News from the Votemaster

Late Update: Obama won NE-02

Barack Obama picked up an extra electoral vote by winning NE-02. More tomorrow.

President-Elect Obama holds Press Conference

President-Elect Barack Obama held his first press conference yesterday. As is traditional, he reminded the reporters that we have one President at a time and currently that President is George W. Bush, so it is his job to handle the economic mess. Obama didn't give any hints about his policies (other than repeating his campaign positions) and he didn't announce any appointments. He did say that his daughter Malia has allergies so that some care has to go into choosing the First Puppy. His preference is a dog from a shelter, but he added, most of them are "mutts like me." The most important thing about the press conference is that he held it at all. President Bush has little regard for the press and rarely held press conferences. Obama's allowing the press to question him directly is already a huge change from the current administration.

Interest Groups Remind Obama of his IOUs

Many interest groups, from labor unions to pro-choice groups campaigned hard and spent a lot of money to elect Barack Obama. Now they are gently reminding him of what he owes them, in hopes of getting favorable treatment of their issues. Unions, for example, want a stimulus package that would be focused on rebuilding America's crumbling infrastructure, which would create millions of new jobs.

Sarah Palin Calls Critics "Cowards" and "Jerks"

Snipers from within the McCain campaign have stepped up their attacks on Sarah Palin, going after her shopping habits, her disastrous interviews, her falling for a Canadian comedian impersonating the President of France, and her political ambitions. Palin has attacked right back calling them "cowards" and "jerks." The story is all over the place, including the NY Times, the LA Times, CNN, and many other news sources. The McCain aides who are leaking damaging stories about her may just be frustrated about her poor performance during the campaign (although none have questioned McCain's judgment in picking her). On the other hand, they may be trying to intentionally damage her and goad her into saying stupid things that will be used against her if she runs for the Senate (in the event Ted Stevens wins his election and is then expelled from the Senate) or for President in 2012. In any event, these charges and her angry responses probably won't hurt her much in Alaska (where Washington is not real popular) but if she runs for President in 2012, they will be replayed endlessly.

Democrats Pick up a House Seat

Frank Kratovil (D) has defeated Andy Harris (R) for the House seat MD-01. This seat is currently occupied by Wayne Gilchrest (R) but he was defeated in the primary by Harris from the right. Even though the district is R+10, Harris was too much for the voters to stomach so they gave Kratovil a narrow victory.

This means that seven House seats are still undecided: AK-AL, CA-04, OH-15, WA-08, VA-05 and two seats that will have runoffs in December, LA-02 and LA-04. No matter what happens with these seats, the Democrats will have at least 255 seats in the new House, up from 203 before the 2006 election. Here is a complete list of House winners as far as currently known. An asterisk denotes the incumbent party. The data are available for downloading as a .csv file. More on the House Monday.