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The Democratic Unraveling Began With Schools — Republican Glenn Youngkin's victory in Tuesday's Virginia gubernatorial election was about schools. It wasn't about Donald Trump, or inflation, or defunding the police, or Medicare for All, or President Joe Biden's infrastructure agenda.
Discussion:
The Hill, Townhall, The Federalist, Bloomberg and CNN
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Takeaways from Tuesday's elections: Bad omens for Democrats — The off-year elections for governor in Virginia and New Jersey tend to receive outsize attention, and the results are mined for deeper meaning about what they portend for the midterm elections the following year that determine which party controls Congress.


Virginia Results: Giving Up on Rural America Is Proving a Nightmare for Democrats — Margins matter. — About a year ago I wrote about the big “trade” that had taken place in our politics. Democrats were picking up former Republican “red dogs” who live in the suburbs.


How McAuliffe Lost Virginia — An uninspiring candidate with no big ideas and terrible messaging. — Going into the 2021 gubernatorial election in Virginia, a state that Joe Biden won by ten points, former governor Terry McAuliffe likely reasoned that he had a good chance of repeating his remarkable feat from eight years earlier:
Discussion:
Virginia Mercury, Washington Post, Associated Press, CNN, Mother Jones and Washington Examiner


POLITICO Playbook: Let the Democratic freakout begin — DRIVING THE DAY — THE NAIL BITER — New Jersey's gubernatorial race is still too close to call as you wake up this morning. With 88% of the expected vote in, incumbent PHIL MURPHY is trailing Republican JACK CIATTARELLI by just over 1,000 votes.
Discussion:
New York Post, New York Magazine, Fox News, The Daily Beast, ABC News and Instapundit


Virginia Election Results — Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime fixture in the national Democratic Party, is seeking a new term in a race widely viewed as a bellwether for the midterm elections. His opponent, Glenn Youngkin, a former private equity executive, has made hot-button cultural issues central to his campaign.
Discussion:
The American Independent, No More Mister Nice Blog, CNN, Alternet.org, Forbes, Slate, Variety, Breitbart, Fox News and The Guardian


A deserved Democratic defeat and Republican victory — It is always tempting to draw national conclusions from local elections, even more so in a gubernatorial election held in the White House's backyard the year after a presidential election. — All the more reason to start an analysis …
Discussion:
Persuasion, New York Magazine, CBS News, Los Angeles Times and Associated Press


5 takeaways from Republicans' big win in Virginia and the shocker in New Jersey — Republican Glenn Youngkin pulled off the upset in Virginia, defeating Terry McAuliffe in the governor's race. And in perhaps and even bigger stunner in New Jersey, Republican Jack Ciatarelli leads …
Discussion:
Newsweek, ABC News, NBC News, Washington Post, National Review, Vanity Fair, HuffPost, The Atlantic and The Hill

What Youngkin's Win in the Virginia Governor Race Means for Democrats
Discussion:
Washington Post, Bloomberg, NBC News, Forbes and The American Independent

Another American Revolution in Virginia
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Ace of Spades HQ


Trump campaign payments for ‘command centers’ at D.C. hotels could undermine executive privilege claim in Jan. 6 investigation — It was a month after the 2020 presidential election, and Bernard Kerik was starting to panic. The former New York City police chief and his friend Rudolph W. Giuliani …
Discussion:
Raw Story and Crooks and Liars


Shocker in New Jersey: Governor's race a nail-biter — New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli remained locked in a neck-and-neck battle early Wednesday, with the outcome too close to call in a race Democrats had long been confident about winning.
Discussion:
Fox News, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Daily Wire, New York Post, BizPac Review, CBS New York, The Dispatch, CBS Philly and Power Line
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Dem disaster: Did they lose ... *New Jersey*? — Joe Biden won New Jersey by sixteen points one year ago. Polls had incumbent Democrat governor Phil Murphy ahead outside the margin of error. Challenger Jack Ciattarelli jumped out to a lead in early vote counting, but everyone knew Murphy …
Discussion:
Washington Post


We Staked Out Eric Adams's House in Brooklyn And he came home. Twice! — Photo-Illustration: Curbed; Photos: Getty Images, Kevin Dugan, Willy Blackmore — Where the hell does Eric Adams live? For anyone trying to get a grip on the notoriously hard-to-pin-down Democratic candidate …
Discussion:
City & State New York, Insider and New York Post
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Incoming pro-cop NYC Mayor promises a more “business-friendly environment”
Discussion:
New York Post


