NBC News has predicted that Bill DiBlasio will win the NYC Mayoral race.
NBC News has predicted that Governor Chris Christie will retain his seat in New Jersey. As if we couldn’t see that coming several hundred miles away.
Virginia Governor’s Race Too Close To Call.
UPDATE: NBC predicts that Terry McAuliffe will narrowly win election to the Governor’s Mansion in Virginia. What’s great about a narrow victory for him is that the Teabaggers will do what the true-believers always do–blame the candidate for not being hard core enough (we’ve seen this many, many times on both sides of the aisle) and they’ll double down on their radicalism, making them even less palatable to the rest of the electorate.
All three of these races are widely seen as bellweathers for the upcoming elections next year.
Other elections of interest, including a ballot measure in Colorado to add a 25% tax to the sale of marijuana in that state, and an initiative in Washington state to require labels for GMO-based food products.
magurakurin
they are saying over at KOS that MSNBC and FOX have called the race for Terry Mac.
ETA so is the link you posted, now. Must be a done deal.
HinTN
Rachael sez Cooch gone down.
Southern Beale
And DeBlasio wins.
What’s Bloomberg gonna do next?
HinTN
Would that Nashville could drive politics like northern VA clearly does…
Southern Beale
@HinTN:
{ waves from a fellow Nashvillian }
Well, what do you think Karl Dean’s chances of being the next TN governor are?
scav
Horrors! Are those scewed poll-y statistical enlightenment devil-spawn number things still kicking the godly ones with the true math around?!
HinTN
@Southern Beale: GOOD! – I be votin’ and working for him!
Felonius Monk
Not exactly election news, but I loved this headline over at Wonkette:
piratedan
why in the hell did this end up being so close? upsurge in guys being anti-fellatio? Women for vaginal probing? Or just more of the R’s staying tribal despite knowing that their candidate is a monumental asshat?
Keith P.
25% tax on marijuana still makes it a cheap date. Smoke every day, all day, and you might get around the cost of a mild cocaine habit, but otherwise one hit (not even a bowl) is enough to send a regular person to happy town for 4-5 hours.
David Koch
Dumbya lost the popular vote, even though he lead all the polls on election eve, yet the liburel media declared the loser had a mandate.
TerryMac is gonna win by 5 pts and reverse a 30 year trend of the party in the WH losing the VA governorship, yet the liburel media is trying to take away his victory.
The asteroid can come fast enough.
Hill Dweller
@piratedan:
This country is overflowing with ignorant people.
Baud
@Hill Dweller:
Including Dems who don’t bother to vote!
karen
@piratedan:
It ended up being close because the ads towards the end were focussing on Obamacare, not sodomy. If we’d had another week of that, the results might have been different.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Felonius Monk: I read that earlier today at Wonkette, but I just now got the joke. Perfect!
Cacti
@piratedan:
Off year election.
Total votes with 95% of precincts reporting is 1,986,251.
In 2012, Obama won 1,971,820 votes by himself.
karen
Thank goodness McAuliffe won because I’m sure if Cucci won, women would have lost the right to vote like in Texas and North Carolina. But because women can still vote,McAuliffe won. He’s no prize. But he’s no Christian Taliban either.
mai naem
Ugh, the Repub’s still leading the Dem by 2 percent in the AG.
Anoniminous
@Cacti:
Off-off year elections are notorious for low voter turnout.
Llelldorin
@piratedan:
Remember, the Republicans have cornered the market on the crazy, terrified segment among the elderly.
Those folks always vote, in every election, right down to dogcatcher.
Cacti
Herring has cut it down to about 21k votes in the AG race.
Are there enough votes still out there for him to catch up?
Belafon
@piratedan: VA is also bucking a trend: The Governor has gone to the party not in the White House for a while. McAuliffe winning this changes that.
BudP
now what’s VA gonna do w/ 250,000 transvag probes it no longer needs?
Kay
We won our school bond referendum by about 600 votes :)
Llelldorin
@Kay:
CONGRATS!!!
Hill Dweller
@Kay: Congratulations
Baud
@Kay:
Congrats! You made a real difference.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
Holee Shit, the whole Christie Family needs a lap band.
Anoniminous
@Kay:
Whoo, whoo!
Good news.
Gordon, the Big Express Engine
Chris Christie just said he is the luckiest guy in the world. I guess since Lou Gehrig is dead…
Tokyokie
@Kay: Congratulations, Kay!
JMG
@Kay: Good for you! Congratulations. This suburbanite knows bond issues aren’t easy to pass.
gbear
Yay Kay. That has to feel good.
Elizabelle
@Kay:
All right! Congratulations!
Now let’s hope the Republicans forget everything you taught them about door to door and appealing to voters.
Gordon, the Big Express Engine
@Belafon: Loan them to Texas…
James E. Powell
@mai naem:
Ugh, the Repub’s still leading the Dem by 2 percent in the AG.
That probably represents the baseline vote for this off-year election. A non-wingnut Republican would have won by that same margin.
Jacks mom
Yes Weld County you ( & those other rebel without a cause counties). have all of the resources you need to be another red state. The ignorance, the guns and I’m sure god is on your side. What is your point? You don’t believe in living in society so what does it matter if your name is Colorado or North Colorado? Oh yeah…freedumb!
Elizabelle
@Cacti:
There are over 114,000 absentee in person (early voting) ballots.
Wonder when they get counted?
Maybe they could help. Fingers crossed.
Elizabelle
Chris Christie lecturing us on showing people respect.
Uh huh.
Hill Dweller
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
Christie’s wife creeps me out, and it has nothing to do with her physical appearance. The picture of her smiling while her husband berated a teacher just reinforced the creepiness.
Karmus
@Kay: Congrats! Well done.
Elizabelle
@Hill Dweller:
She and Mrs. Ted Cruz are both investment bankers.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Hill Dweller: She’s “Pennsylvania Pretty”.
? Martin
@Kay:
Congrats, Kay. You’re definitely one of the good ones.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Elizabelle: Good to hear Cinderella’s sisters turned out okay.
Cacti
Spread in the VA AG race down to 18k votes. 50 precincts outstanding.
PsiFighter37
Herring down 18k votes with only 50 precincts left. Unless there are a shitload of absentees and early votes not yet included in the total, I think Herring is toast.
