Daily Kos

Another Special Election Win (NC-1)

by Power

Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 10:02:16 PM PDT

Also in today's elections, G.K. Butterfield (D) defeated Greg Dority (R) in a special election for Frank Ballance (D)'s seat.  He will be sworn in as early as Wednesday.

This was taken as a foregone conclusion, but it's good that it has happened nonetheless.  For those of you counting, the score is Democrats: 3 Special Elections; Republicans: 0.  It was expected in a safe Democratic district, but shouldn't South Dakota have been a safe Republican district by demographics?

If we want to win Congress, we have to make sure we do the little things right.  This is a good start.  (news story excerpt after the jump)

Butterfield Wins U.S. 1st District Special Election, Will Face Dority

POSTED: 10:09 pm EDT July 20, 2004
UPDATED: 10:33 pm EDT July 20, 2004

RALEIGH, N.C. -- In a preview of November's general election, Democrat G.K. Butterfield beat Republican Greg Dority in Tuesday's special election to fill out the term of former U.S. Rep. Frank Ballance.

With 122 of 263 precincts reporting unofficial results, Butterfield had 15,763 votes, or 69 percent, to 6,628 votes, or 29 percent, for Dority, a Republican. Libertarian Tom Eisenmenger had 415 votes, or 2 percent.

Butterfield will assume Ballance's former seat immediately, and could be sworn in to the U.S. House as early as Wednesday.

read more at http://www.nbc17.com/news/3557691/detail.html

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Permalink | 3 comments

  •  Tim Johnson held the SD (none / 1)

    House seat for 6 years, and Daschle held it for about 8 years, so it has a history of Dems. Although it had been over 65 years since all Ds held the SD delegation.

    I'm glad Butterfield won. Hopefully he won't have the scandal problems that plagued Balance. As someone else said, he also improved Balance's totals by 5% (and this is in a special election, not the general). Maybe this bodes well for Kerry/Edwards.

    by JamesB3 on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 10:06:36 PM PDT

  •  Amen (none / 0)

    "If we want to win Congress, we have to make sure we do the little things right."

    I agree 100%.  This philosophy should be a 'gimme', but it's something I think we (Dems) don't do well sometimes.  

    Attention to detail and organization are key.

    by CoolHandLuc on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 10:08:15 PM PDT

  •  A bird in the hand is worth two ... (none / 0)

    ... forgone conclusions.

    The Great Obama might saw the lady in half, but he won't make the elephant disappear. The Confluence

    by RonK Seattle on Tue Jul 20, 2004 at 10:16:59 PM PDT

Permalink | 3 comments