electoral fun facts

There are five states where every House Representative is a Republican:

Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and (surprise!) Delaware. All but Nebraska have only one member of the House (Nebraska has three). Prior to the election Idaho had been on the list, but the Democrats flipped the western part of the state. Reference here. 

There are ten states where every House Representative is a Democrat:

Each state in New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut), New Mexico, and (surprise!) the two Dakotas (North Dakota and South Dakota). Unlike their GOP counterparts, just under half of these states are one-seaters (just the two Dakotas, Vermont, and Rhode Island). The People's Republic of Massachusetts has many seats, while New Mexico joined the club when the Dems flipped the two central and southern districts. 

Blue border:

With the Democrats flipping New Mexico's southernmost district, every single congressional district along the US-Mexico border is held by a Democrat. (This is possible because of California District 51, a gerrymandered area that connects part of San Diego with inland Imperial County through a narrow strip along the border.)

A "Bradley Effect" in Obama's home state?

Hawaii is as blue a state as they come (although the governor, Linda Lingle, is a Republican). Both seats in the House and both Senate seats are held by Democrats who won handily.

Obama, who was born here and is adored across the islands, won 72% of the popular vote here, one of his best performances in the nation (had Al Gore won his "home state in 2000, there'd have been no Iraq War). A sign of true love, right? 

But here's the odd thing: the two Democrats who won re-election this year, Mazie Hirono for urban Honolulu and Abercrombie for the rest of the state, tallied 77% and 76%, respectively. 

In case you're not following me here, let me point that out a bit more clearly: Obama got 72% of this blue state's vote, but the other Democrats got four or five points more. In other words, about 1 of every 20 Democratic voters decided they didn't want to vote for Obama, even though he was born and raised here. Weniriya? 

A true majority:

Senator Barack Hussein Obama (take back the name Hussein!) was the first Democrat since 1976 to win a majority (i.e., over 50%) of the vote. Jimmy Carter barely did it in 1976 (50.1%) and Clinton fell a fraction of a point shy of that mark in 1996 thanks to the third-party run of H. Ross Perot. In 1992 he was way short, and of course in 1980, 1984, 1988, and 2004, the Democratic runs were dismal failures. 

Even when Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000, he was almost two points shy of a majority, thanks to the evil seat-belt enforcer Ralph Nader, who insisted that there was no difference between the Democrats and the Republicans, and acted as a spoiler that caused the Republican candidate to grab power and prove him wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong.