Election results open post

(McDonnell projected winner in Virginia, Bloomberg projected winner in NYC, AP calls New Jersey for Republican Chris Christie, Fox News calls New York’s 23rd Congressional district for Democrat Bill Owens)

Did you vote today?

I did.

I wrenched myself out of bed and I was the first person to vote in my district, apparently, catching even the poll workers off guard that someone was actually voting at 6 am for a mayoral race that will not have a surprising result. Polls stay open in New York City until 9 pm, so you still have time. Also in New York’s 23rd Congressional district with its special election that has taken on national implications for what it could mean for the future of both parties.

If you live in Virginia, you’re running out of time, so hurry up.

And if you live in New Jersey, you have some time, until 8 pm. There are a lot of other elections out there that have gripped the national attention much less, too.

Did you vote today? What did you see? Are you despairing about the results? Or celebrating them? Share your thoughts in the comments, and we will include some updates when they start to trickle in.

***
7:10 pm – Leaked exit polls via FiveThirtyEight show a 10 point victory for Bob McDonnell, suggesting that the Republican will be Virginia’s next governor. But they haven’t called it yet.

7:14 pm – Josh Marshall says the lack of calling it on the spot is the Democrats’ first win of the night, which seems a little much to me.

7:19 pm – VA blogger Not Larry Sabato calls it for McDonnell, and a clean sweep of statewide offices for Republicans. Turnout below 50% according to liveblog at NBC12 in Virginia – where was the Organizing for America turnout machine?

8:27 pm – After a subway-slowed re-location, I am here to report what you already knew – Bob McDonnell has been declared the projected winner in Virginia. The AP is going as far as to say some results show a 2/3 win of the vote for McDonnell. Ouch. On to New Jersey.

8:38 pm – And now we wait for Jerze to do the count. Of interest to me is PolitickerNJ’s Matt Friedman who is quoting the GOP state chair, Jay Webber. He is acknowledging that the get out the vote operation in Democratic areas for Republicans was ‘light,‘[I botched this, good. Webber actually saying strong turnout in GOP areas, weak turnout in Democratic areas, but second clause of sentence good] and holding out the possibility that Chris Christie is ready to speak if there is no clear result. It will be a long night in Trenton, I predict.

8:42 pm – The National Review’s Jim Geraghty has an ‘Democratic insider’ in New Jersey who predicts that Jon Corzine will be upset by 1%, with Chris Christie elected governor.

9:02 pm – You don’t have to go home, but you can’t vote here, in New York. Polls are closed. C’mon, they haven’t called it for Mayor Michael “$35,000/hr” Bloomberg yet?

9:39 pm – Thomas ‘Mumbles’ Menino gets a fifth term for mayor in Boston, reports a newsbreak at Boston.com. New Yorkers, this is your future. Meanwhile, my ex-New York Sun colleague Grace Rauh on NY1 is interviewing Bill de Blasio who is set to win the Public Advocate race here in New York City, and admitting that she’s standing on a step stool because he’s so tall. They’re at Thompson HQ where everyone is still being brave and imagining ‘we can win it.’ Of course, de Blasio already won for all intents and purposes, Thompson has not. We’re waiting for the hammer to drop.

The NY1 panel suggested that turnout was so low, perhaps because all of the voters were turned off by the endless advertising from Bloomberg which made his victory seem inevitable. Perhaps in an alternate reality, like Fringe, Bloomberg spends $35,000/hour, and Thompson wins because only voters who were pissed off at Bloomberg turned off to vote. That is not this reality.

9:41 pm – BNO projects Bloomberg victory, as does the New York Times.

9:47 pm – Jimmy Vielkind of PolitickerNY/Observer is reporting that Democrats in New York’s 23rd Congressional district will keep anyone from being declared a convincing winner. This means that Doug Hoffman will declare victory, and Bill Owens could refuse to concede as questions are raised about who is really the winner. Storming the barricades and keeping a recount going for a month or more could be a good strategy if he plans to make a comeback in 2010.

10:08 pm – AP calls New Jersey for Chris Christie – Fox News has not got with the script, still predicting that it’s going to be a very late night.

10:12 pm – Putting a few of the pieces together, Jim Geraghty points to Christie’s likely victory in Bergen County, which Obama carried by 10% last year. Corzine must have really got people upset with him. Will Corzine concede?

10:56 pm – Jon Corzine concedes to Chris Christie.

10:57 pm – Bloomberg wins by a shockingly low margin, about 5% with more than 98% of the vote counted, according to the Daily News. I guess he did need to spend all that money to buy his way into a third term, but his campaign strategy must have turned off a lot of New Yorkers. It’s worth bearing in mind that he was vanquished Fernando Ferrer in 2005 by 19%. This is the reverse of a ‘mandate‘ for the mayor, and he’d better get to work and get something really done for New Yorkers in the next four years if he wants to have a legacy. I doubt that any City Council member in their right mind will ever vote to extend term limits again.

As for John Carney who said people’s votes in New York City didn’t matter, I hope you miss your train tomorrow on the way to work. Suck it, buddy.

11:30 pm – Over at the National Review, Kathryn Jean Lopez is so desperate to find an upside to the loss that Doug Hoffman appears headed toward in New York’s 23rd, that she actually posted the following:

I Think There Is Something to Both of These Comments [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

One, from a Facebook commenter: “Hoffman can’t lose. Even a loss is a win …. think about it.”

Drink that Kool Aid, madam, but maybe try the version without the high fructose corn syrup.

Dave Weigel reports that a top Hoffman supporter says it’s over.

Here’s my take on what’s happened in that race – a chunk of the district’s mainstream Republicans protested by voting for Dede Scozzafava instead of Hoffman or Bill Owens.

12:00 am – Fox News just called it for Bill Owens in New York’s 23rd district. The Tea Party insurgency has failed.