House GOP campaign arm expands target list after brutal night for Dems — The National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee expanded its offensive target list on Wednesday morning following Democrat Terry McAuliffe's loss in Virginia's gubernatorial contest and a must closer …
Discussion:
Washington Times, National Review, Real Clear Politics, Daily Kos and ABC7
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NRCC Expands Offensive Map, Announces 13 New Targets
Discussion:
Fox News and The Daily Caller


The Threat From the Anti-Woke Right — America is confronting two powerful illiberal movements. Where you stand on their relative threats depends on where you live. … Late last week, my friends Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt published an important piece in the online journal Persuasion that contained a startling statistic.
Discussion:
New York Times and The Dispatch


Widespread Coronavirus Infection Found in Iowa Deer, New Study Says — The analysis by Penn State and Iowa researchers strongly indicates that deer are getting the virus from humans, worrying experts about a deep wild reservoir for the virus. — A new study of hundreds of white-tailed deer infected …
Discussion:
bioRxiv and New York Post


Trump urges judge to slow down Jan. 6 investigators' access to records — Former President Donald Trump is pleading with a federal judge in Washington to slow down the Jan. 6 committee's effort to obtain his White House records, instead asking her to order a document-by-document review that could take months.
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Trump's Odds of Escaping Criminal Charges in Georgia Do Not Look Good — Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger confirms the ex-president threatened him over the 2020 election results while demanding he magically come up with enough votes to beat Biden.
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, Fox News, Raw Story and The Hill


Why hundreds of QAnon supporters showed up in Dallas, expecting JFK Jr.'s return — In rainy Dallas with temperatures dipping into the low 60s, hundreds huddled with umbrellas, flags and signs to wait for history to be made on Tuesday. Some even brought folding chairs.
Discussion:
Insider, VICE, Dallas Morning News, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Digby's Hullabaloo, Mediaite, Raw Story, Althouse, D Magazine, Washington Examiner, Raw Story, Daily Kos, Lawyers, Guns & Money, POLITICUSUSA, Forbes, WGN-TV, Texomashomepage.com, Raw Story, Vanity Fair, Slate, Metro.co.uk and Gizmodo


Tucker Carlson's ‘Patriot Purge’ Is Too Crazy to Believe — and Too Dangerous to Ignore — The Fox News host's series on the Jan. 6 insurrection is a piece of fascist propaganda that wouldn't be out of place in 1930s Berlin — Patriot Purge, Tucker Carlson's new three-part series …


Cincinnati elects its first Asian American mayor, Aftab Pureval — Aftab Pureval won Cincinnati's race for mayor on Tuesday, according to unofficial results, making the 39-year-old lawyer the first Asian American elected to lead the city. — Pureval defeated David Mann …
Discussion:
WXIX-TV, Associated Press, WVXU and emptywheel


Facebook's Only Logic is Its Own Power — At the ongoing Web Summit in Lisbon, former British politician Nick Clegg, Facebook's (now Meta's) vice president of global affairs and communications, spoke Tuesday about his company's role in propagating extremism and harmful content.


Byron Brown's write-in gambit apparently worked — The former state Democratic Party chair worked with the GOP to seemingly defeat socialist India Walton. — Byron Brown at his election night party on Nov. 2. — When India Walton won the June Democratic mayoral primary for Buffalo mayor …
Discussion:
Democrat and Chronicle, Buffalo News, WIVB-TV, New York Post, Forbes and Washington Examiner


Minneapolis voters reject plan to replace Police Department — Nearly 18 months after George Floyd was filmed pleading for breath under an officer's knee, community groups remain divided on how to change the system. — TEXT SIZE — MORE — Minneapolis voters on Tuesday rejected …
Discussion:
CNN, National Review, New York Times, The Daily Caller, The Texas Tribune, New York Post, BuzzFeed News, Washington Free Beacon, ABC News, USA Today and TheGrio


Boston elects Wu, first woman and Asian American as mayor — BOSTON (AP) — Boston voters, marking a key milestone in the city's long political history, for the first time elected a woman and an Asian American as mayor on Tuesday, tapping City Councilor Michelle Wu to serve in the city's top political office.
Discussion:
CBS News, Washington Post, CBS Boston, New York Times, HuffPost, CNN, UPI, NBC News and NBC Boston


Carney Sees Watershed Moment for Climate Finance: COP26 Update — The COP26 summit turned its attention to the finance industry's contribution to the fight against climate change, with announcements overnight revealing that banks, asset managers and insurers representing more than $130 trillion have signed up to net-zero commitments.