Now that the Lamont upset has been thoroughly analyzed, it's time to look at why Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia - this sites second favorite member of congress - lost her re-election.
After conceding to challenger Hank Johnson, McKinney reminded her supporters of her accomplishments, like getting 500 kids into a job training program.
"Areas with high concentrations of voters currently serving in the armed forces were more likley to support Lieberman, but areas with high concentrations of veterans were more likely to support Lamont."
Update: Another key point:
"Lamont did best among traditionally high-turnout voters."
In case you missed the fireworks, collegeague Jacob Gershman has the story on the KT McFarland and John Spencer debate here.
Somewhere in the mayhem, they got around to discussing Rudy Giuliani and George Pataki, key figures in the party they hope to represent in November.
On Giuliani, Spencer said the former mayor was too liberal to support for president. KT said he wasn't. But on George Pataki, they agreed: Both said he has not been an excellent governor.
So how well did the mud-slinging help Senator Clinton's re-election effort?
Leon Nayfakh, our intern on the Clinton beat today, had his ear glued to WNYC radio where he heard Rep. Charles Rangel philosophical musings about Senator Clinton's race against, um, who?
CR
"You may think I'm putting you on but i have no clue as to who is opposing Senator Clinton. Where's he from?"
Where better to start today than with the man who wants to be New York's Ned Lamont...Jonathan Tasini.
Standing outside the City Hall train station, Tasini discussed the impact Lamont's race has (or may have) on his race against Senator Clinton (it "raises the profile of the anti-war movement") and how he feels about her new-found outspokenness about the war ("It's a complete smoke screen.").
Update: New York Sun intern extraordinaire Leon Nayfakh reports that at Clinton's first event in Harlem this morning, she told reporters Lieberman "has to search his conscious and decide what is best for Connecticut and do what's right for the Democratic party."
With less than 4% of the precincts reporting, Lamont leads Lieberman 59.77 to 40.23 [via Hotline].
Official results in Georgia show challenger Hank Johnson leading incumbent Rep. Cynthia McKinney 73.3% to 26.7%, with 6% of precincts reporting [via Political Wire].
Note: Having my own Lieberman-esque issues with my laptop. For updates, check Hotline, and the Times homepage. And feel free to start claiming victory - or defeat - in the comment section.
If you thought Senator Lieberman's website was bad...
The Atlanta Journal Constitution is reporting a storm caused a power outage in one of the voting precincts inside the McKinney-Johnson race.
But don't worry about the voting machines.
An election official there tells AJC the voting machines "are running on batteries" and adds, "I'm just concerned about how long the batteries will last."
Over in Connecticut, challenger Ned Lamont's campaign is denying they had anything to do with Senator Lieberman's campaign site mysteriously disappearing.
By default, then, Lamont's blog is one of the only official pit stops for people to vent their frustrations.
"What an underhanded trick. I was going to vote for Ned, but now I'm going to vote for Joe. You should be scolded." -RB 12:11
"Someone with true leadership values whether they had anything to do with Lieberman's site being down or not, would take their own site down. If there is any question, this site should shut down..." -Mandy 12:20
And of course, somebody had to say it:
"MOST LIKELY THIS ATTACK ISN'T EVEN FROM THE U.S." -anonymous 1:00
KT McFarland and John Spencer are preparing for the Republican senatorial debate on Wednesday at Pace University.
Playing Spencer for KT's debate prep is her own adviser, Ed Rollins.
"He's our John Spencer," McFarland's spokesman, Bill O'Reilly said.
Spencer and his spokesman weren't available to chat because they're preparing for the debate right now!
Any guesses who they have playing KT?
Update: A pretty knowledgable reader, with a little too much time on his hands, thinks the person who should play KT is Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, because they're practically twins!
Update II: Playing KT...no one!
"We couldn't find anyone that was that liberal or that eccentric," Spencer spokesman, Rob Ryan, told me.
How did Spencer practice for tonight's debate?
"Everyone sitting and we fired questions at him. We did it that way."
Here is a picture from the three-way endorsement today in Queens between City Council Members Alan Gerson of Manhattan, Hiram Monserrate of Queens and AG candidate Mark Green. [press release below]
Daniel Doctoroff wants Rep. Charles Rangel to stay in congress, no matter what happens in November.
After speaking at the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce 110 Anniversary luncheon at Columbia University, Doctoroff told me he considers Rangel "one of the great leaders New York has ever had."
Mark Green is having a cross-endorsement press conference this afternoon in Queens with City Council Member, and state senate candidate, Hiram Monserrate.
They both bill themselves as progressives running against Democratic establishments. As a sign of how deep that bond is...Monserrate got a nice chunk of change from Green, according to his July filing.
For Monserrate, it's a major endorsement from an well-known figure of the Democratic Party. For Green, it's a way of linking up with an active political operation inside the home borough of his main rival, Andrew Cuomo.
If you have a prediction, colorful dispatch, or quasi-insightful take on what's happening in those races (or any others taking place today), don't keep it to yourself!
Who better to call the race in Connecticut before it even starts than the people who read this site?
Only one agreed to put a name next to their prediction (chickens!). You can leave your predictions for tomorrow's race in the comment section. Closest predictions gets endless bragging rights.
Now that Grace Meng isn't runnig for her father's Assembly seat in Flushing, it's worth noting who is on her Committee to Fill Vacancies.
According to a campaign source, the committee includes John Bayas, Susan O'Brian and...Grace's father, who already won the seat once.
