{"id":13537,"date":"2008-11-19T09:42:58","date_gmt":"2008-11-19T16:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/11\/19\/alaskas-senate-race.html"},"modified":"2008-11-19T09:42:58","modified_gmt":"2008-11-19T16:42:58","slug":"alaskas_senate_race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/19\/alaskas_senate_race.html","title":{"rendered":"Alaska&#8217;s Senate race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Electoral-vote.com gives <a href=\"http:\/\/www.electoral-vote.com\/evp2008\/Pres\/Maps\/Nov19.html\" target=\"_blank\">the latest on Alaska&#8217;s Senatorial election<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>First off, looks like Alaska and the Republicans won&#8217;t be embarrassed by a convicted felon being returned to office.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>With all but 2500 votes counted, Anchorage mayor Mark Begich (D) now has an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adn.com\/senateelection\/story\/593747.html\" target=\"_blank\">insurmountable lead<\/a> of 3724 votes over convicted Sen. Ted. Stevens (R-AK), ending Stevens career as the longest serving Republican senator in history. The remaining votes, which come from overseas voters and igloos so far north that they don&#8217;t have polling places, will be counted next week before the tally is finalized.<\/p>\n<p>Begich claimed victory yesterday evening; Stevens has not yet conceded. A recount is possible, but Alaska uses optical scan machines and previous recounts have not changed the results much. Begich&#8217;s victory brings the number of Democrats in the new Senate to 58, with races in Minnesota and Georgia still undecided.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The delta is high enough that if a recall is requested by Stevens, he&#8217;ll have to pay for it.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, Stevens may have been torpedoed by a third party candidate &#8212; Bob Bird, who ran for the Alaska Independence Party and got over 12,000 votes, presumably from Stevens. But there may be some chicken-and-egg here &#8212; did Stevens lose because Bird took his votes, or did folks disgusted with Stevens but unwilling to vote for a Democrat shift their vote &#8220;safely&#8221; to Bird in protest?<\/p>\n<p>An interesting note on Begich &#8212; he&#8217;ll be the only member of the Senate without a college degree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Electoral-vote.com gives the latest on Alaska&#8217;s Senatorial election. First off, looks like Alaska and the Republicans won&#8217;t be embarrassed by a convicted felon being returned to office. With all but&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2008"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8299,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/12\/21\/legislative_bla.html","url_meta":{"origin":13537,"position":0},"title":"&#8220;Legislative blackmail&#8221;","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 21-Dec-05 11:38am","format":false,"excerpt":"Playing political games with legislation to attach unpopular and unrelated items onto bills that are otherwise highly attractive (or politically dangerous to object to) is a bipartisan game, and none-the-less...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics &amp; Law&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics &amp; Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133973,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/27\/nice-state-be-a-shame-if-something-were-to-happen-to-it.html","url_meta":{"origin":13537,"position":1},"title":"&quot;Nice state. Be a shame if something were to happen to it.&quot;","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 27-Jul-17 9:56am","format":false,"excerpt":"Politics can be a rough business, but usually not quite so visibly, Soprano style rough. Senator Lisa Murkowski was a No on a Senate Health Insurance Reform vote, which drew the ire of Trump ... and more than just an angry tweet.\u275d Early Wednesday, Trump took to Twitter to express\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128302,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/14\/to-cure-climate-change-one-must-create-climate-change.html","url_meta":{"origin":13537,"position":2},"title":"To Cure Climate Change, One Must Create Climate Change","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 14-Oct-15 1:51am","format":false,"excerpt":"That is apparently the Governor of Alaska's Koan-of-the-Day, as he tells a reporter that climate change is causing major expenses to the state (such as sea-side villages being washed away), so Alaska needs to drill more oil in order to pay for it.Which is a huge heaping of cognitive dissonance\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12885,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/12\/lend_me_your_earmarks.html","url_meta":{"origin":13537,"position":3},"title":"Lend Me Your Earmarks","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 12-Sep-08 8:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Two things.\u00a0 First, earmarks are not necessarily an Evil Thing. A lot depends on what they are for (duh).\u00a0 Yes, the process by which earmarks are gathered (\"Let me...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Elections 2008&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/ear.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":133932,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/21\/the-senate-parliamentarian-says-the-senate-gop-health-bill-needs-60-votes-not-50.html","url_meta":{"origin":13537,"position":4},"title":"The Senate Parliamentarian says the Senate GOP health bill needs 60 votes, not 50","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 21-Jul-17 6:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Senate has an elaborate interlocking set of rules that dictate how and in what ways it conducts business and passes bills. For most legislation, for example, the Senate must vote to close debate on the bill. These cloture votes require a super-majority of the Senate -- 60 votes [1].\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133980,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/28\/tweetizen-trump-2017-07-28-but-failure-is-an-orphan.html","url_meta":{"origin":13537,"position":5},"title":"Tweetizen Trump &#8211; 2017-07-28: &quot;But failure is an orphan&quot;","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 28-Jul-17 8:38am","format":false,"excerpt":"As I suspect you will have a comment or two today, let's take a look at what you're tweeting, Donald.[Being a look at the @RealDonaldTrump Twitter account, with a glance at the @POTUS account, rearranged topically.]===So this isn't the strict order, but let's just go to the GOP Elephant in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Trump%2Bmeme%2Bada%2Blet%2Bit%2Ball%2Bburn.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Trump%2Bmeme%2Bada%2Blet%2Bit%2Ball%2Bburn.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Trump%2Bmeme%2Bada%2Blet%2Bit%2Ball%2Bburn.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}