The Alabama senate race

Written By: - Date published: 2:44 pm, December 13th, 2017 - 45 comments
Categories: Donald Trump, us politics - Tags: ,

There is a fascinating electoral contest in the US of A today in Alabama where a rootin tootin child molesterin former District Attorney Roy Moore is seeking the seat as a Republican candidate.  He is up against Doug Jones who is the Democrat nominee and has done such things as put KKK thugs in jail yet despite this has been accused of being weak on crime by the American President.

Moore had a photo opportunity stunt earlier today when he rode to the polling booth on horse.  The video is cringeworthy.

The campaign should be a slam dunk for the Republican Party in a deeply Republican state but things are neck and neck.  And if Jones wins then the Republican majority in the Senate goes down to a 2 seat buffer, one defection away from a tie.

The Republican cause will not be helped by a Donald Trump tweet this morning where in extraordinarily sexist and derogatory terms he referred to a Democrat Senator.  If there is a female backlash against the Republican Party Trump can be blamed.

The New York Times has a live results page here. Currently predictions have Jones slightly ahead but it is early days.

45 comments on “The Alabama senate race ”

  1. Bill 1

    Apparently. (On a quick read) If it’s close, there will be no recount.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/12/alabama-court-gives-last-minute-order-that-could-impede-recount-procedure

    The Senate has the right under the constitution to override Alabama law and conduct an investigation as it sees fit, but it won’t be able to check the electronic ballot imagines if they have been destroyed.

    “I don’t want to speculate what this might open the door to,” said Sautter, the veteran election lawyer, “but it could lead to results that can’t be verified. That would definitely be extremely unfortunate given how important this election is.”

    • Editractor 1.1

      “…it won’t be able to check the electronic ballot imagines…”

      Images + machines = imagines. I love it, especially in this context. But autocorrect or deliberate I wonder? With the Grauniad it is anyone’s guess.

    • lprent 1.2

      A judge made them keep the images for 6 months according to a NYT article this morning

  2. mickysavage 2

    A third of precincts in and the New York Times has Jones ahead. I would love to see the Orange one’s face right now.

    • Andre 2.1

      That doesn’t seem to square with fivethirtyeight. As of 3:19 they’re showing Moore ahead, 51ish to 46ish. Plus their map shows results for the big cities (should lean Dem), but not rural (should lean Repug).

      • mickysavage 2.1.1

        Prediction based on previous results. And the predicted margin has tightened again.

        Looks like it will be a competition between how many republican write in votes there are and how good the voter suppression efforts were.

        Edit: Sorry when I said “ahead” I should have specified “ahead in its predictive model”.

        • Andre 2.1.1.1

          Interestingly the CNN and fivethirtyeight numbers seem to be coming from different places. With the same % of precincts reporting, they’re showing quite different totals. Right now 538 has Jones ahead by 0.4% with 78% reporting, while CNN has Moore ahead by 1.3% with the same 78% precincts.

  3. McFlock 5

    Forget it, Joe, it’s Alabamatown.

    Seems appropo

    • McFlock 5.1

      Actually, looking at the returns count on the NYT site, it’s the larger, urban regions needing to complete their count, and most of them have a major lead for jones.

      It seems the rural/urban divide isn’t just coasts vs the middle.

  4. mickysavage 6

    Moore’s Jones’ lead is now in the hundreds thousands with 1512% of precincts still to come in and most of them are Democrat areas. He Moore is toast.

    Edited after a further 3% of precincts came in …

  5. joe90 7

    AP calling it.

    BREAKING: Democrat Doug Jones wins election as U.S. senator from Alabama. @AP race call at 10:23 p.m. EST. #AlabamaElection #APracecall— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) December 13, 2017

  6. Andre 8

    I’m looking forward to the reaction from the orange shitgibbon.

    Will he completely ignore it and pretend it didn’t happen?

    Will he claim he said all along Moore was a loser and the bambams should have gone with his pick Strange?

    Will he claim fraud, it was rigged?

  7. Sanctuary 9

    Nice result. Republican women probably stayed at home in droves, and Democratic ones voted in droves.

    Also, this is bad for Trump. If his one weapon – electability in a gerrymandered and polarized electorate – is backfiring then he is a soon to be impeached goneburger.

  8. Ad 10

    Looking forward to watching Fox News tonight.

  9. North 11

    Try ‘win’. Being projected by CNN and Faux. Faux projecting also a fierce uprising against Mitch McConnell. Herr Bannon and that infant will be fuming !

  10. UncookedSelachimorpha 12

    That poor, poor horse.

  11. North 13

    Roy Moore on CNN giving non-concession speech: saying it’s not over yet given prospect of automatic recount. Recount? Danger time. These are visceral crooks. Fortified by vaunted expressions of their love of God.

