Newington’s mayoral race was a laugher — McBride 62%, Hedberg 38% — after a very close race between the same two candidates two years ago, when the mayor’s office was vacant. No such suspense this year. Congratulations, Mr. Mayor!


Mayor McBride celebrates with his supporters at the Knights of Columbus hall.

Hedberg congratulates McBride on his victory.

As you can see, having voted for the losers, I went and partied with the winners, once I knew they were going to win. Yep, that’s me, Mr. Bandwagon. :)

Seriously, though, despite how I voted, I’m happy McBride won. After voting, I heard some things about Hedberg that made be begin to regret my vote. So, woohoo, way to go Democrats! :)

Democrats also maintained their majorities on the town council and the board of education. And, in the referendum, voters approved a renovation of the police station — which the Dems supported — 3,519 to 2,987.

Incumbent Democratic mayors also won as expected in Connecticut’s biggest cities: Bridgeport, New Haven, and the capital city, Hartford. But in New Britain, the state’s eighth-largest city and Newington’s next-door neighboor, four-term incumbent Lucian Pawlak was stunned by Republican challenger Timothy Stewart in an apparent tax revolt.

Meanwhile, the tiny town of Chaplin elected its first Democratic first selectman in 181 years, as challenger Rusty Lanzit defeated incumbent Eugene V. Boomer, Jr., 510 to 236.

Elsewhere around the nation, the Republicans won the governor’s race in Kentucky, and the Mississippi governor’s race is close.

UPDATE: It’s official: the GOP has captured the Mississippi governor’s chair for the first time since Reconstruction.

David Letterman and Regina Lasko had their baby last night, a 9-pound, 11-ounce boy named Harry Joseph Letterman. You can hear Dave talk about it on the air tonight!

McBride 5394, Hedberg 3290. I went to the Democrats’ party to watch the results come in.

Here’s a close-up of my vote from earlier today. In this precinct, it’s McBride 718, Hedberg 378; and Yes 455, No 355.

Counting the votes at E. Green School in Newington. Looks like a typical Democratic landslide, unless this precinct is very atypical. The referendum may be close, but Yes leads.

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From SpaceWeather.com: “Giant sunspot 486 unleashed yet another powerful solar flare today (Nov. 4th, 1950 UT), and this one could be historic. The blast saturated X-ray detectors onboard GOES satellites at X17.4 for 11 minutes. The last time such a thing happened in 2001 the flare was classified as an X20–the biggest ever. This one might be even bigger; stay tuned for updates.”

UPDATE: “We estimate that it must have been well above 20,” says this NASA page.

I just got back from voting, as you can see from the pictures below. In a rather contradictory move, I voted for Republican Jeff Hedberg for mayor, but then voted “yes” on the referendum for building an addition to the police station — which Hedberg staunchly opposes. Hehe. :)

I voted mostly Democrats for town council and entirely Republicans for board of education. Of course, the whole thing is a crock because most of the candidates for council and board win anyway, thanks to stupid “minority representation” rules. I also voted, as planned, for the lone minor-party candidate — a Libertarian — for town council. Woohoo!

Polls close at 8:00 PM, and I plan to be at my polling place to watch them tabulate the votes, as I usually do on election night.

Woohoo :)

Voting!

Okay, will do. :)

Campaigners outside the polling place.

David Letterman’s baby is apparently due any minute (or was this afternoon during taping), so Paul Shaffer is filling in for Dave on short notice on the Late Show. He’s no Dave, and his voice is a bit annoying to listen to for an hour (he seems to be perpetually shouting) but his jitters are to be forgiven under the circumstances. Best of luck to Dave and his girlfriend on the delivery!

UPDATE: Here’s a summary of the early part of the show, which I missed. I tuned in after the first commercial break.

ANOTHER UPDATE: CNN has an article about this now, but no details. Letterman is a very private person, and seems to be holding to that here.