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Notes -
Who else up watching election results? As of the time of this writing Decision Desk has called all of:
The Virginia governor race in favor of Abigail Spanberger (D).
The Virginia lieutenant governor race in favor of Ghazala Hashmi (D and the first Muslim woman elected to statewide office).
The Virginia Attorney General race in favor of Jay Jones (D lmao).
The New Jersey governor race in favor of Mickie Sherrill (D).
The NYC mayoral race for Zohran Mamdani (D, projecting a majority of the vote too lmao).
Both statewide Georgia Public Service Commissioner races for the Democratic candidates.
Polls are still open in California so no word yet there on the redistricting ballot measure. In other Jay Jones news the house delegate who leaked his texts is on track to lose her re-election, as part of dems winning a trifecta in the Virginia government.
The county by county level results I've seen show pretty much all of the above running ahead of Harris and Spanberger even running ahead of Biden in 2020. Is this indicative of what we might see going forward? Dems had previously overperformed in special elections this year but this is the closest to a general until next years actual federal elections. If these trends hold up not a good sign for Republicans!
I am pretty happy about Mamdani. I have a somewhat radical opinion about democracy that is rarely held in the intelligentsia circles - that if voters want something, let them have it. The other thing that said circles never learn is - don't talk down to the voters. They have no choice but to vote Cuomo - guess what they did have a choice. And it was not voting for Cuomo.
The squeals of the anti Mamdani factions are a balm on the soul. And the ADL worst nightmare seems to be coming true - antisemitic as a label is sliding into indifference. Which is kinda amusing when right now for the first time in probably 60 years in the West there is proper 14 karat antisemitism showing its head.
I do hope that he will be able to hurt NY City enough to push things toward R in 2026 and 2028, but I doubt it - the mayor just doesn't have that many powers to ruin something that fast.
I agree that Mamdani is likely to make NYC worse, and I share your skepticism that “the worse, the better” (for R prospects) will apply here, not only because one single mayor—especially one with zero experience managing large organizations—can’t change much in a short time, but also because, paraphrasing Adam Smith, “There is much ruin in New York City”. The city has too much going for it for its biggest tax pay
pigers (major financial institutions) to seriously consider the idea of picking up stakes and relocating to, say, Miami, at least in the short term. In the long term, I can definitely see a slow decline as businesses get strangled out of existence by onerous D policies. But that will happen much too slowly for the voting public to even notice, let alone pin the blame on a specific mayor or party.It will be interesting to see whether those New York City Jews who swore they would leave for Florida if Mamdani got elected will make good on their promised exodus [heh]. My money is on “no”, in the main: their loyalty is to leftism first and foremost and to Judaism a distant second, so the prospect of living in a state where anyone could be carrying a handgun and where abortion is illegal after 6 weeks is anathema, no matter how philosemitic the state government.
And lastly, if I were a NYC resident, I would vote for literally anyone but Cuomo: his bungling of the pandemic (first with the nursing home massacres, then by riding roughshod over civil liberties to cover it up) is absolutely unforgivable.
I hate commies more than anyone, but I still wouldn't hold my nose to vote for Cuomo. Fuck that guy.
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They have already been expanding presence in Miami. They may not jump (because Mandami may cut a deal) but they have been preparing to.
They've been moving to Florida for decades anyway; evidently once you're old enough you don't care about either abortion or handguns. You'll hear more classic NYC accents in Fort Lauderdale than New York City.
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I'd love to see God top his Red Sea trick with one all down the US East Coast from Manhattan to Miami. It's over 5x the distance, but it's been a couple thousand years, at least, since He pulled that off for Moses, which is a lot of time for Him to improve (or is that also one of those things that a perfect, omnipotent being can't do?).
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