The polls are now closed in Virginia. I’ll use this thread to follow the results. As of 7 pm, from everything I’m hearing and reading, I can’t say it’s looking great. Could Gerry Connolly lose? Rick Boucher? Glenn Nye and Tom Perriello? All possible. Stay tuned, and check out results at the State Board of Elections website.
UPDATE 7:11 pm: With 3% of votes counted, Morgan Griffith leads Rep. Rick Boucher 59%-39% in the 9th CD. Robert Hurt is slightly ahead of Rep. Tom Perriello with 2.3% reporting in the 5th CD.
UPDATE 7:24 pm: Just to get it out of the way, the following Virginia Republicans will win tonight: Eric Cantor, Bob Goodlatte, Frank Wolf, Rob Wittman, and Randy Forbes.
UPDATE 7:30 pm: With 17.8% of precincts reporting in the 5th CD, it’s Robert Hurt 56.4%-Tom Perriello 41.3%. Nothing from Albemarle or C-ville, though.
UPDATE 7:38 pm: With 4.3% of precincts in, it’s Scott Rigell leading Rep. Glenn Nye 51%-46% in the 2nd CD. In the 5th CD, with 27% of precincts in, it’s Hurt leading Perriello 55%-42%. C-ville’s starting to come in. With 28% of precincts in, it’s Morgan Griffith leading Rick Boucher 55%-43% in the 9th CD. Not looking good, Boucher could be in serious trouble.
UPDATE 7:50 pm: Good news per Jon Bowerbank – “Congrats to Joseph Puckett – winner, winner, chicken dinner ~1100-~800! Rick up in Russell County w/ 11/15 precincts reporting.” Go Joseph!
UPDATE 7:51 pm: Oh, and it goes without saying that Rep. Bobby Scott will win reelection easily tonight.
UPDATE 7:53 pm: With 7% of precincts reporting, Jim Moran is winning easily in the 8th CD over Patrick Murray. With 4.8% of precincts reporting in the 11th, Keith Fimian is leading Rep. Gerry Connolly 55%-42%. Also, NLS has called the 9th for Morgan Griffith. Oh, wonderful.
UPDATE 8:00 pm: NLS tweets, “Gerry just won the most Democratic precinct in Fairfax City by 50 votes- horrible sign for him.”
UPDATE 8:04 pm: In the 7th CD, Eric Cantor under 60% against unknown, unfunded Rick Waugh and Tea Partier Floyd Bayne. Not impressive. In contrast, Frank Wolf is romping over Jeff Barnett, 68%-29%.
UPDATE 8:09 pm: With 20% of precincts reporting in the 2nd CD, Scott Rigell is leading Glenn Nye 48.6%-47.9%. With 61% of precincts reporting in the 5th CD, Robert Hurt is leading Tom Perriello 53%-45%. Also, John Yarmuth has held on in Kentucky’s 3rd CD.
UPDATE 8:20 pm: Isaac Wood tweets, “Bad news for Perriello in #VA05? Down 8%. 56% reporting. Good news? Albemarle & Charlottesville (his base) still to come.”
UPDATE 8:22 pm: It’s not looking good for Glenn Nye in the 2nd CD, where Scott Rigell is leading 52%-44% with 36% of precincts reporting.
UPDATE 8:25 pm: CBS has called the 5th CD for Robert Hurt over Tom Perriello. How depressing. (with 79% of precincts reporting, Hurt leads 52%-45%.)
UPDATE 8:28 pm: In the 2nd CD, with 43% of precincts reporting, Scott Rigell is leading Glenn Nye 54%-43%. So far, it doesn’t look like Nye’s strategy of having no principles or courage, not to mention being the least progressive Democrat in Congress, is paying off for him. What a shocker – despite his pathetic pandering, Republicans still attacked him as a “liberal” who voted with “Pelosi, Reid and Obama.”
UPDATE 8:36 pm: With 30% of precincts reporting in the 11th CD, Gerry Connolly is trailing Keith Fimian by just 370 votes.