No word yet on who, if anyone, the committee will pick to take Grace's place.
Also worth noting, according to this same campaign source...Grace's campaign had about $200,000 on hand [only $125,000 here], a mailing that just went out to voters this weekend, and an endorsement from Freddy Ferrer on the way.
Grace Meng is out of the race to succeed her father, Assemblyman Jimmy Meng of Flushing, the state's first Asian-American legislator.
"This was as a result of a challenge by Assembly candidate Ellen Young on my residency," Grace said in a statement [full text after the jump].
"I do not want my family, friends, neighbors and supporters to go through a lengthy trial."
Update: As for that other Meng issue - the investigation into Jimmy Meng's 2004 razor-thin victory over freshman Assemblyman Barry Grodenchik - it's still not finished, according to a spokeswoman for the Queens District Attorney's office, Nicole Navas. She said it is "still ongoing." Just like it was in April.
"Top state Republican Party officials say they don't know who is behind one of the largest contributions the party has received in years," colleague Jacob Gershman reports today.
Connecticut isn't the only place where the less-moderate wing of the Democratic Party is counting on a victory this Tuesday.
In Georgia, both candidates in the run-off election for the Democratic primary, Rep. Cynthia McKinney and challenger Hank Johnson, seemed to have trouble answering a question about whether America is a force for good or ill?
Johnson, after meandering for almost a minute, finally settled on, "Well, I think it's good. If you limit me to that, good."
McKinney first said America could be good, (as in one day, but not now). When asked, again, if the country is good (as in right now), she just smiled silently, declining to answer.
Comment Corner: AG Race, Diversity, and Endorsements
One reader thinks the attorney general's race has gotten "considerably more boring," since the end of May.
Man on the Streets thinks Charlie Rangel's talk about retirement is a "negotiating tactic."
After protesters complained about the lack of African Americans on John Sabini's staff, Jo, wonders about his opponent in the Democratic primary. "Why doesn't Hiram Monserrate have more Latnios in senior positions on his staff?
And Peter thinks "Spitzer will make Schumer pay" for not endorsing him publicly yet.
Earlier, I posted a clip from the only debate between Ned Lamont and Joe Lieberman. In the clip, they go back and forth on the Iraq issue. In a nail-biter of a poll inside the comment section, Lamont and Lieberman drew to a statistical dead heat.
Fred Dicker just had Sen. Charles Schumer on his radio show, and asked him who he will vote for in the gubernatorial and attorney general Democratic primaries.
For governor, Schumer said he won't say; for attorney general, Schumer said he hasn't decided.
Robin Lyde, whose son was recently killed by gunfire, is the latest gun violence victim to appear in David Yassky's campaign literature. In it, she says:
"I'm supporting David Yassky for congress because I know he's been a leader on gun control and will do everything he can to get guns off the streets."
State Senator Martin Connor of Brooklyn- who is also a pretty knowledgeable election lawyer - is trying to get get his primary opponent, Ken Diamondstone, knocked off the ballot. [City Hall News]
The City is still looking to give money to charities run by outspoken Independence Party activist Fred Newman. [Daily Politics]
One-time presidential candidate, Wesley Clark, is scheduled to campaign with Democratic congressional candidate, Eric Massa, in Rochester today. [MSNBC]
And NYPress scribe, John DeSio, thinks "we could have read the candidates press releases out loud and learned as much," from last week's debate between Eliot Spitzer and Tom Suozzi.
The protest outside the office of State Senator John Sabini of Queens for not having enough racial diversity African Americans on his staff seems, well, pretty lame.
As Sabini's spokesman explained, four out of Sabini's twelve staffers are African American.
I just spoke Charles Rangel, who put a nice spin on the whole retirement talk.
He thinks the House will change hands, and didn't want to get too specific about the 'what ifs' if it doesn't.
Knowing how much you guys like Rangel interviews, I'm working on transcribing this one.
For now, settle for this teaser.
When I asked him about another Democrat becoming chairman of the ways and means committee should the House switch hands, Rangel suggested I was smoking pot.
"I would not put everything on the table if I thought for one minute we would lose," Rangel told the AP in this story.
But this piece in Time [via The Note] gets behind Rangel's optimism.
"Republicans spooked by the prospect of actually losing control of congress this fall have been planning...[to] focus on the Democratic committee chairmen who would likely take over if the GOP lost its House majority in the November midterms. But the Democrats, sources tell TIME, have come up with their own way to ease any potential voter fears about the members in question -- they've started making it very clear that no ranking members are guaranteed committee chairmanships."
"Charles Rangel, the dean of New York's congressional delegation, said yesterday he'd resign his seat if Democrats don't take control of the House in November."
"A company under investigation by Eliot Spitzer's office last year offered one of the attorney general's closest friends, Lloyd Constantine, $1 million to attend a single meeting with Mr. Spitzer in the hopes that his last-minute intervention would lead to a lower settlement, Mr. Constantine said."
Also worth noting:
"The sort of offer described by Mr. Constantine in an interview with The New York Sun yesterday is an unusual occurrence, though not illegal, lawyers contacted by the Sun said."
"Reporters might find themselves, as a matter of practical necessity, contacting sources the way I understand drug dealers to reach theirs--by use of clandestine cell phones and meetings in darkened doorways."
That's from the dissenting opinion in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision today, allowing the federal government access to telephone records of New York Times reporters.
The case hinged on whether a reporter's first amendment protection should include the records of phone companies used by reporters.
