2022 Election

Jack Clifford: Lake v. Hobbs, day 2

Featured image Attorney John A. “Jack” Clifford is of counsel with Merchant & Gould. P.C. He has lived, worked, and voted in Maricopa County, Arizona since 2014. He sends us this report on the Lake v. Hobbs trial that concluded yesterday. The AP’s story on the second day of trial is here. Jack’s day 1 report is here. This is Jack’s day 2 report: As before my comments are my own personal »

Jack Clifford: Lake v. Hobbs, day 1

Featured image Attorney John A. “Jack” Clifford is of counsel with Merchant & Gould. P.C. I developed a healthy respect for Jack many years ago when we represented adverse parties in an intellectual property dispute. He sends us this report on the Lake v. Hobbs et al. trial that opened yesterday. The AP’s story on the first day of trial is here. Jack reports that this is what he learned watching day »

The Grassley-Johnson experience

Featured image Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson have made it a mission to expose the Biden family corruption at whose apex sits President Biden. Their various reports, speeches, and correspondence are all accessible here. Most recently, they summarized the fruits of their research in this letter dated October 26, 2022 (“[t]he letter summarizes key elements of the Biden family’s engagements with individuals linked to the Chinese communist party and Chinese intelligence »

After last night

Featured image This is a postscript to my November 9 installment of “After last night” on this year’s midterms. • In a perfect coda to the disappointing outcome of the 2022 midterm elections, Raphael Warnock won reelection to the Senate from Georgia last night. He did it by taking 51.4 percent of the vote in his runoff against Herschel Walker for a full six-year term. Walker fell about 100,000 votes short out »

Inside the red ripple

Featured image Dave Seminara’s Spectator column (behind the Spectator paywall) looks on the upside of the downside of the midterms for Republicans. Republicans won the cumulative popular vote for congressional candidates, but what about it? “The popular vote win shouldn’t be a cause of celebration for Republicans, who should have performed even better in the critical races given President Biden’s abysmal record. But there are also causes for concern among Democrats, a »

The offense is rank

Featured image Ranked choice voting may not have “the primal eldest curse upon’t,” but it nevertheless “smells to heaven.” Case in point: Alaska’s ranked choice voting scheme has now delivered Democrat Mary Peltola to represent this Republican state in the House of Representatives. Living with it, Kim Strassel called it out as “the hell that is Alaska’s election system” in her lucid October 27 Wall Street Journal column “The ‘ranked choice’ scam.” »

Flipping out

Featured image It takes 218 seats to claim a the majority in the House of Representatives, which is itself an entirely majoritarian institution. It’s no fun to be in the minority in the House, as Democrats are about to be reminded. It appears that the prospective Republican majority in the House will max out at 221 or 222 members. We are still awaiting results in three California races. RCP still shows Lauren »

Jeffrey Anderson on the midterms

Featured image Commenting on the midterms, I relied on Robert Cahaly’s Trafalgar polls to moderate my native pessimism. As I noted in “Trafalgar in retrospect,” I’m still kicking myself for that and for having advertised his polls to readers. What does Cahaly himself say? He spoke with New York Intelligencer’s Benjamin Hart this week for this interview. As I read the interview, he sounds grouchy and defensive, but I understand this much: »

The Daily Chart: Silicon Valley’s Political Leanings

Featured image Maybe the news of massive layoffs at at leading Silicon Valley tech companies is good news for the Republican Party. Herewith: »

Thoughts from the ammo line

Featured image Ammo Grrrll advises LET’S GET A GRIP! She writes: Long-married people may theologically be “one,” but as any Marriage Counselor will tell you, they are also two extremely separate individuals. Since famous novelist, Max Cossack and I are both hard-core political junkies, we have been discussing the latest election more or less non-stop for a week. Though I am the Columnist of Record and hence will be writing in the »

Stay Classy, Dems

Featured image Kendall Witmer is a Democratic political operative who describes herself as “comms director” for Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s re-election campaign. This is a photo of Witmer (center) with Walz, from Witmer’s Twitter feed: This is how Witmer celebrated her client’s re-election win. Her tweet is directed at Republican Lieutenant Governor candidate Matt Birk, former All-Pro football player for the Minnesota Vikings: I’ll have something more coherent at some point but »

Ryan Girdusky on the midterms

Featured image Ryan Girdusky appeared for an interview on a segment of the Clay and Buck radio talk show yesterday. The interview is posted here at the show’s site. I had never heard of Girdusky and can’t vouch for him. These were Girdusky’s opening points: [T]here was no youthquake. The media has had this narrative coming out that there was this giant army of young Gen Z people voting Democrat — didn’t »

A footnote on Dr. Oz

Featured image When Dr. Oz narrowly won the Pennsylvania Republican primary — by fewer than 1,000 votes — I lamented the result in “Oz versus Fetterman.” I blamed Trump for an endorsement that, given the closeness of the race, must have pushed Oz over the top. I thought former Trump Treasury Under Secretary David McCormick, Oz’s opponent in the primary, made for a far better candidate against John Fetterman in Pennsylvania’s general »

Republicans hit 218

Featured image As we anticipated this morning, the AP has just called Republican Rep. Mike Garcia’s tough race for reelection against Christy Smith in California’s Twenty-Seventh Congressional District. The AP has called the race for Garcia (in a “Democratic-leaning district,” as the AP puts it.) Yesterday the LA Times noted that Smith has been complaining of the lock of party support on Twitter. Garcia’s election flips the House by pushing the Republicans »

Let the headaches begin

Featured image An outlet called Decision Desk HQ has called two races bringing the GOP total in the House of Representatives to 219. Who is Decision Desk HQ and why are they calling these races? RedState’s Mr. Bonchie (Republican Kevin Kiley in California’s Third CD) and Hot Air’s John Sexton (Republican Mike Garcia in California’s Twenty-Seventh CD) have followed DDHQ on these calls. Kiley’s putative victory would take the GOP to a »

GOP at 217

Featured image John Sexton updates five House races that were called yesterday for the GOP here at Hot Air. The AP story here includes quick takes on a few close California House races that hang in the balance. By the end of the day the GOP total stood at 217, one away from a majority. Democrats stand at 205. Two of the five GOP wins (David Schweikert and Juan Ciscomani) reflected close »

A House closely divided

Featured image Tom Bevan is president of RealClearPolitics and a real clear observer of the American political scene. He has posted a thread on the results of the midterm elections on Twitter. There is a lot to chew over here. I submit it to interested readers at the bottom of this post. Tom tactfully observes that Republicans “will gain only a handful of House seats…” He leaves open the question whether Republicans »