  12. Ad 14

    With Alabama a good shot now to be kept by the Dems in the 2018 contest, the most likely path for Democrats to retake the Senate in 2018 now involves some combination of the following:

    – Holding onto all or almost all of their seats in states Trump won

    – Picking off Dean Heller in Nevada

    – Winning Jeff Flake’s open seat in Arizona, or

    – Bob Corker’s open seat in Tennessee, or

    – Defeating Ted Cruz in Texas

    Health problems for Republican senators could conceivably put another one or two more seats on the ballot in special elections.

    Now, I feel great after this result, but the Dems still don’t have a shit-show so far of taking Congress. But taking a Senate majority would mean a much slower lurch to the hard right in the USA while Trump is still in power.

  13. Sanctuary 15

    I read a tweet saying black women voted for for Jones 97-3. That is one eye popping stat.

  14. Zorb6 16

    I expect the majority of Marlboro smokers would have voted for Moore.

  15. mary_a 17

    Seems the voters of Alabama have rejected the pervert, for what I assume and hope is a cleaner act, by electing Jones to the Senate.

    A poke in the eye for Moore’s buddy and resident clown in the White House. Good.

    I suspect the tantrums from Trump are underway right now!

  16. In Vino 18

    This is the sort of result you can expect if you don’t have some decent Russian interference.

  17. joe90 19

    tRump backed two candidates, Strange in the primary, in the same election and they both lost.

  18. joe90 20

    Ass can’t ride for shit.

    THE HORSE IS UNCOMFORTABLE UNDER THE ASSHOLE https://t.co/ucmD4BPvN2— Roy Moore's Horse (@RoyMooresHorse) December 13, 2017

    https://twitter.com/i/moments/940692651375919104

  19. McFlock 21

    So, we seem to have discovered the limit for republican voters to be turned off – they will vote for a groper, but not if most of his victims are underage…

  20. Sabine 22

    This election was won by African American women who voted for Doug Jones.

    This election was won by African American women who campaigend for Doug Jones.

    This election was won by African American women who voted to save themselves as they are always the first ones to be hit by the doings of the Republicans and their cuts to public services.

    This election was lost by the economically disadvantages white men and women who voted for a creep, a sexual molester, someone who want to cancel any amendment after he 10th, who think that if women could not vote there would be less problems and that Slavery was a time of good family politics for black families.

    But yeah, lets not do identity politics and continue to pander to the votes of the economically anxious white male voter and his missus especially the righteous conservative Christians.

    https://qz.com/1155156/alabama-senate-race-result-and-poll-majority-of-white-women-backed-defeated-republican-candidate-roy-moore/

    Black women might have just saved white US America. Ponder about that. And in NZ it probably is very much the same with the Labour Party / Green Party.

    It would be nice to get a break down who voted for National, Labour, Greens, NZF, TOP by gender and ethnic make up. I think it would make for interesting reading.

    • Andre 22.1

      Yep, hopefully oppressed people across the US will take away a big message from this. They have power and they can force changes. That it’s worth the effort to overcome the voter suppression obstacles and actually vote.

      Along with the 97 – 3 vote for Jones over Moore among black women, the 90 – 10 split among black men, that the electorate is 25% black by population but the actual vote was 30% black should give people inspiration that yes, their vote actually does make a difference.

      • Sanctuary 22.1.1

        Well that’s the thing. Everyone talks about Trump and Bannon’s mobilised base of angry whites. But it looks like the outraged mobilised base of those who reject Trump are going to be more powerful in the medium term.

        • Andre 22.1.1.1

          Hopefully it’s more than just outrage at the barbecued bloviator. Coz that would die down as soon as the Repugs put up a slightly plausible facsimile of an actual human. Hopefully it spurs people to realise that yes, voting does make a difference so it’s worth making the effort. That might last a bit longer then just the next electoral cycle.

      • Sabine 22.1.2

        The ‘oppressed’ people voted overwhelmingly for the She Devil Hillary Clinton.

        The ruling white economically anxious people voted overwhelmingly for the ‘self funded, white saviour Donald Trump – he who is beholden to non or something like that “.

        It is the Democrats who need to realise who puts in the foot work, who puts in the phone banking, the door knocking and the grassroots efforts.

        Guess what, it ain’t the white man / women.

        results breakdown recent election in Virginia

        https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/local/virginia-politics/governor-exit-polls/

        http://college.usatoday.com/2016/11/09/how-we-voted-by-age-education-race-and-sexual-orientation/

        and i would venture a guess that here in NZ, white people are the ones that vote National rather then Labour/Green. – just guessing 🙂

        so let me put it this way, the ‘oppressed people’ know who does the oppressing. It is the savior party that has an issue realizing who is their voter.