Egg on Their Faces

 Because the media and many pundits were pushing for a "red wave" this year thanks to misreading election history regarding midterms, the GOP performance overall can be kindly labeled a dud.  I think the Dems will prevail in the Senate--the Nevada race is very close while the Georgia Senate race will end up in a runoff in four weeks--and, if the Democrats lose the House, it will be by literally a handful of seats.  I fully expect the Democrats to regroup in 2024 to retake it if this is the case.

Two statehouses--Massachusetts and Maryland--went blue this time.  The Michigan legislature went blue.  Fortunately for Oregon, Phil Knight's ratfucking scheme to deny Tina Kotek the governorship fell right on its face.  This was the most brazen attempt at manipulating an election this year, no question.  Kotek would have won easily if Knight's tool Betsy Johnson hadn't entered the race, making it way closer between Kotek and GOP candidate Christine Drazen than it should have been.  This is yet another reason Citizens United has got to go.  No one individual should be buying elections outright, much less right-wing billionaires.  Phil Knight, along with his wife and son, are the only billionaires in the state of Oregon.

Last night was also a great night for abortion rights.  Kentucky voters rejected an antiabortion measure, while Michigan supported abortion as a constitutional right.  California and Vermont also voted in favor of protecting abortion rights.

Snip on the abortion issue from Reuters:

In Michigan, a 1931 law banning abortion is still on the books and has prompted legal disputes over whether it could be enforced. The passage of the amendment now renders the law unconstitutional.Kentucky was the first state to put abortion rights to a ballot test while enforcing a near-total ban, with exceptions only in rare medical emergencies. The vote has created a pathway for abortion access to be restored through litigation and services to resume at the state's two clinics.

The Kentucky Supreme Court will hear challenges to the abortion restrictions in place next Tuesday.

"The defeat of Amendment 2 means that we can go on to fight for the rights, freedom and equality of everyone in the state," the co-owners of EMW Women's Surgical Center, a Kentucky abortion clinic, said in a statement.

The Dobbs effect, pooh-poohed by the pundits and media, was still in effect this election and was critical in many respects.

While there were some setbacks for the Democrats, it was the GOP constituting the biggest losers.