Democratic turnout has got to be better than this in off years. The fact that we can’t even beat a certifiable nutjob like Cooch by more than 2% is pathetic. I know T-Mac sucks as a candidate, but I don’t get the impression we would’ve won by more if, say, Northam was running at the top of the ticket instead.
Hill Dweller
I’m going on record and predicting Christie will block the medicaid expansion next year. He refused to support permanently expanding it, choosing instead to make it a one year expansion(2013).
Suffern ACE
@karen: voters have very short memories. And I believe those memories are getting shorter.
KG
@Kay: well done.
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: I’ve heard it said that obesity is hereditary. Not genetic (necessarily), but more socially. If your parents are obese, then you’ll tend to be obese. Which makes sense, hard to tell the kid that they can’t have the bacon cheeseburger, fries, and third coke when you’re having the double bacon cheeseburger, cheese fries, and are on your fifth coke.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
Shorter Christie: “Me me me me me me me me me I mean we me me me me me me me me me Did I say we me me me me”
Kay
@Llelldorin:
It was really a lot of fun.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Hill Dweller: He’s going to have to do a whole lot of crazy shit (by NJ standards) between now and then to secure the Clown Car Party nomination for President.
Elizabelle
Oh boy, Christie differentiating between a mission and a job.
Cuz I guess he can serve New Jerseyans just as well in his mission to become president by not sticking just with this job.
scav
@Kay: Yes!
Violet
@Kay: That’s excellent news!
PsiFighter37
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: I just can’t believe what short memories Jerseyans have. This guy has been busy fucking over teachers and unions, raiding green funds the state had set up to ‘balance’ the budget, and killed the ARC project to alleviate the really shitty congestion for Amtrak and NJ Transit (which has only 2 fucking rail lines going underneath the river to Penn Station). Big public transit items take for-fucking-ever to get done around here (the Second Avenue Subway was a goddamn pipe dream for nearly 80 years before they finally started building something)…and Christie crushed that for no good reason at all.
Just another reason for this New Yorker to hate on the next-door neighbors across the Hudson.
Anoniminous
@PsiFighter37:
GOTV operation in every precinct are critical and absolutely vital in Dem leaning/solid precincts. It doesn’t matter what the damn polling is if you can’t bank the votes!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@karen: Also, IIANM, Macauliffe finished where polls said he would. I’m guessing the Cooch brought in some fence sitters and people who were thinking about the libertarian
BillinGlendaleCA
Watching Christie’s speech:
He’s a noun, a verb and Oct. 29th.
He’s on a MISSION, expect the MISSION ACCOMPLISHED speech on or about 1/1/2015.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@KG: I wouldn’t wanna be the one standing between that family and an all you can eat buffet.
Honus
@PsiFighter37: That’s because terry is a real democrat who ran a good race. By far the most liberal candidate for governor of Virginia in the last 50 years.
JPL
@Kay: I’ve lived in GA for twenty-five years and my first friend and former neighbor was and is a Republican. Recently we were talking about the days when we both moved to the state and increase in taxes for schools were a given. Shortly after we moved here there was a mall shooting and increase in gun regulation was a given. Maybe we can get back to those days. Congrats
MaryRC
@Kay: Congratulations.
Lurking Canadian
Now that de Blasio’s victory is official, do we start the show trials right away, or do we give the bourgeoisie a chance to gain a proper proletarian consciousness before we line ’em up against a wall?
Cacti
It warmed my heart to see how pissed off Chuck Toad was when they called it for McAuliffe.
Micheline
You can thank the messed up roll-out of Obamacare for Terry McAuliffe’s narrow win. This really makes me mad because the messed up roll-out was needless. The roll-out reminds me of the first debate where Obama’s crappy performance made the race competitive whereas before the debate Romney was a dead man walking.
Anne Laurie
@Kay: Congratulations!
Hill Dweller
The Twitter machine tells me Cuccinelli is winning Independents by nearly 10 points.
Trapped inSC
This dude won’t even make it through my state, let alone be standing in 2016 to absorb the world-class ass whipping from Hillary Clinton.
Shorter Chris Christie: Me, Me, New Jersey, Freedom, Sandy, Mission, Jazz Hands!, my dead mom, annnnd scene!
Anya
At least New Jersey voters did something right by overruling the fat bastard’s veto and voted to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.25.
@Kay: Congratulations for winning one for the good guys.
Anoniminous
Interesting. Fairfax county looks to be about 10% of the total vote and was 14% in the 2012 election. Investment in the local party and GOTV would pay real dividends in 2014.
Redshirt
@Lurking Canadian: Tumbrels for all!
rikyrah
Think about the size of McAuliffe’s win if they hadn’t of purged all those Democratic voters last week
PsiFighter37
@Hill Dweller: ‘Independents’ is by and large a code word for ‘Republicans who are too fucking cowardly to call themselves Republicans’.
All the polls I’ve seen indicate to me that ‘independents’ have a conservative bias. You want to know what your middle-of-the-road, wishy-washy voter really feels like, you look at ‘moderates’. And I think T-Mac won those in the exit polls.
pseudonymous in nc
de Blasio at 73% right now. Only 9% of precincts, so let’s see if Lhota personally, or Lhota and others can hit the magic 27% at the end.
Elizabelle
Cuccinelli conceding on local NoVA station.
He looks windburned.
His family much calmer than Santorum’s, although I can only see a few of them.
CaseyL
@Kay: Yay, Kay! It’s great to see that all your effort paid off. 600 votes out of how many?
rikyrah
@Kay:
yeah Kay!!!
congrats!!
eemom
Yay that Cooch is down, of course…..but omfg I can’t STAND how fucked up this AG race is.
This man called for miscarriages to be reported to the police. How fucking IGNORANT can people fucking be?
Elizabelle
Cooch has a very red face. His family does not. They’re composed and ivory complexions.
Cuccinelli is burning with GOP fever? Who knows.
Chyron HR
@Micheline:
So which of Obama’s failures would you say is more damning: His win over Romney, or Terry Mac’s win tonight?
PsiFighter37
Obenshain now up by 22k votes, only 38 precincts left.
Anyone here know if the absentees/early votes are counted first, or if there’s a boatload of those outstanding? To me, that’s the only way Herring has a prayer at this point.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Micheline: We need a PUMA scat clean up in Aisle 67. Clean up in Aisle 67.
