Now this is good news to wake up to, although thanks to my fellow baja kossacks it comes as no surprise. Local news sources are calling the race for Ron Barber, as their analysis has determined that the ballots left to be counted will not help Republican Martha McSally beat his current lead.
Thanks to some nice folks like biscobosco (some of whom I met yesterday) I already knew that the math suggested things were going our way. Now, we're getting confirmation from the local news outlets.
Ron Barber, the Congressional aide who was shot alongside U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and then won her seat in a special election earlier this year, has won the right to represent her district for a full term after a hard-fought race against former Air Force combat pilot Martha McSally.
The race for the 2nd Congressional District had been too close to call for 10 days, but on Friday an Arizona Republic analysis determined that McSally would not be able to muster enough votes from the remaining uncounted ballots to surpass the thin lead Barber had held in recent days.
Most of the remaining provisional ballots in the Southern Arizona district are from heavily Democratic precincts in Pima County, which have trended toward Barber throughout the election.
So, while AZ remains the crAZy haven of Joe Arpaio and Jan Brewer, we have retired the repulsive Russell Pearce, and now we're sending our first majority-Democratic delegation to Congress since I've been here (correction: we did in the 111th Congress, wasn't paying enough attention). The paper reports this is only the second time in the last 45 years.
Woot!
Ok, off to work.
10:48 AM PT: Just to add an update for the frequent question of 'where does that leave the House': if the remaining races swing our way it looks to be 201 D, 234 R. I'll correct that later if needed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Wiki reports the count at 199 D, 234 R with a couple undecided. 233 Republicans with one runoff between two of them. One of the TBD's in the House on their page is AZ CD-2. Another is Florida CD-18, where Allen West lost to Democrat Patrick Murphy, but West has refused to concede. And there is North Carolina CD-7, with the expectation of a recount there. Time will tell for NC Rep. Mike Mcintyre; that may be the last one to watch.