UPDATE 8:39 pm: AP calls VA-09 for Morgan Griffith over Rep. Rick Boucher. The irony of this one is that Boucher worked hard to water down the energy/climate bill and to lard it up with the coal industry wish list, yet he still got blamed for voting for “cap and tax.” In a perverse way, maybe there’s justice after all?
UPDATE 9:04 pm: The AP has called Scott Rigell over Glenn Nye in the 2nd CD. In the end, Kenny Golden was a complete non-factor, in spite of his support from the Modern Whig Party. Seriously, the “Modern Whig Party.”
UPDATE 9:24 pm: Still extremely close in the 11th CD, where Keith Fimian leads Gerry Connolly by under 900 votes with 69% of precincts reporting.
UPDATE 9:27 pm: In Arlington, Chris Zimmerman is winning reelection easily for County Board. Sally Baird is winning reelection to the School Board easily. Congratulations to both!
UPDATE 9:29 pm: In the end, it wasn’t even close in the 2nd CD, where Glenn Nye is trailing by 11 points with 75% of precincts reporting. It turns out that the 5th CD, where Tom Perriello acted like a – gasp! – Democrat, is much closer than the 2nd CD, where Glenn Nye might as well have been a Republican. More on this tomorrow…
UPDATE 9:36 pm: Sen. Mark Warner says, “I can’t think of anyone who has worked as hard or been a more passionate advocate for his constituents than Tom Perriello. He has worked to make higher education more affordable and accessible, and he has been a fierce advocate for jobs, clean energy and economic renewal. I am certain we have not heard the last from this talented young man.” Also, “Rick Boucher has been a fierce protector of his southwest Virginia constituents for nearly 30 years of public service. There is not a single community in the Ninth Congressional District that has not been touched in some significant way through Congressman Boucher’s work, and it really is unfortunate that Rick was swept-up in a national wave of discontent and voter frustration.”
UPDATE 9:47 pm: With 83.3% of precincts reporting, Gerry Connolly has pulled ahead of Keith Fimian, 49.09%-48.83%.
UPDATE 10:00 pm: With 98.7% counted in VA-05, real Democrat Tom Perriello is losing, but only by 4 points. In VA-02, quasi-“Democrat” Glenn Nye is losing by 10 points. Meanwhile, real Democrat Gerry Connolly is leading by about 500 votes with 95% of precincts reporting.
UPDATE 10:26 pm: With 97.02% counted in VA-11, Gerry Connolly is leading Keith Fimian by just under 700 votes. NLS has called it for Connolly, and there’s nobody more knowledgeable about the 11th CD than Ben Tribbett, so I put a lot of stock in that. We’ll see…
UPDATE 11:44 pm: Connolly’s barely leading with almost all votes counted, but this one’s probably headed for a recount.
UPDATE 11:46 pm: Guess who got the highest and lowest # of votes tonight among Virginia Democrats? From most to fewest: Jim Moran 116,264; Bobby Scott 114,416; Tom Perriello 110,561; Gerry Connolly 110,401; Rick Boucher 86,616; Rick Waugh 79,289; Wynne LeGrow 74,205; Krystal Ball 73,668; Jeff Barnett 72,272; and…Glenn Nye 68,531! That’s right, the bluest of “Blue Dogs” got the fewest votes, while the most progressive Democrats – generally got the highest. So, in the end, Glenn Nye stood for nothing, had no soul, and also got the fewest votes, even running behind people with no name ID and no money – but with real Democratic convictions – like Rick Waugh and Wynne LeGrow and Jeff Barnett. Is there a lesson here? Hmmmmm.
UPDATE 11:54 pm: Mark Warner says, “Gerry Connolly has had a remarkable record of public service at the local level and now as a member of Congress, and I congratulate him on his hard-fought victory tonight. Northern Virginia will continue to have a strong advocate and an effective and reliable voice in Congress.”
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