? Martin
@eemom: Someone should tell him it’d be more reliable to have law enforcement monitor everyones menstrual cycle. Lojack tampons would be a hell of a startup opportunity.
Belafon
@Anoniminous: I wish someone could come up with a Democratic GOTV campaign that somehow registered with Democratic voters that they should vote in every election. Why doesn’t “vote because your life depends on it” work?
rikyrah
@blackamazon
#solidarityisforwhitewomen when your all white leadership STILL can’t get white women to vote for reproductive justice.
Anoniminous
@eemom:
Plentifully ignorant.
More important they are apathetic and disengaged. Looks like the Virginia voter turnout is going to ~35% compared to the 66.4% in 2012.
rikyrah
@laurenarankin
FYI, it wasn’t white women who defeated Cuccinelli in Virginia. It was black men and women. #VAGov http://www.nytimes.com/project… …
Rheinhard
As a NJ voter, while Christie’s win is disappointing (while not unexpected — Barbara Buono ran a largely invisible campaign), one bright spot is the overwhelming victory of the ballot initiative to raise the NJ minimum wage to $8.25, with annual cost of living increases. This effectively overrides fatass’ veto of the bill passed by the NJ legislature, thanks to wage increase supporters getting it on the state ballot.
hildebrand
Someone explain to me how the LG race in VA was such a blowout, and the Gov race was so close.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I caught that earlier. That is definitely not a “Republican” victory, moderate or conservative. And it looks like a lot of good people fell for Christie’s schtick. Definitely a silver lining, nonetheless.
Micheline
@Chyron HR: I am happy that TMac won but lets be honest the margin shouldn’t have been close. Two weeks prior to today, Cuccinelli bombarded the local media with anti-Obamacare ads that may have shifted the race to Cuccinelli. Obamacare is still a political loser and the roll-out made it even more so.
rikyrah
DeBlasio’s giving this speech from Brooklyn….not Manhattan..yeah..
PsiFighter37
@hildebrand: EW Jackson was even crazier than Cooch.
I think most of us are puzzled as to how Terry Mac managed to only win this by 1.5% in the end, when the polling averages were showing a 6-7% victory. If that had been the case, Herring wins by 2-3% easy. Instead, he’s going to end up losing by 1% (or slightly less).
Not the end of the world, but that fucking blows. Winning AG would’ve shut the GOP out of any statewide elected office in VA for the first time in who knows how long.
Cacti
@hildebrand:
The racial category of the respective Republican candidates.
cmorenc
@piratedan:
Query how much the purge of voter rolls in the weeks immediately before the election that vastly targeted alleged invalid democratic registrations contributed to shrinking McAuliffe’s margin from what it would have been. I understand the total purge was on the order of 400k; even assuming a sizeable portion of these purges were indeed on proper factual grounds (duplicates, deceased, moved out of state, etc)..and some of the voters improperly purged wouldn’t have turned out anyway, that still probably leaves on the order of several tens of thousands of voters who are to a vastly disproportionate extent, democratic voters. Wanna guess a largely disproportionate number of the purged happend also to be minorities?
Hill Dweller
@hildebrand:
The Republican candidate was crazy and black.
TriassicSands
I was born in Virginia, but family legend has it that the second I discovered I was south of the Mason-Dixon line I started crawling north. However I got out of VA, I’m glad I did.
Today, it seems that both condolences and congratulations are in order for Virginians.
Congratulations on not electing Cuccinelli.
My condolences on the election of McAuliffe. It’s not like you had a choice…
rikyrah
There are 400,000 working poor in Virginia who now can see the bridge to healthcare access with this election
jharp
@Hill Dweller:
A very good point.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah:
That was my big issue. Medicaid expansion, and Virginia getting its own healthcare exchange.
Anoniminous
@Belafon:
I don’t have the answer. It’s been driving me crazy since 1966. I worked on a campaign in 1972 when we went door to door three times to get people to the polls. And they promised they would. And they didn’t. And we lost.
At least McAufille and Northam won.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Kay: Many congratulations; I know it was a slog. Good work.
PsiFighter37
Looks like Herring is down 15.5k votes with 28 precincts. I think that’s within margin that he could request a recount, but it a recount ain’t going to change shit unless the margin is in the ‘hundreds of votes’ category, not the ‘tens of thousands’ category.
Anya
@Micheline: I can see a Virginia voter going to the polls saying: I would’ve voted for Terry Mac because of Cuccinelli’s extremism but boy the website glitches bother me even more.
pseudonymous in nc
@hildebrand:
If you look at the map at vpap.org, the counties that flipped entirely seem to be in central and eastern VA, but even the reddest counties had some ticket-splitting.
EW Jackson is a nutjob’s nutjob.
rikyrah
@DavidCornDC
Exit polls show VA race is not about Obama but about the shutdown, women, abortion, and the changing electorate. Bad news for GOP.
David Koch
Herring down only 15K with 99%
There’s supposedly 114K outstanding provisional ballots. This might come down to a hand full of votes.
Kay
@Violet:
It is. We had this system where we ID’ed the “yes” voters on the east side (which is lower income so lower turnout) and then went back to all of them today – about 500 voters. The canvass sheets were coming back with rows of addresses lined-thru (they voted) so I should have been confident but I wasn’t. But it really was like ALL the “yes” voters voted.
You have these funny conversations, where you say “did you vote?” and they say “no, but I will!” and you’re thinking “it’s 6 o clock. When were you planning on going?”
Micheline
@Anya: The website reinforces the idea that Obama is incompetent, which is not true, but unfortunately a lot of people have that belief.
Soonergrunt
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Which is a pretty accurate ‘shorter’ for his 2012 RNC speech. If you didn’t already know that Mitt Romney was the party’s candidate, Christie’s speech wouldn’t have let you in on the fact.
Gin & Tonic
@hildebrand: There was a Libertarian in the Gov’s race siphoning off about 7%.
mai naem
Looking at the numbers. Herring actually got more votes than Terry Mac. Its the Libertarian who’s helping out Terry Mac. The Dems should have ratfucked Obershein by getting a Libertarian to run in the AG race.
