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"Is this true about MO law is it confirmed that the winner takes the seat immediately shifting the balance back to 50-50 in the senate."

Yeah, but that won't do us any good. NRO has a great piece on this: The Senate's arcane (not to say stupid) rules mean that, at a 50-50 split, control of the Senate remains with whoever had it last (i.e. Daschle). Now, if Lott had had even a single vertebra, we could have used this to our advantage in 2000, but noooooo...

At any rate, the upshot is that 50-50 is the same as 49-51. Seating Talent immediately won't do us any good—unless, that is, the "independent" from MN decides to caucus with the GOP, which he might just do if Coleman hangs on to win. (There's also a reading of MN law that says Coleman sits immediately, just as in MO, but we'd have to sue to establish that and, being The Stupid Party, probably won't.)

The good news, though, is that if we do get 51-49 in January, which seems likely, then we're done. Even if Chaffee jumps then (which I'm certain he won't), we'll have already organized the next Senate, so a 50-50 split leaves us in control. So keep on praying for a win in MN, SD or LA—preferably all three!


Precincts Reporting: 62.88% (2582 of 4106)		Last update was: 11/6/2002 1:02:53 AM
Counties Reporting: 97.70% (85/87) Counties Complete: 5.75% (5/87)
# Registered Voters as of 7AM 11-05-02: 3047979	# Voter Turnout: 1233445	Voter Turnout (Click here for info) 40.47%

Statewide Results for U.S. Senator

• US SENATOR		Totals	Pct	Graph
Green	RAY TRICOMO	3043	0.45
Independence	JIM MOORE	16528	2.47
Republican	NORM COLEMAN	340824	50.86
Democratic-Farmer-Labor	WALTER F. MONDALE	305076	45.53
Democratic-Farmer-Labor	PAUL WELLSTONE	3480	0.52
Constitution	MIRO DRAGO KOVATCHEVICH	709	0.11
Write-In	ED MCGAA**	0	0.00
Write-In	"DICK" FRANSON**	0	0.00
Write-In	WRITE-IN (OTHER)	463	0.07
Write-In	MICHELLE MARIE HARBECK**	0	0.00


U.S. Senator - Summary
Precincts Reporting 4301 of 4425
Candidate	Party	Votes	% of Votes
Carnahan, Jean	DEM	892,339	48.4%
Talent, Jim	REP	922,728	50.1%
Millay, Tamara A.	LIB	18,079	1.0%
Romano, Daniel (digger)	GRE	10,202	.6%
Total Votes		1,843,348


                                   TOTAL   PERCENT   PRECINCTS      TOTAL
                                   VOTES   OF VOTE   REPORTING    PRECINCTS
 
     U S SENATE
   (L) EVANS          KURT            2594        1          721           844
   (D) JOHNSON        TIM           142139       49          721           844
   (R) THUNE          JOHN          144735       50          721           844

Minn could change all that. It is possible the winner could take the seat immediately.

won't do us any good—unless, that is, the "independent" from MN decides to caucus with the GOP

I understand that at least he believes strongly that Bush's judicial appointees ought to be voted on.

(There's also a reading of MN law that says Coleman sits immediately, just as in MO, but we'd have to sue to establish that and, being The Stupid Party, probably won't.)

(shoot... should have covered this last post) ... Despite that MN law, the last time this situation arose the Senate refused to sit the replacement since it would give him a more than six year term. That precident will probably be followed.

California Governor
ABC7-L.A.

Davis(D) 1,685,105 47%

Simon(R) 1,517,090 43%