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Montana US House Special Election Thread [GOP Hold]

We already got our wins in recent special elections in NH and NY. With red states like MT we don't need wins, we just need to make it close enough to scare the GOP for the midterms.

If we can scare the GOP with enough close races in special elections, then that allows the Dems to REALLY scare the GOP by going wide, investing all over.

I didn't mean to downplay those wins, just meant to say we need more wins.
 
A loss is a loss. Margins shrinking are good, of could, but a red seat remains a red seat regardless.

But a loss isn't really always a loss. If this shows a dramatic shift to Democrats, but we still lose the election (which we were never predicted to win), then we have a nice long list of actually winnable seats with that margin that have a good chance of shifting to the Democrats in 2018.

This seat is basically meaningless as far as governing goes, so winning or losing isn't really that important. Nothing Ryan puts forth is only going to pass by a single vote that this election could have decided, that's not really how the House works.

Closing the gap by only 5 points (Cook partisan lean has the district at R+11) is more predictive of small Dem gains in Congress, not the kind of 10-point swing that would gain us the House, I think. But I'll wait and see the results and what the experts say about it.

This isn't the only election, it's one data point. State seat margin shifts have been bonkers the last few months, and Georgia is a big one to watch as well, since that one could shift way more than 5.
 
I didn't mean to downplay those wins, just meant to say we need more wins.

And I'm saying that we'll get more wins when we scare the GOP more, because the more scared the GOP is the easier it is for the Dems to use all these donations and funds to go VERY wide on campaign investments.
 

SURGEdude

Member
So you are actively debating whether to vote for the Democrat or the Republican up to the day of the election normally?

I think they mean they want to have the most up to date info when they vote. That doesn't always mean voting for the R's, it could mean abstaining or voting 3rd party too.
 
Closing the gap by only 5 points (Cook partisan lean has the district at R+11) is more predictive of small Dem gains in Congress, not the kind of 10-point swing that would gain us the House, I think. But I'll wait and see the results and what the experts say about it.

If he can get it to 5 points or so, it's a 7-8 point swing, not five (it'd be R+3 or thereabouts). Not to mention the fact that right now, things are trending downwards for Republicans, so a 10 point swing would still be in play.
 

Zyae

Member
Nate said a 4-8 point win for the republican would be a good sign for Democrats nationally.

QUOTE=PKrockin;238105872]Closing the gap by only 5 points (Cook partisan lean has the district at R+11) is more predictive of small Dem gains in Congress, not the kind of 10-point swing that would gain us the House, I think. But I'll wait and see the results and what the experts say about it.[/QUOTE]

This is a +20 R state that dems havent won a house seat in decades.
 
They're not unimportant, but 1-2 state seats don't matter. Control of a state house? Now you're talking. Using a couple of state seats flipping as an indicator of a sea change is basing the claim on a very small sample.

They are more important in this case I think because Democrats have never been in them before

Quist's fate is not what's ultimately at stake here. The seat itself is nearly irrelevant.

Every seat is important.
 

KHarvey16

Member
They are more important in this case I think because Democrats have never been in them before



Every seat is important.

The seat is not as important as shrinking that +R number. A 5 point R win is almost exactly the same as a small D win. This specific seat isn't the prize.
 
Every seat is important.

- Democrats have no chance of getting the majority before 2018, so by raw numbers it's meaningless
- The GOP has a big enough margin that a single vote is irrelevant for passing stuff. Winning/Losing this isn't going to change anything that gets out of the House.

This seat isn't really important for Democrats to take right now.
 

Nuu

Banned
Why do 3rd parties run? How often do 3rd parties pull off a surprise win in elections?

The point of it is to build your party up gradually until you can win a few cycles in. In terms of successful third parties Minnesota and the North East have a history of some wins.
 

ZeoVGM

Banned
Imagine how terrible of a human being you have to be to hear the audio of of Gianforte literally assaulting another person and still voting for him.
 

Palmer_v1

Member
- Democrats have no chance of getting the majority before 2018, so by raw numbers it's meaningless
- The GOP has a big enough margin that a single vote is irrelevant for passing stuff. Winning/Losing this isn't going to change anything that gets out of the House.

This seat isn't really important for Democrats to take right now.