Pink Snapdragon
@Baud: Actually, voter turnout in Fairfax County was significantly higher than the last gubernatorial election. In the Braddock district where I live it was apparently close to 50%.
mai naem
@Kay: Congrats Kay. I think school elections are always tought nowadays.
eemom
@TriassicSands:
Go fuck yourself.
No really — I insist.
kthxbai.
Valdivia
@PsiFighter37:
according to Blumenthal from pollster the dem might actually win. but I saw that about an hour ago. He said the outstanding numbers would push him over.
JPL
@eemom: ugh.. really…Can you please say something he won’t enjoy.
Anya
@Micheline: And a large chunck believe he was born in Kenya. I wonder why?
mai naem
I wonder what the recount rules are in VA. The AG race is down to <0.5 %
Mike with a Mic
@rikyrah:
The vast majority of the population is in NOVA. Hell Fairfax County is the most populated county in the country IIRC, it’s massive. The are like 200,000+ federal employees in Fairfax. That’s not even counting uniformed military types and the metric ton of contractors here because of the Pentagon and CIA. Shit like the sequester, especially defense more than anything, and the government shutdown are huge issues.
VA elections are always “oh shit the GOP is over performing, wait NOVA isn’t in yet” and then NOVA decides for the state. Given our proximity to DC and make up, we know who is fucking with our paychecks and economy.
Another Holocene Human
@rikyrah: FYIGM is the white person’s rallying cry
fuck you, single women!
fuck you, widows!
fuck you, victims of domestic violence!
I’m married! I have excellent health coverage! I got mine!
Kay
@Valdivia:
Good.
Also, I’m never reading another VA election thread here :)
Too panicky.
Another Holocene Human
@hildebrand:
RACE.
Mike in NC
One WaPo headline predictably claimed T-Mac “eked out a narrow victory” so they can spend the next 72 hours trumpeting how this is good new for conservatives.
Hill Dweller
@Micheline:
The website became much more difficult when 36 states(overwhelmingly Republican controlled) refused to create their own exchanges. Consequently, WH.gov, which was originally supposed to just be a portal of sorts, had to become a much bigger project. But there wasn’t enough money allocated for a project that big, resulting in a fragmented process done on the cheap.
If the Beltway had been reporting on Republican sabotage at the state level for the last couple of years, this website issue would have been much more understandable.
Pink Snapdragon
@Elizabelle: I am not certain, but I believe the early voting ballots are already included in the results posted for fairfax county. If you look at the Fairfax County Elections website, early in person votes appear to be included in the tallies, but I didn’t see any reference to absentee ballots, so they may not be included.
Holy smokes! I just heard on the local news that exit polling shows that single women voted for T-Mac by 67% to 25%.
mai naem
@Mike with a Mic: I know Fairfax County is not all NOVA but Fairfax is all counted according to the Wash Post website.
Micheline
@Anya: Yeah that’s a mystery to me, (Snark).
Anya
Nmax headline: Christie Still at War with GOP Base, Despite Win
magurakurin
@Mike in NC: Cuccinelli himself is trumpeting what a good thing it is for conservatives
they are delusional. So, this election was a referendum on Obamacare, and you lost, but that means the people don’t want Obamacare. But the 2012 election wasn’t a referendum on Obamacare even though it was a major issue and even if it was, Obama’s winning doesn’t mean people want it, it means they don’t want it.
it takes a special kind of crazy.
Another Holocene Human
@Elizabelle: Why does Chuck Todd hate the working poor?
Valdivia
@Kay:
That’s what I seemed to grasp from the twitter about the VA numbers. Hopefully I had it right.
@Mike in NC: with nary a mention of the voter purge!
J.D. Rhoades
@pseudonymous in nc:
I haven’t seen much of Lhota down heah in the South, but what I have seen caused me to comment that “if there’s such a thing as ‘anti-charisma’ this sumbitch has it.”
Kay
@Mike in NC:
I knew they would regardless of the results but they’ll overplay Christie and have another wild mood swing in ….about 3 weeks.
Do people even win VA by huge margins, statewide? Is it usually 5 points?
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@rikyrah:
Sadly, it’s my generation (Generation X) that’s fucking things up. White women under 40 are much, much more likely to vote for social justice than white women over 40. It’s embarrassing, frankly.
Valdivia
AG VA
@yeselson 1m
Herring just 1300 votes behind Obenshain in VA AG’s race with mostly African American Dem counties left to report.
Anoniminous
What happened? Obershain is only leading by ~1,300 votes.
mai naem
Wow, AG down to 1500 votes but I see quite a few red counties with outstanding ballots on the Post website.
PsiFighter37
@magurakurin: Anything that will keep him warm at night and not sobbing like the sore loser baby that he is.
As for Herring – down less than 12k with 14 precincts out. It seems (from anecdotal comments at GOS) that there are substantial number of absentees to count that aren’t included, so this probably won’t end up being called tonight unless they are counting them fast.
guachi
AP currently, as of 11:15 pm, has Herring down by 1,300 and the Virginia Board of Elections website has him trailing by 7,000.
Keeping my fingers crossed.
Micheline
@Hill Dweller: I completely agree. I believe that website issue can be fixed and that it will no longer be used as a cudgel to beat Obama with. The thing is that Obama is judged by a different standard that he has no room for error. The first debate performance wasn’t as bad as many had proclaimed it to be but what it did was reinforced the idea the he is an empty suit. Look
Valdivia
@Kay:
I remember last year Obama had only a 2% win there but it turned into 4% in the days after. I think McDonnell won by a sizable margin in 2009 no?
Also, too: congrats on your local win!
mai naem
@J.D. Rhoades: I bet the headlines aren’t going to be about DeBlasio’s blowout percentage.
Another Holocene Human
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): I thought GenX just didn’t vote, yo. That’s letting the politicians win. Don’t encourage them. /slacker dude bro
I had exactly this argument at the comic book shop… you know, back when there was a comic book shop, and we all kept onions in our Doc Martens, which was the fashion at the time….
I told the numbnuts that if you don’t vote the pols will assume you’re happy with their leadership and to keep it up. It’s true but it was not persuasive that day.
JPL
Chris Matthews is mas tur ba ting over Christie’s win. There is no mention of De Blassio or even Walsh in Boston.
I don’t mean to forget Terry’s big win in VA but the other two were real progressives.
