Polls are closed in New Jersey, which is holding an extremely rare Wednesday special election to fill the seat of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a Democrat, is hoping all the polls are right and that he'll defeat his Republican opponent, former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, by double digits.
Results: AP (summary) | AP (by county)
6:26 PM PT (Steve Singiser): To get those just checking in all caught up, here is where things stand in the Booker-Lonegan race for the Senate seat vacated by the passing of Frank Lautenberg: with just under half of the precincts in, Democrat Cory Booker enjoys a 55-44 lead over teabagging Republican Steve Lonegan.
Doing some back-of-the-envelope math based on counties that have largely reported, it looks like the margin should change little from this point on. In fact, the DSCC sent out a victory press release shortly after the polls closed.
6:30 PM PT (Steve Singiser): With the last smattering of precincts coming through, we are now over 50 percent of precincts reporting. Democrat Cory Booker now leads 56-43 over Steve Lonegan.
6:31 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Never forget!
I CAN'T BELIEVE NEW JERSEY DOESN'T CARE ABOUT STRIPPER TWEETS BLARGHBLARGHBLARGH
— @kkondik
6:35 PM PT (Steve Singiser): The Associated Press calls the election for Democrat Cory Booker. With 55 percent of precincts in, he leads Steve Lonegan by a 55-44 margin, or roughly 81,000 votes.
6:49 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Up to 70 percent of precincts are now in, and Booker maintains a 56-43 lead. As Greg Giroux noted tonight, Booker becomes just the fourth African-American U.S. Senator whose election was affirmed by popular vote.
7:00 PM PT (Steve Singiser): All that is left, at this point, is pinning down an exact margin of victory for U.S. Senator-elect Cory Booker. With 75 percent of the vote tallied, his lead remains at 13 points, which is right in the wheelhouse of where pretty much every pollster had it (the moral of the story, yet again: polling works!).
And, with that, we here at Daily Kos Elections bid you a good evening. The next time we gather together for liveblog goodness will be this Saturday, when the first round of the special election in Louisiana's 5th district kicks off. And, of course, in just under three weeks, the "big dog" of the 2013 election cycle will kick off on Tuesday, November 5th.
Enjoy your evening, everyone!