Election Day #s (1 of 4)_Virgil Goode Ironically Helps Obama Win

The Election Day chess game is over and besides President Barack Obama, other winners include Tim Kaine (D, pictured top) over George Allen (R, pictured bottom) for an open U.S. Senate seat, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) over controversial Republican Todd Akin, and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) over Republican challenger Denny Rehberg.

Amazingly enough, no incumbents lost seats in the U.S. Senate and only five seats switched sides, which helps broader the lead for Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the majority leader in the Senate.

In Congress, only 20 incumbents lost. Among them was Cong. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) to Cong. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) in one of the most surreal house races in a long time. In other races that we've mentioned on this blog, Cong. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) narrowly beat out African-American Mormon Mia Love (R), and Cong. Mogan Grifith (R-Va.) got just over 60 percent of the vote from his Democratic challenger Anthony Flaccavento, who fared well for a first-time Democrat in the very socially conservative southwest Virginia.

One of the great ironies of this election was that far-right Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode from Rocky Mount, Va, who was a Democrat, Republican and independent during his years in Congress, actually helped Obama defeat Mitt Romney and allow the president to gain the vital 13 electoral college votes in Virginia by proclaiming close to one percent.

Here are some Election Day numbers of interest:

34, 220, 984- Number of votes John F. Kennedy got in 1960

34, 108,157- Number of votes Richard Nixon got in 1960

21,427,123- Number of votes Herbert Hoover got in 1928

15, 015,464- Number of votes Al Smith got in 1928

35,726- Number of votes John Adams got in 1796

31,115- Number of votes Thomas Jefferson got in 1796

2,916,811- Number of votes Obama got in his home state Illinois

1,900,575- Number of votes Obama got in Romney's home state Massachusetts.

1,777,379- Number of votes Romney got in Massachusetts.

19,663- Number of votes Green Party candidate Jill Stein got in Massachusetts (also her home state)

37.6%- The percentage of votes Romney got in his home state

1,888,954- The number of votes Obama got in Virginia

1,773,982- Number of votes Romney got in Virginia

13,587- Number of votes Virgil Goode got in Virginia

688-Number of votes Goode got in Franklin County, his home jurisdiction

49%- Percentage of votes Tim Kaine got in his Senate victory.

47%-Percentage of votes George Allen got

671, 747- Number of votes Romney got in Utah

72.8%-Percentage of vote Romney got in Utah

4,725- Number of votes Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson, a former Salt Lake City, Utah, mayor, got in Utah.

2,096- Distance in miles between Boston and Salt Lake City.

49.3%- Percent that Cong. Jim Matheson got in Utah house race

48.1%- Percent that Mia Love got in same Utah house race

30.8 %- Percent that former Washington Redskins Congressional candidate Jimmy Farris (D) got against Cong. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho); Farris was profiled in the "Washington Post Magazine" recently.

303,090- Number of votes Obama got in his birth state of Hawaii

36,975- Number of votes sitcom star Roseanne Barr got as a third party candidate in California (Yes, that is more than Jefferson got in 1796!)

27,337- Number of votes Libertarian Party Gary Anderson got in his home state of New Mexico

697- Number of votes Peta Lindsay of the Socialist Party got in Vermont.

7- Number of Dukakis 8 states won by Obama (both in 2008 and in 2012)

1- Number of Dukakis 8 states won by Romney (West Virginia)

4- Number of states in which Obama won every county (Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Hawaii)

3-Number of states in which Romney won every county (West Virginia, Utah and Oklahoma)

PS: We should point out that the guy playing chess in the middle is Gary Kasparov.

It's Election Day in America

One of the most interesting U.S. Congressional races is actually between Cong. Howard Berman (D-Calif., top) and Cong. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.). Since the district includes the city of Glendale, Calif., which has the largest Armenian-American population in the country (it should pointed out that I'm a Turkish-American, though also a Democrat, so much for trying to be as objective as Jim Lehrer or Charlie Rose, both of PBS), the Armenian-American actually sponsored a debate between the two candidates. This has lead us to come up with the satirical label "Berman Sherman Armenians," alas, we don't have the monetary funds to copyright the term!

I suppose it is best for me not to make an endorsement in this race, and as it is, it is very easy to get the candidates mixed. In fact, we almost misidentified Berman for Sherman. 

Another interesting Congressional race, in an election being overshadowed by the close presidential election, is between Cong. Jim Matheson (D-Utah), perhaps the most conservative Democrat on The Hill and his challenger Mia Love, an African-American Republican Mormom who is the mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah. Local newspapers in Utah said that Love actually has a slight polling lead in the race.

There is also the high-profile race between Cong. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) and his challenger, Tammy Duckworth, 44, a Democrat, who is a double amputee from serving a combat mission she was serving in the Iraq War in November of 2004, just days after George W. Bush edged John Kerry, another war veteran, for the presidency. Duckworth was recently profiled in "Mother Jones," a left of center publication.

Lastly, we want to commend the Langley High School  12th grade government class in McLean, Va., a suburb of Washington, DC. They project that President Barack Obama will win over Mitt Romney by a tally 290-248 electoral college votes. The school, which is nicknamed the Vikings, the same nickname as Northside High School in my hometown of Roanoke, Va. (not my alma mater) and their political forecast was published in the Sunday edition of "The Washington Post."

There is no report, to our knowledge, on whom the Northside Vikings think will win the race, but the school is in Roanoke County, which is considered a swing jurisdiction that slightly favors Republicans.

http://www.howardberman.com

http://www.bradsherman.com

http://www.motherjones.com

http://www.reason.com (a conservative/libertarian publication)