Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Election Day 2009: What's on Tap? -- A Viewing Guide

Here's the rundown from The Green Papers:
in NEW JERSEY:

polls open from 6 AM local time (1100 GMT) to 8 PM local time (0100 GMT, 4 Nov)

Statewide offices up for election:

  • Governor, with Lieutenant Governor elected on a ticket with the winning gubernatorial candidate (NOTE: this is the very first time NEW JERSEY will be electing a Lieutenant Governor).

in VIRGINIA:

polls open from 6 AM local time (1100 GMT) to 7 PM local time (0000 GMT, 4 Nov)

Statewide offices up for election:

  • Governor
  • Lieutenant Governor (elected separately from Governor)
  • Attorney General


SPECIAL ELECTIONS for U.S. House of Representatives

CALIFORNIA's 10th Congressional District:

  • to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Ellen Tauscher [Democrat], 27 June 2009, to become Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.

polls open from 7 AM local time (1500 GMT) to 8 PM local time (0400 GMT, 4 Nov)


NEW YORK's 23rd Congressional District:

  • to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John McHugh [Republican], 21 September 2009, to become Secretary of the Army.

polls open from 6 AM local time (1100 GMT) to 9 PM local time (0200 GMT, 4 Nov)

Oh, and let's not forget Maine. Polls opened at 6am this morning and will close at 8pm this evening on the ballot question concerning the repeal of the state law permitting gay marriage.


Recent Posts:
State of the Race: New Jersey Governor (11/2/09)

State of the Race: New Jersey Governor (11/1/09)

State of the Race: Virginia Governor (11/1/09)

2 comments:

Jack said...

Unfortunately, I have a class tonight that will prevent me from watching election returns. You'd think that my political science professor (who is originally from New Jersey) would let us out early, no?

Since we've been discussing Ray Bateman a bit this year, I figured I'd post this from a recent NY Times Magazine article:

"New Jersety Republicans with long memories, some of whom now advise Chris Christie, are haunted by a political obscurity known as the Bateman-Simon tax plan. The story goes like this: in 1977, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Raymond Bateman, had a big lead in the polls over the incumbent governor, the Democrat Brendan Byrne, who had just signed the income tax into law. Rather than simply rail against Byrne’s apostasy, Bateman and his economic adviser, the former treasury secretary William Simon, came up with a detailed proposal to eliminate the income tax — while also raising the sales tax to stave off any shortfall. The Bateman-Simon plan was immediately torn apart by Democrats and the news media (critics called it the BS plan for short), Bateman’s double-digit lead evaporated almost overnight and Byrne won re-election. The lesson Republicans took away from that encounter is that campaigning against taxes is a winning tactic, as long as you don’t pull a Ray Bateman and suddenly decide to tell people how you actually intend to pay for the things they want."

The article then describes how Christie has avoided this mistake, promising tax cuts that are impractical at best, and then stated that voters don't expect politicians to keep campaign promises.

Josh Putnam said...

I suspect Virginia may go early, but New Jersey and the Maine vote will likely go on into the night. I'm absolutely unwilling to say anything about NY-23. It could be called early. It could stretch out for a month a la NY-20. There is no way of knowing. TOO MUCH UNCERTAINTY.

So, you may miss out on the poll closings, but there will be returns to watch.

Thanks for the link. Good stuff about the last Democratic come-from-behind win in New Jersey gubernatorial race.