Not Quite All In The Family

1855.

Jeff Merkley's election as junior US Senator from Oregon (Senator Merkley has such a charming ring to it) averted a strange and interesting sort of record.

Gordon Smith happens to be part of a branch of the legendary Udall family, of whose name the most famous and well known to this generation would be perhaps Mo Udall, the congressman from Arizona's 2nd who Jimmy Carter defeated intraparty to become the Democratic nominee for President in 1976.

Actually you may know that. What you may not know that he's second cousins (to be precise, double-second cousins ... I'd explain it, but my eyes just glazed over) to Mark Udall, Democratic junior-Senator elect from Colorado, and Tom Udall, Democratic junior-Senator elect from New Mexico. Had Gordon been successful in re-election, there would have for the first time been three members from a single family holding Senate seats.

There are 100 Senate seats. There are 300,000,000 USAians. I mean, what are the odds here? You guys run the numbers, my brain is doing layout for the OryCon pocket program book.

On the downside, Gordon can't show his cousins around the Capitol. Upside? Probably would have been a little awkward.

Tags: Strange But True, US Senate, Gordon Smith, Jeff Merkley, Tom Udall, Mark Udall, Udall Family

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Repeat After Me: Tim Hibbetts Is NEVER Wrong

1852.

Been busy the last twelve hours, so I couldn't follow things as close as I'd like to have.

But, catching bits and pieces from the media coverage, after Jeff re-overtook El Gordo in the afternoon, the lead remained small for a while but Jeff's campaign didn't have to look back.

Just down the street, where Jeff actually lives, cars were parked outside his house all day as friends came by to help him watch the results.

And then, last night, the media started calling it; first, KGW, then The Big O.

Some outlets are relcutant to call the election as also is, understandably, the Smith campaign.

But it looks like the Real Democrat is winning.

And Tim Hibbetts remains the way to bet.

Tags: Jeff Merkley, Gordon Smith, US Senator Oregon

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Merkley's Got The Lead Back

1851.

About 1,200 up now, according to KPTV

Merkley, 645711. Smith, 644544.

Tags: jeff merkley, gordon smith

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Merkley's Closing In

1850.

Gap's down to just over 2,000 now.

Tags: Jeff Merkley, Gordon Smith

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Tim Hibbetts and the Case of the Disappearing Checkmark

1849.

Last night Tim Hibbetts at KPTV called it for Merkley, and I went with that, knowing that Tim seems never ever to be wrong.

We are on edge here watching the Smith lead, of course. We think Jeff should win! But the interesting thing is how the results on the KPTV web page have been displayed.

Hibbetts, noting that the the majority of the Multnomah County results had not been released (only 72 per cent of the vote has still been counted as of this writing, Smith at approx 623,000 and Merkley at approx 612,000, around a 12,000 vote difference) stood by his prediction as the night wore on and Jeff's lead became Gordon's lead.

Since I'm obsessive about Jeff winning, I stared at that KPTV web page for a lot longer than I should have. Eventually, sometime during the night ... about 3 am or so ... the red check declaring Jeff the winner came off.

In the morning, tho', on GDO, Tim's word was reported: he's standing by his projection, because the Multnomah vote still remains largely uncounted. And there's more than enough Multnomah County votes left over to swing this election the other way.

The checkmark went right back on.

Whoa. Just checked the KPTV page. Jeff's gained about 4,000 while Gordon's only up another 1000. Looks like the lead's shrinking. 625994 to 616745. Smith's lead was as great as 15000 at one point when I looked.

Jack's got a good explanation as to why it's premature to count Jeff out just yet.

We're staying with Jeff too.

Tags: Jeff Merkley, Gordon Smith, Oregon US Senate 2008, KPTV

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