Another Holocene Human
This is for Tom and his weird thread earlier:
geekosystem fat cat art
max
@magurakurin: they are delusional. So, this election was a referendum on Obamacare, and you lost, but that means the people don’t want Obamacare. But the 2012 election wasn’t a referendum on Obamacare even though it was a major issue and even if it was, Obama’s winning doesn’t mean people want it, it means they don’t want it.
Shorter Cuccinelli: I wasn’t conservative enough to win.
max
[‘Truly a man willing to sacrifice himself for the good of the
SovietAmerican people.’]Anya
@Another Holocene Human: I hate to be shallow but I could never pay attention to anything Chuck Todd says because he always looks like someone who doesn’t bathe for weeks.
Valdivia
@JPL:
it’s going to be Christie’s America until the GOP primaries begin for 2016. He is a leader of the Village variety don’t you know?
Cassidy
I don’t like Amanda Palmer’s singing.
JPL
@mai naem: Lhota doesn’t even have the magic number yet…. He’s still at 24.5
guachi
11:20 PM – AP has Herring trailing by 1,200 after an update. VA BoE still at 7,000 with the vote totals unchanged.
The BoE has lower vote totals than the AP does, by the way.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: Congrats. I know how much work went into the effort. I am glad you succeeded.
Anoniminous
VA AG race may not be decided for a while and looks like it’s going to a recount.
Night all, it’s been fun.
David Koch
JPL
@David Koch: Good..
PsiFighter37
@David Koch: Please make it so. If we make it to a recount ahead, I’m pretty sure we win. I can’t recall the last time there was a close D v. R race that flipped to the GOP side.
Another Holocene Human
@JPL: Gosh I hope so. Boston City Council sucks so I’m hoping the right man won. I can’t stand the fucking Boston Teamsters, though, and just remember that Boston unions were backing LYNCH the anti-woman, anti-paying-his-own-personal-student-loans-fuvm-you-peons ASSHAT.
Is Chuck still in prison on trumped up charges? What kind of shit is that, anyway? Too bad about Felix Arroyo. Better luck next time, I guess.
I like what Walsh said about shared prosperity or whatever it was that he said. Hope he means it.
Suffern ACE
@Anya: or saying “thanks to Cunicelli we won’t have to worry about this Obamacare disaster here in my state.” You know it’s web glitches, but its being reported that the whole thing blows.
David Koch
rikyrah
Anya
@David Koch: Great news!
Mike with a Mic
@max:
They’ll revert to blaming the libertarian and those commie pinkos in NOVA who work for the DOD or FEDS and got pissy over the shutdown. Then they’ll look at the map which is mostly red with a few blue areas and piss and moan that the commies up in NOVA get to decide everything even though the map is mostly red.
They will never accept that running a campaign of banning birth control and sodomy while cheering on a shutdown that is crippling the most populous area of the state that happens to pay for all the rest of their sorry asses is not a viable political platform.
Another Holocene Human
@Anya: lol his hair is kinda strange for a teevee personality, but I don’t have to watch him; all I need to know I get here on B-J
Kay
@David Koch:
Yay. The minute he wins, be like Republicans. Start crowing about the shellacking and the clean sweep. They’d already be doing it.
Another Holocene Human
@Cassidy: I don’t like Amanda Palmer’s poetry.
Suffern ACE
@Valdivia: he’s the loudmouth Mitch Daniels with a few more scruples.
Valdivia
@rikyrah:
thanks for posting this. Very important. MaC won married women by an ok margin, but single women by a huge one.
Another Holocene Human
@Mike with a Mic: I read a couple of years ago that the birth control issue is what turned a lot of the solid Republican north blue, especially states like WA and OR.
I surmise that the ones that are left, like Mormon- (and spud-) heavy ID, considered the socon agenda to be a feature, not a bug.
Wag
Here in Colorado we are voting 2 to 1 in favor of raising income taxes to support public education, 2:1 in favor of raising an excise tax on our newly legal recreational marihuana, and the neo-secessionalists in North Colorado are being defeated 58% to 42%.
All in all a pretty good showing for sanity in my favorite State.
KG
Alabama special election went to the establishment guy rather than the Teahadis. And Redstate has apparently declared war on GOProud (again?) over the Virginia gubernatorial race, I think
PsiFighter37
@Wag: Funny that the clowns pushing for secession are losing the vote in the very counties they live in.
Of course, they’ll claim that it wasn’t their problem (you know, because they can’t fail, they can only be failed, QED)…
R. Johnston
@Suffern ACE: Christie has fewer scruples than the Cooch, certainly fewer than Mitch Daniels. As U.S. Attorney he infamously stole tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars from the country by off-the-charts overbilling for hotels and dining. The man never met a dollar he wouldn’t steal if it weren’t glued down.
Valdivia
@Suffern ACE:
I totally see that. I was going to say less scruples and not even a passing affect of being a wonk which was the thing the Village ‘loved’ about Daniels. He is, as you say, the designated GOP crush of the moment. Even if he had NO coattails. Not one (maybe only one) of the people he campaigned for in Jersey won his race in the legislature.
I love how no one mentions either the fact that Christie says he can govern because the Dems in the state are not irresponsible nihilist assholes. It’s not that he is good at divided government, it is that dems care about governing. Too difficult for pundits to make that point right?
PsiFighter37
@KG: At what point can we start comparing Redstate to FDL? They’re basically serving the same purpose within their respective political party…
Anyways, will be interesting to see if this is the beginning of a trend or an anomaly. I’m all down for the Chamber and the rest of those losers burning their cash on GOP primaries…it would be even better if Freedomworks, the Koch brothers, etc. decide to fire back. Nothing like lighting a stack of Franklins on fire in pursuit of holy American Taliban jihad.
CaseyL
It’s amazing Herring closed the gap that much. Maybe the hopefuls at GOS were right – that would be great.
In Seattle, so far 522 is losing, which makes me mad because the anti-522 was funded mostly by food conglomerates. And Mayor McGinn is losing, which saddens me because he came into office very green and learned very fast – and I don’t want to have to go through that again with Murray.
Cassidy
@Another Holocene Human: I’m not really qualified to judge poetry; it all sounds the same to me. To each his own I guess. I was listening to the AV Club sessions on YouTube and I just don’t like her voice. It’s too fake. I do like Coin Operated Boy though.
