ID-Pres: McCain called the winner early. Obama scores county wins in Blaine and Teton, leads in wins Latah, exactly tied down in Bonner. Ada is close with counting continuing at a snail's pace. This marks the first time since 1996 the Democratic presidential candidate has won more than one Idaho county.
ID-Sen: Not a good night for Larry LaRocco, who is trailing Obama in total votes statewide. Jim Risch cruising in the high 50s. Independent Rex Rammell is hovering at five percent.
ID-01: TOO CLOSE TO CALL. Walt Minnick currently leads by about 4,500 votes with some blue friendly Panhandle counties still out. Hang on tight!
ID-02: Mike Simpson in a walk. Debbie Holmes was looking decent earlier tonight but has since slipped into the mid-20s.
Legislature: Democrats have won or are leading all their Boise seats. Jerry Shively loses re-election bid in Idaho Falls (damn!). That's the only seat changing hands I've seen thus far.
Update 1: With statewide 762 of 956 precincts reporting
Minnick - 128,351 51%
Sali - 123,681 49%
Still lots of precincts out in Canyon and Ada Counties. Shoshone County hasn't reported at all yet.
Update 2: Latah County is now completely in and becomes the third Idaho county won by Obama. Moscow and the University of Idaho (Sarah Palin's alma mater) is in Latah County.
Minnick's lead is now about 5,200 votes.
Update 3: 144 precincts left to report statewide. Of those around 80 are in Ada and Canyon Counties. Still nothing at all from Shoshone County. Minnick continues to maintain a 51-49 edge with about a 4,800-vote cushion now. This could still go either way.
Update 4: Less than 100 precincts left statewide. Shoshone is trickling in at 63-37 Minnick. Looks like some red Canyon County precincts came in as well. Minnick's lead is now just shy of 4,000.
Update 5: All except the following counties in ID-01 are done: Ada, Boise, Bonner, Canyon, Nez Perce and Shoshone. Minnick currently leads in all but Canyon and Boise, and there's only one precinct still to go in sparsely populated Boise County. Minnick's lead is now 3,791.
Bingham in ID-02 also has some precincts out, but they're unlikely to affect any outcomes.
Obama is unlikely to add any more counties to his win total at this point. He'll have to be satisfied with Blaine, Latah and Teton.
Update 6: Shoshone, Nez Perce, Boise and Ada (finally) are now finished. Shoshone in particular went big for Minnick, helping him to get back close to +4,500 on Sali. Only five precincts remain in GOP stronghold Canyon County. The bulk of the outstanding precincts are now in Bonner County, which Minnick currently leads 54-46. It increasingly looks like Minnick just might flip the seat!
Update 7: Final update of the evening (morning? whatever). Minnick has a 4,583-vote lead with 939 of 956 precincts reported statewide. The majority of the outstanding precincts are in Bonner County, where he currently leads by 846 votes. Barring something really, really strange, it appears increasingly likely Idaho has just elected its first Democratic Member of Congress since 1992!
The Democrat with the most votes in Idaho overall is ... Barack Obama. He has over 15,000 more than Senate candidate Larry LaRocco. Obama won three counties in Idaho (Blaine, Latah and Teton), which is two more than either Al Gore or John Kerry managed. He also did quite well in Ada County, finishing only six points behind John McCain. Not bad considering Dubya beat John Kerry by 23 points there four years ago.
LaRocco is currently 23 points behind Jim Risch, four points worse than his performance against Risch two years ago in the lieutenant governor race. To say this is disappointing is an understatement.
Democrats held all of their Ada County seats in the Idaho Legislature, including several open seat contests. Unfortunately Jerry Shively was defeated in Idaho Falls, so the GOP is +1 in the Idaho House for the night. The Idaho Senate remains unchanged for the second cycle in a row.