Election Morning Notes

My traffic always spikes on Election Day, in part because people don't realize that because of my job I'm not available to write anything till very, very late.

So here's the drill for the day. The office gets turnout updates from the polling places at 9 AM, 11 AM, 3 PM and 6 PM. Those will be here.

Then at closing time - 8:00 for this one - we start putting the results up soon as they come in. Those will be here. Once that's all done we have a bunch of clean up and put away type work. By this time the victory party (Bob's Your Uncle on North Dodge for Yes) is long over. So I come home and write, depending on mood and exhaustion level.

Lowcountry Nation in SC's 1st District: Go Vote Tomorrow! Whoever the winner is, I wish her luck. #SisterPower
— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) May 7, 2013

Not gonna lie: Our little justice center vote is NOT the day's most interesting election. That would be the South Carolina special election where both candidates have serious negatives. Mark Sanford is a national punchline, philanderer, and serial liar; Elizabeth Colbert Busch is a Democrat.

Warren County is also voting, in a hot and divisive casino election. Is there any other kind of casino election? The Linn County casino vote on the same day as Johnson County's March supervisor election probably had a vote-reducing factor. There are only about eight paid journalists in the Corridor anymore and the casino vote overshadowed us. (Plus: everyone knows what a casino is and not a lot of folks know what a "supervisor" is.)

This time, Johnson County was the only game in eastern Iowa and the election got more coverage, especially at the beginning of early voting. We saw early voting levels more than double from the March vote, even though this is our third election of 2013, in what's supposed to be our off-season.

Because of this vote I'm a day or two behind the curve on Republican US Senate developments. “It’s almost like a play-in game to the NCAA Tournament,” TheIowaRepublican's Craig Robinson is quoted in USA Today. Perhaps that's because the candidates are all 16th seeds.

Matt Whitaker has the early post position, though Kim Reynolds, and by extension her boss, are openly backing Reynold's state senate successor Joni Ernst. It would drive us Dems insane to see Iowa get out of the Mississippi No Women club with a Republican. (Though I hear a promising female rumor from the 1st CD.)

But I have a soft spot for the first Officially announced Republican Paul Lunde. We last heard from him ten cycles ago and he has a long c.v. of defeats. His first race was a 1988 congressional loss to Neal Smith. He lowered his ambitions to the legislature in 1990, lost that. In 1992 he tried again against Smith, and as I recall the party pretty much scuttled him. Lunde's last run was for Congress again in 1994 when he lost the primary to Greg Ganske, who went on to upset Smith.

That's below Some Dude. That's Perennial Candidate. Compared to Lunde, Bob Krause for Governor looks serious.