote for a new candidate.”
Yeah, nah, that’s not quite how elections work in this country, son. By that standard, 57 per cent of people wanted Dan Andrews and Labor punted from the Treasury benches at the 2018 state election.
If we want to take a deeper dive into the numbers, would it be churlish of me to remind Davison that a tick over 70 per cent of eligible voters had taken a long, hard look at him before giving him the flick?
Still, Davison is just learning the caper and I feel sure we’ll see him pop up somewhere in the not too distant future.
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If you are growing weary of election reporting knowing it might continue for days if not weeks in the US, spare a thought for the good people of the State of Georgia who have endured months of a presidential election and now are set to be engulfed in what we in Australia might call the mother of all by-elections.