Cassidy
@Cassidy: to each his own= person writing the poetry. I’m sure it sounded fine to them.
Ed in NJ
Not that it will be given the attention it deserves, but Christie’s attempt to flip the legislature by scheduling two elections and keeping Booker off the ballot failed miserably. No seats flipped, and the targeted incumbent Dems won very easily. No coattails at all.
For all the grief we get here in NJ, most people feel that a split government is most effective. So while many personally like Christie, they also realize he needs to be kept in check.
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia:
Rhetorical, yes?
rikyrah
@Kay:
I hear ya, Kay.
I hear ya
Anya
Yay! Dems take control of VA Senate.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@Kay: Excellent news! Congrats.
School funding measure here in Colorado (Amendment 66) going down ugly–33% pro to 66% against. Marijuana tax is passing. Dem candidates for Jeffco school board are losing. And as noted by PsyFighter above, the secession movement is losing, badly. Mwa ha ha. So mixed bag at best here in the Centennial State…
F
@PsiFighter37: What does FDL stand for?
Kay
Probably the best news:
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
mais oui!
rikyrah
@Anya:
Which means Medicaid expansion is that much closer, IMO
rikyrah
@Kay:
Kay,
good news from Iowa
trollhattan
@CaseyL:
I see SeaTac’s $15 minimum wage measure is ahead. Camel’s nose under the commie tent?
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/politicsnorthwest/2013/11/05/seatac-voters-will-decide-on-15-an-hour-minimum-wage/
NotMax
bellwethers
scav
@Kay: better yet! and it’s not like we always look to the Coralville strip for enlightenment. HA! Glad I was wrong in eeyore-ing that one.
Valdivia
I think I will wait until tomorrow to see where the AG race ends.
g’night y’all
KG
@PsiFighter37: I think the Freepers are a bit closer to FDL, but yeah, they’re going to burn a lot of cash on this fight, and it’s going to be entertaining as hell
max
Man, can’t get solid (or any!) connections to WaPo, NYT, AP or Huffington Post.
WaPo sort of suggests Herring down by 900 votes now.
max
[‘Nailbiter!’]
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Holocene Human: I don’t like what Amanda Palmer did with Kickstarter.
Elizabelle
@Kay:
That is marvelous! Good news.
Well done, citizens of Coralville, Iowa.
mai naem
@rikyrah: Do the Dems control the VA Senate only or the House as well?
CaseyL
@trollhattan: One can but hope :)
Mike with a Mic
@Another Holocene Human:
That’s actually a lot of what happened here in VA. It’s not the economic stances or militarism that’s bad. Given the insanely high income level (3 of the five richest counties including the top 2 in the entire US) that’s largely based off defense industry cash. But the population is thus well educated and well off, so the social issues don’t fly at all, nor do calls for cutting spending and lobbying.
But every one of these old Republican areas on the East Coast are like that. The Republicans just became more and more backwards ass and idiotic about actually running the government.
Railing against abortion and birth control while threatening to default on the debt might fly in the South. But once you hit NOVA all up the East coast things change. They don’t want to vote you into office, they want to medicate you and throw you in the psychward.
PsiFighter37
@mai naem: They only control it (nominally) because Northam will break the 20-20 tie that currently exists.
There is a wildcard though – Herring comes from a much tougher seat to defend than Northam (they are both state senators), so if we end up winning the AG race, we could potentially lose control of the state Senate in the special elections.
IMO whether or not Medicaid expansion gets passed will have to be through executive action – no way we’re getting it through a VA Assembly that has a 2-1 GOP advantage.
mai naem
This has to suck for whoever loses the AG race. If I was a candidate I would much rather lose by a decent margin than a super tight margin because then you are always thinking about the one event you didn’t make it to or the extra street you didn’t go down because you were just too swamped with other stuff to do.
Geoduck
@CaseyL:
Yeah, 522 failing is a pity, but considering how much money and ad-time was thrown against it, it’s not surprising. Eyman’s latest initiative also went down in flames, which is always nice to see; maybe one of these days he’ll just go away.
Mister Papercut
@mai naem:
Republicans control the House of Delegates (by a wide margin). The Senate is evenly split, but the Lieutenant Governor is the tie-breaker.
Anya
Cuccinelli purged over 40,000 voters in this election alone. How is this legal? Maybe we need to focus on that instead of spreading anti-Obamacare meme/
Kay
@scav:
Don’t you think people hate that, though? Parachuting in? I love that AFP believe people will just adore being the “test case” for their latest national scheme. It’s so crazily patronizing, for one thing. “Here, yokels, let us handle your finances.”
mai naem
@PsiFighter37: Did Herring resign from his job to run? Is it an appointment by the governor or a special election? and is the appointment by the new governor or the old governor?
Anya
@rikyrah: depends on how well we do on the Assembly. Not sure how that went.
Omnes Omnibus
@mai naem: I have a friend from law school who failed the Ohio Bar by 2 points. At the time, if you failed by one point, your exam got a relook and usually that one point was “found.” He said he would rather have just completely fucked it up than have missed by a frog hair.
rikyrah
SheriffFruitfly @sherifffruitfly
everyone who says “women won it for McAuliffe” is lying. BLACK women did it. white women voted for cuccinelli.
10:35 PM – 5 Nov 2013
PsiFighter37
Ugh, the goddamn ca$ino initiative passed in NY. For all the talk about how it creates jobs, it’s just a regressive tax by another name (same goes for the lottery).
People in NYC are not going to go upstate to gamble…they are either going to Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods in CT, or to Atlantic City. No one I know would go to the Southern Tier over those options (particularly the latter).
Anya
Good night and good luck!
rikyrah
V. Hussein Savage @Kennymack1971
So Black voters, particularly Black women came through in VA…Dems remember that when the MSM starts advising you to “distance” from PBO.
10:26 PM – 5 Nov 2013
PsiFighter37
@mai naem: He didn’t, but if he becomes AG, he’ll have to resign his State Senate seat.
Suzanne
So the school bonds passed in the elementary and high school districts in which I live. However, Scottsdale (which is the snooty part of Phoenix) shot down ALL of their bonds. Mr. Suzanne teaches in the one crappy neighborhood in Scottsdale, in a sixty-year-old crumbling facility that resembles a Chinese prison. He hasn’t had a raise in five years because these assholes think their teachers get paid too much.