Every seat is important. If Dems get this one, it's still one seat closer to the actual tipping point, instead of just delaying things.
 

CazTGG

Member
Yes but they already said it would not be felony assault so it doesn't matter

That is remarkably disgraceful.

- Democrats have no chance of getting the majority before 2018, so by raw numbers it's meaningless
- The GOP has a big enough margin that a single vote is irrelevant for passing stuff. Winning/Losing this isn't going to change anything that gets out of the House.

This seat isn't really important for Democrats to take right now.

A win here would help motivate the Dem's base elsewhere, namely during the other upcoming special elections and 2018's midterms, not to mention it would mean they would need less Republicans to vote no on whatever vile legislation the GOP comes up with.
 

Aaron

Member
Imagine how terrible of a human being you have to be to hear the audio of of Gianforte literally assaulting another person and still voting for him.
You expect empathy from Republicans? 'Fuck you I've got mine' is their motto.
 
Every seat is important. If Dems get this one, it's still one seat closer to the actual tipping point, instead of just delaying things.

The entire map resets in 2018, every seat is up again. There's no "getting closer" before 2018, there aren't enough special elections before 2018 to hit the majority.
 

Dude Abides

Banned
Every seat is important. If Dems get this one, it's still one seat closer to the actual tipping point, instead of just delaying things.

But the tipping point won't happen until 2018 and this seat will be up at that time, so this particular election is not meaningful from a governance standpoint.
 
Imagine how terrible of a human being you have to be to hear the audio of of Gianforte literally assaulting another person and still voting for him.

They don't see "liberal reporters" as human, much less, American. They just see enemy and hate. Its always OK if "the other" is the one that is attacked. Much like how they don't see the wrong in an unarmed black person getting killed by police. To them they are already lower than the rest and probably "deserved it".
 

kirblar

Member
But the tipping point won't happen until 2018 and this seat will be up at that time, so this particular election is not meaningful from a governance standpoint.
Yup. Getting to run against GG Bodyslammer is probably a good thing in 2018.

If Quist does manage to come out below expectations in Bilings, Dems elsewhere need to heed that as a warning- running with a rural populist appeal will causes you to bleed voters among your actual base. This isn't an issue for candidates running in rural districts, but in mixed or suburban ones, that's probably a recipe for a loss.
 
Because most of the state voted long before he body slammed anyone.

You think people really care?

People vote for the "R". You could put anyone in the roll and it wouldn't matter.

The only way things change is if the main religious groups such as the Christian fundamentalists and fox news decide enough is enough and try to help America, not hurt it.
 
Closing the gap by only 5 points (Cook partisan lean has the district at R+11) is more predictive of small Dem gains in Congress, not the kind of 10-point swing that would gain us the House, I think. But I'll wait and see the results and what the experts say about it.

I think you might be misinterpreting the notation? I thought R+11 means that the Republican is expected to get 22% more of the vote than the Democrat. I could be wrong, but I thought I read this on GAF recently. I'm trying to look up exactly what the notation means (and what its name is) right now.
 
Couple of these seats and more people would have had to flip for the AHCA, though you're largely correct

Just like with the Senate confirmations, much of that was show. If the Republicans needed more people to vote for the AHCA (that time), they would have gotten them. They basically allowed everyone they could to vote against it to help their own campaigns.
 
So? Unless it's swinging control of a body, 1 out of 7,383 is less important than 1 out of 535. A handful are going to flip in special elections every cycle.

Don't be obtuse

Just like with the Senate confirmations, much of that was show. If the Republicans needed more people to vote for the AHCA (that time), they would have gotten them. They basically allowed everyone they could to vote against it to help their own campaigns.

That's not guaranteed at all. There's a reason that bill was shelved twice
 

digdug2k

Member
The only good thing that comes out of this is that a few (and I mean a few probably) members of the GOP realize their party really is morally bankrupt and get out of it. I don't even care where they go. Just... somewhere that has people who aren't deplorable human pieces of shit.
 

SURGEdude

Member
That's not guaranteed at all. There's a reason that bill was shelved twice

I think you're both right. On one hand I do think they would have found the numbers no matter what, by simply not releasing people to vote against it in fear of repercussions in future elections. On the other hand whittling down the number of benchers they can pull from makes that a much harder feat to pull off. Especially if there is internal resistance.
 
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