Bad news: Michelle Bachman won.

Good news: AP just called Indiana for Obama.  Why they're not calling North Carolina is beyond me.

Stevens being ahead seems a little odd, considering the exit poll. Begich won every single age group. So unless there's a selection against Stevens supporters (maybe they're ashamed of their choice), maybe we're just seeing an odd distribution of votes coming in (Stevens strongholds first).

The people of Alaska should be ashamed of pulling the lever for a convicted felon. This is beyond disbelief!

In Iowa the down-ticket Democrats are not doing as well as they should be in light of the results for Obama and Harkin:

http://www.bleedingheartland.com/showDia ry.do?diaryId=2165

We have picked up some Iowa House and Senate seats but also lost at least two House seats and at least one Senate seat, and we have narrowly missed on some really good pickup opportunities.

Our candidates in IA-04 and IA-05 ran better campaigns than the Democrats did in 2006, yet are getting beaten just as badly.

I'm surprised how close the vote is in Alaska.  You know what this might mean?  Senator Palin!  Stevens resigns and Palin resigns and is appointed Senator.  It could happen.  Alaska Democrats seem a bit disfunctional to me.  They have been handed scandal after scandal and haven't been able to break through.  Of course, there is a lot of votes to be counted and Begich is only down by 5,000.

The race is Oregon is also (to quote Dan Rather) "tick tight".  Since it is by mail, I suppose it will stay that close all the way.

Smith pulls ahead by 500 votes.  Coleman now leads by 1500, with 5% to go.

Really four active Senate races left.  Chambliss' may drop <50%, causing a runoff.  In Alaska, Stevens leads by 3,000 with 2/3s of the vote counted.  Coleman leads by 1350 with 95% counted, and Smith leads by 500 with 45% counted.

Wouldn't it be sad to see the Repubs get 4 Senate seats in which they got less than 50%?  It could be.  At this point, Smith, Stevens, and Coleman are below 50% and Chambliss may end up there, as well when everything is done in Georgia.

Multnomah and Lane counties are 75% outstanding and voting for Merkley in overwhelming numbers.  He'll carry the state by +4%.  

There must be more votes left in Alaska. According to the vote count right now is only 70% of what it was in 2004. Thats REALLY unlikely, especially since we had every reason to predict huge turnout there since Palin is on the ticket. Given that polls aren't usually 22 points off (that was the size of Begich's lead in the last poll) I have to think that there is a considerable chunk of votes left to be counted. Maybe the early votes? Note sure. But these numbers aren't right.

I just came from the Interior Democrats results-watching party in Fairbanks. js noble is correct when he notes that there is something wrong when turnout appears to be substantially down in the most hotly contested Senate and House races in Alaska's history.

NONE of the early votes cast in the last week have been counted - and there could be as many as 120,000 outstanding. There is no explanation for this forthcoming from the State Elections Board.

If these break even slightly Democratic  - and the party has been pushing early voting VERY hard here because of potential weather issues - then Begich should be able to close the gap.