Mike in NC
@Anya: Every little bit helps. Hopefully this will happen in NC in 2014.
rikyrah
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
Democratic party should be grateful for Black voters. If it were up to whites, they’d be screwed (h/t @Smartypants60)
10:22 PM – 5 Nov 2013
rikyrah
Michael Hargrove @MichaelHargrov1
So can we officially put to rest the notice that African-Americans only turnout in large numbers for African-American candidates.
9:07 PM – 5 Nov 2013
rikyrah
Allan Brauer @allanbrauer
Texans, if you want Wendy Davis to win, you need to concentrate on connecting with women of color. It’s your only path to victory.
10:46 PM – 5 Nov 2013
diana
apropos of nothing, I would like to point out that this map of NYC republican voters:
http://www.nytimes.com/projects/elections/2013/general/nyc-mayor/map.html
more or less perfectly matches the NYC map of places that got devastated by Sandy and not adequately rebuilt, compensated, what have you: Breezy Point, the Rockaways, Staten Island.
Because, seriously, if these are the fools who deny climate change, why can’t we just leave them to the winds and tides they are so willing to ignore?
/rant off
nastybrutishntall
@Another Holocene Human: She was a pretty terrible girlfriend too, for what it’s worth. But that was long ago. I’m sure she’s gotten better at it.
rikyrah
Smarty Pants @Smartypants60
Let this one sink in for a moment…Cooch beat TMac by 16 points with white women.
10:48 PM – 5 Nov 2013
Anya
@rikyrah: White people — voting against their own interests since 1964.
Mike with a Mic
@rikyrah:
Of that though he only won among married what women IIRC. Single white women did not vote for him. Most married white women are older as well.
scav
@Kay: There’s has to be a strong anti-carpet bagging you’re-not-the-boss-of-me reflex everywhere, but, actually, Coralville might be even a weirder mix of competing elements than Iowa City. Granted, my ins on that side of the river are limited and unusually heavy on the non-student immigrant side, so I’m now very unsure about my read on it. I may have over-compensated for my personally weird sample, but o! that strip and the suburbs. . . Good for Iowans.
Elizabelle
@Suzanne:
That’s appalling, Scottsdale.
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: Just remember though that a shitload of white people know how to vote the correct way. White people are over 70% of the population so 40% percent of us is a bunch of people. OTOH, 60% is even more and fucking embarrassing.
PsiFighter37
Ugh, the goddamn ca$ino initiative passed in NY. For all the talk about how it creates jobs, it’s just a regressive tax by another name (same goes for the lottery).
People in NYC are not going to go upstate to gamble…they are either going to Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods in CT, or to Atlantic City. No one I know would go to the Southern Tier over those options (particularly the latter).
Mr Stagger Lee
@CaseyL: What was funny about the anti 522 commercials was the accusation that “out of state interests “were pushing this initiative, then you get the list of people opposed to 522, and top of the list was Monsanto(maybe located in Omak?) Dow Chemical(probably in Sequim) DuPont(yeah in Puyallup, I guess) and Bayer(somewhere operating in a backyard barn in Cle Ellem)
Ash Can
@rikyrah: I can’t get over that. WTFuckingHELL is wrong with my fellow white women? Are they all suicide bombers for whiteness? Seriously, W. T. F.
Suffern ACE
Well it looks like my county is going with Republican county leadership for awhile. I think there’s a 2-1 dem registration advantage, but you build a stadium that the voters told you in a referendum that they didn’t want, refuse an audit, get a poor rating in your financial reporting and have the Justice Department show up and take away a few file cabinets, there’s bound to be a little backlash against your party.
PeakVT
Shame about the blowout in NJ. Somebody please sew Tweety’s mouth shut so we don’t have to hear him fellating Christie for the next two years.
Warren
I like Amanda Palmer’s jugs and the fact that she used to like to show them a lot in the Dresden Dolls days.
I don’t like anything else about her.
Omnes Omnibus
@PeakVT: Honestly, that is an image I didn’t need.
Elizabelle
From WaPost:
Herring not conceding AG race
Less than 800 votes.
Another Holocene Human
@rikyrah: Too true. Lord knows I’m grateful.
I had a lot of trouble talking to white voters in 2012. Too many angry Republicans and far left purity trolls and self-taught geniuses who think it’s best to flip parties every couple of years lest the current ruling party get uppity and put on airs. #$*%ing nutjobs!
ETA: and that was on the OfA canvass route!!!
Stacy
One white 40 year old woman here who did not vote for Cooch. Come on Herring!
Suffern ACE
@PsiFighter37: if I didn’t know I was supposed to turn over my ballot to vote for the referenda, I would have missed them. None of the poll workers were reminding the voters.
I hope we didn’t vote to sell the land trust to the frackers.
PsiFighter37
Going to sleep. Don’t think we’ll get much more clarity out of VA-AG tonight, which is really the only race I’m interested in following right now. Would be nice to wake up to a Herring lead, but not going to get hopes up high yet…that said, he’s less than 800 votes back.
Good night overall. A few stinkers here and there, but outside of the Fat Asshole winning in a landslide (which was expected), the Dems did a pretty solid job. And given that Christie had absolutely zero coattails for the state legislature, I will take a clean VA sweep at the state offices happily.
David Koch
@Suffern ACE:which county?
Omnes Omnibus
@Warren: I like the whole Dresden Dolls thing. OTOH Brian Viglione stole the live show each time I saw them.
Suffern ACE
@David Koch: Rockland.
Another Holocene Human
@nastybrutishntall: No way, are you from Lexington? Our girl’s soccer team kicked your girl’s soccer team’s ass. Math team, too. In 1995.
PsiFighter37
@Suffern ACE: Currently set to pass if the margin holds (over 6% with 85% of the total vote in). I think the question regarding the land swap with private parties really made it confusing and helped out the mining companies here. And the environmental parties went yes on one, no on the other…too much nuance for most people, IMO.
If it holds, I’ll have had a pretty shitty night on the ballot measures (3 and 4 are the only ones where I voted the winning way so far). The veteran’s one was frankly a bit confusing and I voted no on it (as it sounded like disabled vets would get extra credit for service time…but the NYT description makes it sound otherwise).
kc
@Kay:
Kay, good for you!
