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Subscribe to RSSNational Journal's Ron Brownstein on the Democrats' demographic hole: "So Democrats emerge from this week confronting a huge demographic hole: their meager performance among all white voters except women with college degrees (who tend to be both more socially liberal and more receptive to activist government). And they face a huge geographic hole: a collapse in the interior states, which tend to be whiter and older than the coastal states, with fewer college graduates. After the first red-blue map entered our consciousness following the 2000 presidential race, I wrote that it was possible to drive east for three days from San Francisco without crossing a county that voted Democratic; it is now possible to do the same thing with House districts. Still strong (if somewhat diminished) on the coasts, but routed in the heartland, Democrats look like a bridge with two pillars, but no span in between."
"Democrats don’t need to win most white voters or most interior states to compete. But they can’t get annihilated on those battlefields either, and that’s exactly what happened as the party stumbled to its historic collapse this week."
Roll Call breaks down the House race gains by region: In New England, New Hampshire is the only GOP bright spot; Dems lost a dozen seats in the Mid-Atlantic; the GOP made big gains in the South picking up 19 seats, and swept in much of the Midwest.
ALASKA: “Republican Senate hopeful Joe Miller of Alaska says incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski's ‘little victory speech’ may have been premature,” the AP writes. “In a taped interview aired Friday on NBC's ‘Today’ show, Miller said he's not ready to concede defeat in the closely watch contest… Initial returns show write-in ballots hold an edge of more than 13,000 votes over Miller. But it isn't yet clear how many of the write-in votes are for Murkowski.”
CONNECTICUT: “Democrat Dannel Malloy appears to have gained enough votes in Bridgeport to win the race for governor,” the Hartford Courant writes. “Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch announced the totals at a press conference around 6:20 a.m., after elections workers there tallied votes through the night. The Bridgeport vote went for Malloy, with 17,800 votes to Republican Tom Foley's 4,075 votes. That margin of 13,725 appears to be enough to overcome the 8,409-vote lead that Foley held before the Bridgeport votes were counted. If the numbers hold up, Malloy will have won the race by a margin of 5,316.”
WASHINGTON: “Sen. Patty Murray has won a fourth term, riding a wave of strong Democratic support in King County to defeat Republican challenger Dino Rossi,” The Seattle Times writes. “Rossi conceded at about 6 p.m., calling Murray to congratulate her, according to a statement released by his campaign.”
