Blumenthal, Petit on Connecticut ballots with Trump, Clinton

There’s a lot of red on that map. Democrat Howard Aison will face Republican, Conservative, Independence, Reformed candidate Kelli McCoski.

The reverse is true for Republicans. GOP voters’ revulsion with their Brain Trust’s immigration policies was a major reason we got Trump.

Election officials in New Mexico’s most populous county reported smooth balloting Tuesday, with 30,000 ballots cast as of noon in Bernalillo County. About half thought there was too little immigration enforcement, about half supported attrition, they were evenly split on enforcement-first vs. amnesty-first, and a near-majority backed a legal immigration level half or less of what we have today, with only 13 percent wanting increases.

NY voters on Tuesday were choosing which party controls the state Senate, though it may take a while for the victor to emerge.

Republicans and Democrats each retained governorships Tuesday in hard-fought battles in IN and West Virginia as voters picked chief executives in a dozen states.

Arizona – Republican Senator John McCain, 80, faces an unexpectedly strong challenge from Democratic US Representative Ann Kirkpatrick, 66.

The other issue is that Republicans only have one seat they may be able to seize from Democrats. They already control the governor’s mansion. While some senators in both parties talk hopefully of a rebirth of bipartisan action next year, bitterness remains from Republicans’ blocking Merrick Garland’s high court nomination and some senators suggesting they would take the unprecedented step of blocking any picks by Clinton. But they may be a victim of their own success: They are holding 26 districts that Obama won not just once, but twice.

Democrats were trailing in targeted races in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Virginia that would be crucial to putting a dent in the GOP’s control of the House. Sue Serino is defending her seat against Democrat Terry Gipson.

Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer will be re-elected in New York, CNN projects.

The winning path to the White House is kind of like filling out an NCAA basketball March Madness bracket at work.

Sarah Binder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a political science professor at George Washington University, agreed that a loss of fewer than 10 seats would be a net positive for Republicans.

But for Statehouse habitues, it means watching every move, every gesture, who’s talking to whom, and trying to figure out where the real power is going to be in the upcoming two years of Kansas government and how it is going to affect what happens to them and to their clients, whether they be welfare recipients, highway contractors, school teachers or payday loan companies.

Rob Portman has defeated former Gov. Ted Strickland in a race that once looked like one of the Democrats’ best bets to flip a Senate seat. Democrats have gained that many seats in just five of the 35 elections since World War II, including only once — in 2006 — since the 1970s. The Democratic majority in the Kentucky House is the last such majority in the South.

Lay of the land: Here, too, Republicans have a huge cushion – but will actually be on defense because of it. And Republicans control more than two-thirds of statehouse chambers.

Republicans can tick off reasons why it would be good to elect more GOP lawmakers: Periodic ethics lapses by legislative Democrats; Rhode Island’s long-running economic struggles.

NY voters will decide on Tuesday whether the Republican Party maintains control of the state Senate or Democrats get total control of state government. Now Republicans have a 2-to-1 advantage over Democrats. The race in a swing district now held by retiring Republican Rep. Chris Gibson is a marquee matchup as the Democrats hope to cut into or possibly erase Republicans’ 247-188 majority in elections on Tuesday.

“He shouldn’t have done that”, Pelosi said in remarks to reporters at the Democratic National Committee.

“I want to see everything honest”.

What could happen Tuesday: There are 26 competitive chambers, 18 Republican and eight Democratic.