Elizabelle
Loving it. TRMS.
Rachel calling the Washington Times a “pennysaver newspaper” and saying that if Rand Paul cannot handle a weekly column for it, plus being 1/100th of the Senate, and junior senator at that, maybe he shouldn’t be looking at the White House next.
pseudonymous in nc
80% in, in NYC: de Blasio: 73%. not de Blasio: 27%.
I think that number’s going to hold.
Another Holocene Human
@Elizabelle: It is. Then again, Scottsdale.
It is kinda fucking funny in a way, though, because hyper rich burbs have a rep for spending quite aggressively on themselves while fighting redistributive state taxes tooth and claw, but I guess these arrivistes must have grandchildren very, very far away.
I like how they won’t even pay for flood infrastructure improvements. Or fucken cops. Most greedy rich tools see the purpose of hiring cops to keep the beggars away.
eemom
@Stacy:
[second white, 151 year old woman raises hand]
Also too, I believe there may be more of us…..
Warren
@Omnes Omnibus: Brian is a shit-hot drummer. It is no coincidence that nothing Amanda has done since the Dolls split has been anywhere near as good: he carried that band.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Mrs Burns? Any stories about your torrid affair with President Taft?
LAC
@Micheline: what?
Suzanne
@Another Holocene Human: Compared to how rich Scottsdale is, the schools are not as good as you would think. A lot of the rich assholes send their kids to private and charter schools, and some of the schools are in miserable condition. Of course, the schools in north Scottsdale look like malls, whereas the schools in south Scottsdale look like shit.
Mr. Suzanne and I live in an area that is not as posh but is still very nice, but has one of the best districts in the city and lots of liberals. Not surprising that all the bonds in this district passed handily. We have good schools and will pay to keep them.
kc
@rikyrah:
Yeah, white women suck, don’t they?
Omnes Omnibus
@Warren: He is also a fantastic showman. Every time saw the Dresden Dolls live, I found myself watching him.
Suffern ACE
@PsiFighter37: well if they are going to build casinos, we have a minor league ballpark up here that could be torn down and replaced with a few craps tables far more profitably.
CarolDuhart2
@PsiFighter37: 800 votes sounds like recount territory to me. It could come down to those last-minute absentees or even under and overvotes and discards. It might not be called until late this week if there’s a recount.
But the Dems have done a solid job. While turnout can be improved, the fact that it wasn’t a steep dropoff is credited to the Dems who have re-learned the importance of shoe leather.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@eemom:
Sadly, we are the outliers. White women over 40 voted for Romney by, like, 56 percent.
At least we don’t have to be as embarrassed as the white dudes. Their demographic votes worse than ours does.
Steeplejack
@Mike with a Mic:
It’s not even in the top 30.
You need to tighten up your performance over the last few nights. It’s hard to tell whether you’re a troll or just a delusional blowhard.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@rikyrah: Someone better let TMac know. In his victory speech, he never mentioned black women but it may have just been a time issue, and he couldn’t work it in between 30 shout outs and thank yous to the Republicans who voted for him and gave him the win.
TooManyJens
@kc: If 54% of white women in VA voted for Cuccinelli then we kinda do suck. However, I believe the larger point is that just claiming “women won it for McAuliffe” implies a solidarity that isn’t really there — or at least, isn’t there nearly enough.
karen
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
You mean the Republicans who did ads for him? Apparently being against blow jobs is a vote killer.
Steeplejack
@F:
Fire Dog Lake.
handsmile
Back from a de Blasio victory party. A hardcore progressive has just been elected Mayor of the largest city in the US! Pretty fuckin’ sweet! Can’t quite believe what a landslide it was.
The latest figures from the NYC Board of Elections give Lhota <27%. So unlikable a candidate, he couldn't even get the "Crazification Factor." Not even in this town!
Suffern ACE: Ballot Proposal #5 – to turn over Adirondacks state forest land to a mining company – is being defeated at this point 51%-49%. The other land exchange proposal (#4), one supported by the League of Conservation Voters, is winning by more than 40%. Too bad about the ca$ino proposal winning. The TV ads for it were incredibly deceptive – "More money for Kids Education!" Bastards.
Tomorrow – oh, it's today already – I'll get up to speed on other election results. Quick scan so far, I'm surprised McAuliffe's victory margin was so narrow. And just how much lipstick can the Village put on that pig Christie?
ETA: Kudos and Congrats to Kay on the success of the school bond issue, and to Elizabelle for all her canvassing for WINNING DEMOCRATS! in Virginia!
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@karen: Yeah, Republican Will Sessoms solidly did not deliver Virginia Beach.
fuckwit
@handsmile: It’s the brown lipstick, and the Villagers love wearing that brown lipstick.
fuckwit
@Warren: I like her music. And the community financing she does with Kickstarter and her fan relationship. She writes well. She made out with the smokin-hot Stoya on camera. And she had the good sense to marry Neil Gaiman. So, yeah, there’s quite a bit for me to appreciate.
SarahT
@rikyrah: Yes yes yes ! Thank you for nailing it ! (Sorry so late but was “busy” celebrating DeBlasio & Tish James.)
Bjacques
@fuckwit: great live shows, takes chances, not all of which pan out, maybe. Who Killed Amanda Palmer still fantastic. The Kickstarter thing as a project she managed mostly well and is still delivering on the big premiums (private performances).
Not to everyone’s taste, but dunno why the hate. On Why We Protest (Anonymous forum) she was even accused of being a Scientologist.
Anyway, the Astrodome lost its referendum for funding to keep it as a monument and use it as an events center, dammit.
nevsky42
Herring’s up by 540 votes with only 2 precincts outstanding…
http://electionresults.virginia.gov/resultsSW.aspx?type=SWR&map=CTY
keestadoll
RE Colorado marijuana tax: Can anyone please explain to me how this will be levied? Will packs of 20 joints be sold at gas station convenience marts? Your standard plant can grow just fine in a pot on a deck or in the ground in a yard or in a house with grow lights. I live in the emerald triangle and the only real discussion on marijuana legalization we have around here is prison population reduction and dedicating more cop time to busting meth labs.