Interpreting the election results tonight is going to be a complicated endeavor. I’m still looking at numbers as they come in. From a progressive point of view, the biggest victory appears to be in the Boston mayoral contest, where Martin Walsh pulled out a narrow victory. It isn’t necessarily a bigger deal than our giant victory in New York City, but we already knew that Bill de Blasio was going to win. Progressives can also celebrate mayoral wins in Charlotte, North Carolina and Toledo, Ohio.
The biggest disappointment may be in the Virginia Attorney General race, where Democrat Mark Herring is down by 1,500 votes with 99% reporting. Narrow losses in the Virginia House of Delegates were also a theme tonight, where numerous candidates are losing with 49% of the vote.
Personally, I am happy that Terry McAuliffe barely won. It will prevent the Republicans from agreeing about what they’re doing wrong, which will keep them fighting each other and they will continue to alienate the electorate. It will also prevent the Democratic establishment from thinking that politicians like McAuliffe are attractive. I almost wanted McAuliffe to lose, so a narrow win is satisfying except in the sense that it cost us seats further on down the ballot.
Chris Christie had a big win and gave a pretty good speech. But the theme he took was about cooperation. The reality is that Christie won big because he wrapped his arms around the president and the Democrats rewarded him by standing down. What kind of message does that send to the rest of the Republican Party?
In any case, it was a pretty good night, but it could have been better. I’ll have more to say in the morning.
