I have to be buoyed by my county election results. All politics is local, right? Start local?

[tpsbmam]

I'm in Buncombe County, NC. It encompasses Asheville and surrounding areas. Asheville is progressive but the surrounding areas are more mixed and have been able many times to sway the votes to the Republicans.

The state results SUCK! A number of incumbent Dems held their seats but both the state senate and house of representatives flipped to Rethuglican control.

My county was more encouraging.

First, the pathetic: election turnout was an "historic" midterm low -- 45%.

So here are the election results for my county:

Straight party votes: Dem 58.8%, Rep 39.34%, Libertarian 0.86%

Senate: Elaine Marshall (Dem) won my county (POS-R Burr won state)
House of Reps: POS blue dog Shuler beat bigger POS rethug Miller -- i.e., Dem won
NC Senate district 48: Rethuglican won
NC Senate district 49: Democrat won
NC House of Rep District 114: Democrat won
NC House of Rep District 115: Democrat won
NC House of Rep District 116: Rethuglican won
District Attorney: Democrat won
Clerk of Superior Court: Democrat won
Sheriff: Democrat won

And in the "nonpartisan" elections, of course I checked their records and their voter registrations (easy to do in NC). Interestingly, a few of these were some races that pitted Dem against Dem. But here are the results from a partisan perspective:

Supreme court associate justice: Democrat won
NC Court of Appeals Judge: Democrat won*
NC Court of Appeals Judge: Democrat won*
NC Court of Appeals Judge: Democrat won*
Superior Court Judge District 28: Rethuglican won
District 28 Court Judge: Democrat won*
District 28 Court Judge: Democrat won*

Court of Appeals Judge was interesting -- it was instant runoff with 13 candidates. The incumbent Democrat is in the lead with almost 22% of the vote, not enough to elect him without tallying 2nd & 3rd choices. The one in second place at the moment is a Rethuglican with....catch this.....a DUI conviction (he pled guilty).

*These are different seats on the courts.

Ed to correct stupid error.