This is not a baseball score. Rather, these are the two congressional districts that had special elections in the last week. Democrats won in Pennsylvania and Republicans in Hawaii. Much has been made about the fact that the Hawaii district is the one where President Obama is from. To me that is not a big deal. what is a big deal, however, is this. the republican vote in both districts is substantially higher than it has been in the past. Burns in Pa got 45% of the vote, a level no Republican has reached for decades in a congressional vot. Djou in Hawaii got 40% of the vote (which gave him a plurality), again a level no republican has achieve for a long long time in the district.
Many of the pundits are quick to point out that Djou is unlikely to win again in November when there will be only 1 Democrat on the ballot to oppose him. Strangely, these are mostly the same pundits who say that Burns will never win in November because the Democrat will have the advantages of incumbency. wouldn't it be nice if there were more pundits who were truly non-partisan?
To me, the true meaning of these two special elections is more than the identity of the winners. These two guys will be in congress for a few months and that will look good on their resumes. the realimportance is what the results indicate as to the nature of the current electorate and how this will impact November. Here there is no surprise. Republican votes were higher than normal and Democrats lower. this was the case even with the two major primariesin Pennsylvania that drew out thousands of extra democrats to vote. All in all, it is a good sign for the GOP for November in my opinion.
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