Updates Below!

I was not surprised to see most of the results coming in last night. I was surprised at how poor the CNN coverage was. In an election year when hyper-partisanship on both sides is disdained universally, CNN decided to have on Anderson Cooper 360 Erik Erickson and John Avoros – two fairly conceited hyper-partisans who want to control their respective party and chase out all RINOs & DINOs. If you want to kill your ratings CNN, keep promoting the hyper-partisans.

This is the year of the independent – a.k.a RINOs and DINOs and Tea Partiers. At least for the GOP side of the equation. Look who lost and won in AZ. The great Maverick, RINO, promoter of comprehensive immigration reform and of campaign reform, and the 2008 GOP presidential candidate Senator John McCain romped (56%) former congressman and far right flame thrower JD Hayward. Hayward was the hyper-partisan GOP candidate and got romped just like the far right candidates got romped in the 2008 presidential election. It takes a special mix of independence and conservatism to win the American public over these days. Too far outside the central mainstream and you get the boot. Hayward was never inside the comfort zone, he never had a chance. And is lame claims of an upset near the end of the race were simply pathetic.

Rubio in FL represents more of blend of tea party libertarianism and muted social conservatism that can rally the people in 2010. In a year when the country is fed up with being told how and what to think from DC, dictating social norms from Washington is not a winning strategy for either party. That is why Rubio is destined to take the Senate seat in November – he remains inside the acceptable bounds of the center, just like VA Governor Bob McDonnell, NJ Governor Chris Christie and MA Senator Scott Brown.

FL’s primary results show that the Democrats still have a major problem. They remain the party of big government and the party that believes in the concept of the elite ruling political class. That is the only explanation for Meek’s romp (57%-31%) in the Democrat senate primary race. Meek is the establishment candidate and comes from an emerging political dynasty (his mother was a famous liberal congresswoman). The choice of Meek indicates it is the Democrat Party which continues to follow a path at complete opposition with the voters of America. It is that political party (not just its leaders) out of touch and heading for election disaster in November. This is not the year for the big government. political ruling class party.

The FL Governor’s results on the GOP side pretty much confirm that GOP voters are not interested in pedigreed career politicians. In that race former US congressman and state AG McCollum had a surprise loss to political newbie Scott 43-46%. It is clear from this totally different result that those who wish to clean house are on the GOP side in spades, if purple FL is any kind of barometer of the national mood.

FL also clearly shows the enthusiasm gap between the two parties. The total number of voters in the GOP primary for governor was roughly  1.28 million, while the total number on the Democrat primary for governor was 0.86 million. That means the GOP took 60% of the primary voters and the Dems got a paltry 40%. We can cross-check this by looking at the senate primary races in FL. The GOP contest took 1.25 million and the Dem contest took 0.91 million. That equates to a GOP wave of 58% to the Dems 42%. Finally, another cross-check in the AZ senate primary shows the Dems got 250,ooo votes and the GOP took in 500,000 votes, which puts the GOP up 66%-33% over the Dems. There may be exceptions, but it still looks like we have not seen the last of results like we saw in VA, NJ and MA.

I have heard a lot of lame commentary by party stalwarts or hyper-partisans trying to spin other messages on these results. Everyone in the liberal media is looking at Meek and saying incumbents from the big government party are safe. Well, they can be in denial all they want. They are not shaping this election – it is being electorate than either major political party or the liberal media. This is not a pro-government election year.

Update: Again, Alaska illustrates clearly this is not a year for career politicians or the big government party as sitting Senator Lisa Murkowski (another political dynasty in the making) may have lost her primary race. To see an incumbent like Murkowski go down to a political outsider (and Tea Party candidate) is just one more clear message from the American people. Dems, you will be losing a ton of seats come November. This looks to be historic.

Update: Ed Morrissey puts it well (as usual!):

When Shira Toeplitz notes that no poll predicted this outcome, it’s not an exaggeration.  Palin’s endorsement of Miller was seen as a long shot, as well as another volley in a years-long political feud between Palin and the Murkowskis.  Few people gave the endorsement much chance of changing the status quo, especially since Murkowski didn’t have a record that produced anywhere near as much ire among conservatives as Palin’s former running mate John McCain — who won his primary by 30 points.

If Miller wins this race, it’s a testament to the power of Palin in Alaska and the energy of the Tea Party.  It may also be a warning to pollsters to start making some adjustments to likely-voter models in the days ahead. We’ll keep an eye on the outcome of this race today.

I predicted a while back that the polls were under-estimating the wave coming, just as they did in the NJ and VA governor races of ’09 and the MA Senate race won by Scott Brown. If you move all the polls 3-5% to the right you get a wipe out of Dems in both houses and the governor seats. 3-5% is the margin of error in most polls, so that is not a huge number in absolute terms, but it is huge in terms which side wins in November.

I actually suspect, like NJ, VA and MA, the polls are more likely off by 5-10%. Which again is quite accurate for a unique year with no historic precedent for pollsters to estimate against.

Update: Ace of Spades has a great smack down on all the liberals who predicted the extinction of Palin in a Miller loss. Lots of crow being served up this morning!

Addendum: Going back to the pollster issue. If you look at FL the polls between McCollum and Scott were all over the map. Which is another indication the error bars on this year’s polls maybe be a lot larger than pollsters care to admit or advertise.

Update: DC just began to wake up:

The stunning news that developed over night in Alaska — with 98 percent of precincts reporting, attorney Joe Miller (R) leads Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) 51 percent to 49 percent — reveals the depth of anti-incumbent sentiment in the country, the power of former Alaska Gov.Sarah Palin (and the tea party movement) and the perils of prognostication in low turnout intraparty fights.

Not to mention the incredible level of denial in the Political Industrial Complex about how bad it is for Dems BECAUSE of all the crap they passed!

Tags: 2010 Elections, AZ Primary, FL Primary