Election analysis: McKenna weakness and a lack of a presidential primary impacted downticket.

Face it: RINO Rob has run a pathetic, leftist-oriented campaign.  As it sits right now, in the general, he's toast, along with his fellow leftists Dunn and Finkbeiner.

That's the kind of thing that happens when you shuck principle for misperceived enlightened self-interest.  Combined with a lack of a presidential primary and we achieved an utterly abysmal turnout that is likely to be around 25% as a result... far below Kimsey's estimate of 38%.

Locally, Marc Boldt was hurt by the idiocy of the combination of the Democratian's overkill efforts to drag Boldt over the line and Brent Boger's bail out of the GOP done exclusively in an abortive effort to help Boldt, as it served to remind everyone that Boldt has turned as hard a left as McKenna, etc in a GOP County that McKenna couldn't even win.

The vote in that commissioner race is very close.  There are several hundred to a few thousand votes left to count in the commissioner district.  Usually, those votes will have a right break, although that hasn't happened so much over the last few cycles due to party incompetence and a pathetic GOTV effort.

Madore's effort should bear fruit; his troops worked long and hard to get the votes out; Boldt had no noticable effort, apparently relying on his obvious democrat strength to get it done... but many democrats just couldn't bring themselves to mark their ballots for him.

The other surprise was Brandon Vick's apparent weakness in the 18th; running essentially unopposed, he only got 58% of the vote as of this writing.

The Silliman Paulbot effort was a joke from the getgo... Silliman got hammered 60-40, even for his PCO effort.... as was the idiocy of the rest of the so-called PCO Alliance... (Their PCO candidate in this precinct, having worked hard with a relative blizzard of signs managed an abysmal... and distant... second... to....

Marc Boldt.  Marc got 58%... the Paulbot?  22.

That's right, Marc Boldt, who has been rejected by the local GOP and who likely will find himself rejected by the voters as well, is now the PCO for the 620.

How ironic is that?  The so-called PCOA is likely a failure... a total waste of time as the people will, once again, send the message that Paulbots are not wanted to run the GOP.

One of the more stellar lights of the movement... Cory Barnes?  Hammered, 59% to 41%.  Here's a clue, Cory: your extensive misdemeanor criminal traffic record DOES matter.  One precinct, the 903, has a tie.  Shari Hildreth, Jaime Herrera's deputy district director, apparently found the PCO going's on to be a little more difficult than she'd like.

In the other commissioner race, Tom Mielke (40%) and Joe Tanner (31%) are going into the general. 

The general is likely to be very close.  The democratian, of course, will hammer Mielke like a gong, much like they will go after Madore.

Marc Boldt's abysmal outcome, however, OUGHT to give them pause.  But their arrogance and superiority won't allow them to just put the news out there without slant, bias, exaggeration and flat out lies.

Tanner has to be at least somewhat disappointed.  Spending around $80,000 and getting 31% of the vote isn't particularly encouraging when your opponent has spent a great deal less.

Concerning the rest of the legislative scene, the drama of the night has to go to the Benton-Probst race; with around 130 votes separating them, Probst's despicable and dirty campaign mailers likely causing him more harm than good; chances are now that the gloves are going to come off and Pr5obst might find himself flushed out from under the cover of his bogus, moderate meme.

In the 17th district seat, one, Julie Olsen was sent a message concerning her abortive support of the CRC scam when 12% of the people in the district voted for a guy they'd never heard of as an alternative.  Memo to Olson: get off the scammer-support kick.

Liz Pike, Ann Rivers, Paul Harris and the rest of the GOP did as expected.  Unfortunately in the 49th, it wasn't pretty for the GOP as they were essentially hammered in Charlie's Country for all seats... also to be expected.

Legislatively, I forecast a 12-3 GOP/Dem split, and I'm sticking to it.

On the county commission, I believe it is likely to be Madore (Boldt OR Battan) and Mielke.

More later.