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North Dakota Senator elect Heidi Heitcamp
The final Senate race of the election is now officially over. In North Dakota Republican Rick Berg has conceded the race to Democrat Heidi Heitkamp. With 100 percent of precincts reporting Heitkamp ended up with roughly a 3,000 vote lead over Berg.
The seat opened when Democrat Kent Conrad decided not to run for re-election. Since North Dakota went overwhelmingly for Mitt Romney, it was widely assumed that this would be a big pick up opportunity for Republicans, but Heitkamp turned out to be a supreme campaigner.
This is a huge upset victory for Democrats. Basically all the final polling of the state had Berg leading by decent margin.
The final result is that Democrats picked up two seats in the Senate. The Democratic caucus will now have 55 members, assuming that Independent Angus King of Maine decides to caucus with them.
17 Comments
She’s all about energy/drill baby drill, but this is still very big.
We need to have a campaign to get rid of the filibuster, let’s spend some political capital, as W once said.
Yeah, divided Government means bipartisanship. Can’t wait til they chop the baby in half again like they did with ACA./s
OK, so Heidi’s a Democrat. But is she a corporatist or a people-ist? Are we really supposed to get delerious with joy because the people who intend to destroy us have a ‘D’ after their names?
I’m dreading the Grand Bargain and not because people are going to be brutally shafted. I know that already. What I dread is watching Democrats blubber and prevaricate about the greater good and the necessity of pauperizing people because deficit. Or whatever.
I’m glad anytime we keep a dastasrdly, depicable republican out of public office.
Berg must be a complete asshole to lose in a deep red state like ND.
Hopefully, the two former House Progressive Caucus members, now Senators, Tammy Baldwin and Mazie Hirono will show her the light…! ;-)
A great idea!
No more filibuster, also.
um, yeah.
How long do you plan to keep this up? Prior to the election the endless drone of the same song over and over was annoying but now that it’s over this desperate attempt to remain relevant is just sad.
Well, Mazie in her victory speech, last nite, said she was definitely looking forward to working with Tammy…! ;-)
He’s another “rape babies are a gift” Republican, just a little quieter about it.
But we will still need 60 votes in the Senate to pass anything
I hear you! We’ve all seen how these things inevitably play out. Lost somewhere in the conversation is the little matter of the SS Trust which is owed, what? $2.7 T or something?
You won’t mind if they pay that back over a 40 or 50 year time span would ya? I mean you didn’t *really* want to retire did you?
Oh and look at all the neat magic beans-uh I mean bombs, planes, and other defense department crap, we got with your retirement money(you know with the taxes that A LOT of us “didn’t pay” because we’re deadbeats unlike the fine Americans like Romney and the Koch brothers)
The important thing is that she won. She tricked these idiots into voting against their own self determined best interest by lying and that is a bonus for all true Progressives to celebrate and take great pride in.
We will achieve the goal, and overcoming ‘people’ like these is a huge step in seeing to it that we succeed.
FORWARD!
Filibuster reform. There’s critical mass for making this happen. Angus King has said he will spearhead this as his first action.
Actually the party in power in the Senate can get rid of the 60 vote requirement any time they want. There is nothing in the Constitution about the filibuster or any vote requirement to end it. Neither party ends it because it is such a convenient excuse to NOT pass legislation favored by the special interests. The Parliamentarian can say that a move to end the filibuster breaks Senate rules but that is nothing also. The Parliamentarian serves at the pleasure of the party in power and you can simply replace that person and write your own rules. The refusal to do this is all part of the Washington kabuki.