The Votes Are In

If you're awake at all, you're probably aware that the 2014 midterms have ended with an historic wave favoring the Republicans, with control of the Senate decided at 52:45 with 3 races still hanging, next door Virginia, Louisiana (run off) and Alaska, handily beating Stacy McCain's pessimistic prediction of a stalemate TBDL. So now the Republicans at least gets to face Obama for the last two years united, to the extent that any party can be truly united.  But enough of that. I expect there are better places to get national news.

So what happened locally in Maryland and locally?

The big shock of the night, at least for me, was Larry Hogan (R) winning the governorship of Maryland by 925,000 to 765,000, although I'm sure someone is scouring odd nooks and crannies in Baltimore for boxes of ballots all filled in for Tony Brown even as we speak, but that's a big deficit, and not even the walking dead can fill that margin.  Hey! My vote counted?

However, the Democrat Brian Frosh won for Attorney General, so we can be sure that will be looked into, and Democrat Peter Franchot beat Republican William Campbell for Comptrollers, so we can still blame the democrats for the way the money gets spent.

Steny Hoyer (Tax and Spend, MD) cruised to reelection in my own District 5. At present it looks like MD will send only one Republican to the House, Andy Harris, District 1, basically the Eastern Shore.

In my own country, Calvert, it was nearly a Republican sweep. This is not a great shock as a nuclear power plant, a natural gas facility and the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, not natural Democratic beneficiaries, are all major employers here. To be fair though, we have a lot of commuters who venture daily into the great maw of the regulatory behemoth in D.C. which tends to off set this and makes dinner parties interesting.

Anyway, the two Republicans Steve Weems (one of the local liquor store owners) and Steve Hejl won for Commissioners at Large. I confess I voted for Democrat George Owings over Hejl, because he once granted us a mortgage loan.  See, I'm bipartisan! Republicans also swept the three districts assigned commissioners.

Long time Sheriff and Alex's old soccer coach,  Republican Mike Evans, appears to have squeaked by his challenge from Democrat Craig Contra, with less than a thousand votes to spare. Mike's an OK guy; a pretty stereotypical Sheriff type.

For our state House of Delegates member, Republican Mark Fisher beat Democrat Sue Cullen 8,751 to 6,274. I have friends who are friends of Cullen's and strong supporters. I had been even considering voting for her on their suggestion. But one of them dropped off one of her campaign fliers and it showed her dropping a couple of tea bags in the trash, with some statement about her bipartisanship. Tea bags, Tea Baggers, get it? Putting them in the trash. Cute. And very bipartisan.

Now I have never formally joined a Tea Party group, but I do consider my self to be at least a fellow traveler with regard to the Taxed Enough Already movement. That little bit of disrespect by someone who by all reports is at least a normally serious politician was enough to make my decision.  I doubt that cost her the election, but it would nice if the message got back to her that you don't win hearts and minds by using homophobic sexual slurs on a substantial fraction of her would be constituents.