Posted on 11/09/2006 5:56:19 AM PST by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON -- Democrats wrested control of the Senate from Republicans Wednesday with an upset victory in Virginia, giving the party complete domination of Capitol Hill for the first time since 1994.
Jim Webb's squeaker win over incumbent Sen. George Allen gave Democrats their 51st seat in the Senate, an astonishing turnabout at the hands of voters unhappy with Republican scandal and unabated violence in Iraq. Allen was the sixth Republican incumbent senator defeated in Tuesday's elections.
The Senate had teetered at 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans for most of Wednesday, with Virginia hanging in the balance. Webb's victory ended Republican hopes of eking out a 50-50 split, with Vice President Dick Cheney wielding tie-breaking authority.
The Associated Press contacted election officials in all 134 localities where voting occurred, obtaining updated numbers Wednesday. About half the localities said they had completed their postelection canvassing and nearly all had counted outstanding absentees. Most were expected to be finished by Friday.
The new AP count showed Webb with 1,172,538 votes and Allen with 1,165,302, a difference of 7,236. Virginia has had two statewide vote recounts in modern history, but both resulted in vote changes of no more than a few hundred votes.
An adviser to Allen, speaking on condition of anonymity because his boss had not formally decided to end the campaign, said the senator wanted to wait until most of canvassing was completed before announcing his decision, possibly as early as Thursday evening.
The adviser said that Allen was disinclined to request a recount if the final vote spread was similar to that of election night.
"I'd like to know where all those absentee ballots went!
They were all supposed to be counted this morning, Thursday. Yet he took the defeat. What if those absentee ballots put him over the top? Then what?
It just seems that our absentee ballots aren't counting for anything. It really upsets me."
The absentee ballots do not have to be actually counted to determine the winner. The total number of absentee ballots is known and if that number were applied to the losing candidate and it still would not be enough to exceed the other candidate, the winner is known without counting them at that time. The winner would be known, and the absentee ballots would be counted later for a final tally of votes for each candidate.
I hate to see the seat go to Webb though!
The absentees have been counted, according to the State Board of Elections website. They are grouped by county/city into absentee "precincts," one per Congressional district per county/city (so if a county is split in two Congressional districts, there's two absentee "precincts" and two "conditional vote precincts" for provisional ballots). They're typically the last grouping of votes to come in for a given county or city. If you want to check out how it works, go here:
http://www.virginia.gov
...hit the "live results" link, and click around a bit. You can drill down to every county/city in the state and get a complete list of precincts and how they voted, including absentees.
Unless there is some epic mistake somewhere, Allen is not going to find 7,400 votes out there. He's got every right to hang on until the canvass is done (by next Tuesday), but at this point I don't see him asking for a recount.
}:-)4
Virginia made some history that they will regret.
LLS
Allen is not going to be a Presidential contender.
The blame lies with the dbm and scandal ridden Republican crooks. The dims will only be outed and prosecuted now that the election is over. The President turned out our base, but the dbm turned the independents to the left.
LLS
But to be honest, at 51-49, or 50-50 or 49-51 it really doesn't matter who controls the Senate as long as the GOP is as willing to use the rules to their advantage as the 'Rats were. If the GOP side of the Senate wakes up and realizes that their conservative principles are worth fighting for we'll be no worse off than we were when we controlled the Senate and the 'Rats controlled the agenda. The shoe's on the other foot now...I hope the GOP has the guts to stand and fight.
You are correct, at least not in 2008.
ohfercryinoutloud...you act as if he was the ONLY FRICKIN' REPUBLICAN TO LOSE ON TUESDAY....
George Allen did not LOSE the Senate. Sure, he didn't run a perfect campaign. But he was targeted a long time ago and ran against the forces of hell.
The Republican party as a whole lost the House and the Senate because we've lost our way. After our win in 1994 we never learned to govern. We've abandoned our princples, tried to run from the squishy middle. And now we've seen our President abandon us.
Sure, Allen was a part of our losing Senate control.
But to lay it all at his feet is ludicrous.
I agree and interestingly enough I just posted something rather similar on a Delaware forum. One of the forums I mentioned where the Dems have shown more class in regard to Allen's loss than many of those posting on Free Republic.
(((SIGH)))) It's been a lousy week!
Gillespie was an advisor. Dick Wadhams (of John Thune fame) ran the campaign.
The RATS went after Allen because 1) the gains he helped Republicans make in the Senate, including getting rid of Daschle and 2) because they saw him as a contender for 2008 (whether or not he really was is NOT the issue, he was seen that way by many).
Allen ran a good and aggressive campaign. But we were not helped by 1) the national mood, 2) the Main Scream Media and 3) a couple of stumbles that ~should have been~ minor incidents (see #2).
What the hell is wrong with the people in Virginia and Pennsylvania?
No, but it should be. Trent Lott was a disaster as Senate Majority leader, but GW's hand picked Frist was even worse. Of course some of us helped, by supporting that weasel Lindsey Graham,
Simpler yet, just let all the pubbies switch to the Democratic party, we would still be in the majority, and no one would notice the difference.
FWIW, don't blame it all on Virginia either.
We passed the marriage amendment by a huge margin.
And, unlike many other states, we kept ALL 8 of our GOP congresscritters.
Speaker Pelosi is NOT Virginia's fault.
Not sure but I think he was dumped as Attorney General, but he recovered by joing the Choir of a popular church, that was on TV every week with him standing behind the pastor singing his heart out.
That needs frequent repetition.
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