Slow Count, Recount, and Run-Off

Not quite all is finished with this year's election. For the U.S. Senate, three seats have yet to be decided: Alaska, Minnesota, and Georgia.

In Alaska, long-time senator Republican Ted Stevens, having just been convicted on seven felony counts, won the preliminary vote against his Democratic challenger, Anchorage mayor Mark Begich. Begich, relatively young at 46, stands in stark contrast to Stevens, who appeared at times to be lost on the Senate floor. I think the reason that Alaskan voters still went for Stevens after the convictions was to ensure that, after he was forced out of office, Stevens would be replaced by another Republican (appointed by Republican governor Sarah Palin). But as the rest of the votes are counted (extremely slowly), Begich has pulled ahead of Stevens (by 814 votes at last count). Questions have been raised regarding the relatively low Alaskan voter turnout, especially since their own popular governor was one of the vice-presidential candidates and the Democrats had put on a large-scale voter registration drive there.

In Minnesota, liberal Democrat comedian, author, and commentator Al Franken challenged one-term incumbent Republican Norm Coleman for the seat. Independent Dean Barkley (whom then-Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura had appointed interim senator after Paul Wellstone’s tragic death in 2002) ran a distant third in the vote. The campaign was pretty vicious between Franken and Coleman, and the final vote count (so far) has them separated by only about 200 votes. So a statewide recount is about to begin to resolve this election. Franken had entered this race largely due to his past friendship with Wellstone and his resentment against Coleman for his behavior at the end of the 2002 campaign. The recount results are bound to enrage one of the sides regardless who wins. Although these two are ideologically very different, I respect them both and wish that they both could have been in the Senate. But I’m pulling for Franken to win the recount. Still, I think his grudge against Coleman is bogus.

And in Georgia, their Senate electoral system requires the winner to garner a majority of votes. One-term Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss won a narrow plurality with 49.8 % of the vote over Democratic challenger, Dekalb County chief executive and former state representative Jim Martin, who received about 47 %. The run-off election will be held December 2. Republican and Democratic political big shots have descended upon Georgia to try to influence the voters in one direction or the other. Including losing Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who in 2002 had severely deplored Chambliss’s campaign ads against then-incumbent opponent Max Cleland, who had lost three limbs in combat in Vietnam. The ads clearly implied that Cleland lacked the courage to make important decisions in the interests of our nation’s security following 9/11. Chambliss, for his part, skirted military duty during Vietnam (he was pursuing his law degree then). Which on its face I sympathize with, since Vietnam was a meat-grinder of a war with our soldiers deliberately placed in harm’s way to draw enemy fire. But his ads against Cleland were hypocritical and disgusting. Well, Chambliss’s current opponent Jim Martin also served in Vietnam, and I don’t think that hypocrisy is going to work this time around. I see two different scenarios with this run-off. On one hand, since greater turnout tends to favor the Democrats and Obama isn’t in it, a smaller turnout in the run-off election should favor Chambliss. On the other hand, the negative pre-election hysteria generated against Obama has abated and his overall popularity has soared. This, coupled with the continuing tanking of the economy, may change a few minds in favor of Democrat Martin.

These three races should be pretty interesting to follow. I’m just glad that the presidency has already been clearly decided this time around!