Calling the election results ahead of time

by David Grand
November 8, 2006

I had no choice other than to put the cart before the horse, since my column had to be submitted by Friday and wouldn't be published until the day after the election.

But I've done a lot of things ass backwards in my life, so that didn't deter me from foretelling the outcome of the key local, state and congressional elections, albeit I'm no clairvoyant, shaman or even have a Ouija board to guide me.

However, in the remote possibility that one or more of my picks were wrong, then all I could say, is that having to eat my words has never given me indigestion.

And while Republicans will no doubt scoff at the idea that I, a lifelong Democrat, could be objective and refrain from making my personal preferences known, Democrats, on the other hand, will brand me as a heretic for doing the unpardonable by putting so many Republicans in the winning column.

• Local level
  • Home Rule proposal : Defeated soundly. Not because it lacked sufficient merit, but because any change in the county's form of government was viewed by many traditional-minded Carrollians as an un-welcomed and unnecessary departure from the way the county has operated since 1837, when Martin Van Buren became President, and 42 years before Edison invented the light bulb.
  • Commissioners: Gouge and Minnich won handily, with Beard squeaking by Zimmer, who will surely blame the vicious, untrue, attack ads for his being denied a steady job, a plush office and leased car.
  • State Delegation: Incumbents returned to their lofty, "catbird seats." But feathers will be flying, like never before, between the independent thinkers, Krebs and Elliott, and Haines and his handmaidens.
• State level
  • Governor : Ehrlich won in cliffhanger, due to his mounting a more aggressive campaign, without boasting too much about his dubious accomplishments, and keeping O'Malley constantly on the defense.
  • U.S. Senator : Cardin melted Steele, despite his efforts to distant himself from Bush and by wearing a nonpartisan mask.
  • Congressional : Bartlett silenced Andrew Duck's quacking. But he who quacks last quacks best, which Duck might do later on.
• National level
• House : Democrats gained  27 seats, which caused Karl Rove to have apoplexy over his first defeat since he began thinking for Bush in Texas.
• Senate : Democrat's hopes of capturing six more seats to put them in the driver's seat turned out to be a pipe dream, by winning just three more seats.   
• Governors : Of the 36 Governor's chairs up for election, the Democrats easily overtook the Republican's prior lead of 28 to 22.

Hopefully, I'll be able to catch up on my lost sleep once this gut-wrenching election is over, instead of tossing and turning in bed counting motor-mouthed candidates and their spin doctors jumping over the fence rather than sheep.