Justin's Political Corner

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla.—Florida Republican Rep. Allen West conceded to Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy on Tuesday, two weeks after the Nov. 6 election.

West challenged the results that showed him about 2,000 votes short of Murphy in Florida’s 18th Congressional District but was unable to persuade local officials to grant him a full recount. He released a statement on Tuesday saying he plans to take “no further action to contest the outcome of this election.”

“For two weeks since Election Day, we have been working to ensure every vote is counted accurately and fairly. We have made progress towards that goal, thanks to the dedication of our supporters and their unrelenting efforts to protect the integrity of the democratic process,” West said in a statement. “While many questions remain unanswered, today I am announcing that I will take no further action to contest the outcome of this election.”

National news outlets called the race for Murphy on election night, but West refused to concede at the time.

h/t: Yahoo! News

Twitter’s wingnuts are screaming bloody murder at this writing after Florida’s St. Lucie County failed to finish their court-ordered recount by today’s noon deadline, prompting Patrick Murphy’s campaign to claim final victory over Rep. Allen West. 

The Palm Beach Post reports that West’s supporters have charged into the St. Lucie election office screaming, “Count our votes!” West’s lawyers have raced to a judge’s office to demand an injunction against the state deadline. Numerous West supporters are claiming on Twitter that the county deliberately sabotaged a tabulation machine in order to miss the deadline. More on this later today as the story develops.

h/t: Joe.My.God

The Arizona Republic has declared Rep. Ron Barber (D-AZ) won a full term in Congress, defeating his Republican opponent Martha McSally. An analysis by the Republic “determined that McSally would not be able to muster enough votes from the remaining uncounted ballots to surpass the thin lead Barber had held in recent days.” 

h/t: TPM

It’s over, folks: The AP has officially called the race for Democrat Ami Bera in California’s 7th Congressional District. With Thursday’s vote tally update, Bera now leads GOP Rep. Dan Lungren by 5,696, an insurmountable gap given how few votes (likely under 25,000) remain to be counted.

This is a tremendous win for Democrats in this blue-trending seat in the Sacramento area. It’s also a huge win for Daily Kos, which endorsed Bera, a physician with strong progressive credentials. A big thanks is owed to everyone who donated to Bera when this race went into overtime, helping to ensure that all votes were properly counted. And a huge congratulations to Congressman-elect Bera!

h/t: David Nir at Daily Kos Elections

PHOENIX — Arizona voters have chosen former Democratic state Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to represent a new Phoenix-area congressional district.

Sinema had a narrow lead on election night, but slowly gained ground as more ballots were tallied in the last week. She now has a nearly 6,000-vote edge over Republican Vernon Parker.

Sinema becomes the first openly bisexual member of Congress, winning a race that featured millions of dollars in attack ads.

Parker was criticized by Democrats as a tea party radical who would hurt children by cutting the federal education department.

Republicans countered saying Sinema was too liberal for the newly created district and doesn’t understand stay-at-home moms.

h/t: Huffington Post

The race in California’s 36th congressional district shouldn’t have been close. Republican Rep. Mary Bono Mack hung onto the seat for six terms (after gaining it in a special election when her husband Sonny Bono, who had previously held the seat, died). Her Democratic opponent, emergency room physician Raul Ruiz, is a political neophyte; plus he was recently confronted with a politically unsavory bit of his past: a tape of him reading a letter of support of Leonard Peltier, a Native American convicted of murdering two FBI agents in 1977.

But Ruiz won, by three percentage points, after counting went into overtime last night and today.

The district, which includes Riverside County and Coachella Valley, was reconfigured this year and now officially has more Democrats than Republicans. Almost half of the district’s residents, and about a quarter of its voters, are Hispanic. Apparently these folks were not fond of Bono Mack’s Romney-ish positions and style.

Bono Mack recently received a “zero” rating in a study that scored members of Congress on how they vote on the interests of the middle class. Mack voted for the Ryan budget, to extend the Bush tax cuts, and to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In 2006, she characterized the neighborhoods of some of her constituents as a “third world toilet,” agreeing with a local talk show host’s description. She has also voted against employees’ rights to organize, and believes Obamacare is too costly.

Ruiz supports the Affordable Care Act, and Obama’s plan to cut Medicare costs, not by voucherizing, but by allowing the program to negotiate for lower drug prices and cutting fraud. He wants federal dollars to help underwater homeowners, and to promote new industries like health care research and green energy. Like Obama, Ruiz calls for a 30 percent tax on millionaires.

Ruiz’s campaign withstood some brutal attacks by Bono Mack. Her campaign leaked information toThe Desert Sun on Ruiz’s arrest during in his med school days—on a disorderly conduct charges during a “Day of Mourning” protest of Thanksgiving (the charges were dropped). Then came that tape in support of Peltier.

But the attacks didn’t work. Neither did the money. 

h/t: Erika Eichelberger at Mother Jones

William Enyart, D-Belleville, was elected to the 12th Congressional District, keeping the seat for the Democrats, according to unofficial results from the Associated Press.

With 609 of the 667 precincts reporting in the 12th Congressional District, William Enyart was leading Jason Plummer and Paula Bradshaw Tuesday night.

The latest vote totals:

Jason Plummer (R): 117,362

William Enyart (D): 132,976

Paula Bradshaw (G): 14,882

In the 12th, voters were choosing a successor to longtime U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Belleville), who is retiring.

Plummer, 30, is a Fairview Heights businessman. Enyart, 63, is a Belleville lawyer and retired commander of the Illinois National Guard. Bradshaw, 59, of Carbondale, is a registered nurse.

Enyart took the stage at his campaign party at 10:17 p.m. with his wife, Annette Eckert.

To kick off his victory speech, he said, “The first thing I said I was going to do when I won was kiss my wife.” So Enyart kissed his wife to a round of applause.

Enyart entered the 12th District race in early June, several weeks after Brad Harriman, the winner of the March Democratic primary, had dropped out of the race for health reasons.

Harriman’s exit led a panel of Democratic leaders to convene in late June. They unanimously chose Enyart after interviewing him and six other hopefuls.

“I’m humbled by the support I’ve seen from friends and neighbors across Southern Illinois,” Enyart said. “Thanks to all of you who donated your time, energy and enthusiasm, in just four months we’ve gone from nothing to a winning campaign against a candidate who’s been running for the last four years.”

In Nov. 2010, at age 28, Plummer nearly won Illinois’ lieutenant governor’s race. He won the GOP primary earlier in the year for lieutenant governor after raising $1.44 million, with the bulk of that sum loaned to the Plummer campaign by Plummer and companies linked to his father.

“I want to thank Jason Plummer and Paula Bradshaw for a spirited campaign,” Enyart said. “I look forward to working with them both in the coming years to make Southern Illinois strong.”

h/t: BND.com