2010 Kentucky Derby

In 2010, the top three finishers were Super Saver, Ice Box, and Paddy O'Prado.

A City Party in New York

Matt Yglesias notes some hostility to bike lanes among NYC politicians and suggests that

...partisanship is a very useful device of governance and democratic accountability. But large American cities are so lopsidedly Democratic and deal with issues that are so different from the national ones, that I think most cities would be better served by a different system. The ideal thing, I think, for places like NYC and DC would be to actually have freestanding separate municipal level political parties.

A municipal city-issues party seems like it would be possible in New York, given that the state is one of the few that didn't do away with electoral fusion, and so continues to have several viable third parties. New York has a system in which third parties who get more than 50,000 votes in a gubernatorial election qualify for ballot access statewide. Perhaps the reason there isn't a municipal-level third party is that the ballot access rules are geared to statewide elections?

Thankfully, New York Board of Elections breaks out election results for the 2010 governor's race for New York City. On all party lines, there were 1,366,054 votes for governor; 148,525 or 10.9% came from the parties that qualified based on performance that year. Of these parties (Independence, Conservative, Working Families, Green), only the Working Families Party got enough votes in NYC alone to qualify, with almost 77k votes. The Green Party qualified for the first time since 1998, winning ten thousand of its nearly sixty thousand total votes in NYC.

So, it's at least plausible for a municipal-issues party to survive in New York, at least if it were as well-funded and organized as the Working Families Party. That seems like a fairly high bar to clear. But: Be the change you want to see in the world.

Election results 2010

Ken Herndon concedes in the Metro Council race:

With all but two precincts reporting, James had 58 percent of the vote, while Republican Candace Jaworski had 13 percent, and incumbent Independent Deonte Hollowell had just 8 percent; the rest were write-ins.

Democrat Ken Herndon had tried a write-in campaign, but there were far fewer write-in votes cast than James received. County election officials will begin counting write-in votes Monday.

According to the election board, there are 14,013 registered votes in the district, which is centered in Old Louisville.

Herndon said around 8 p.m. Tuesday that he had called James to congratulate him on winning. “There was just too much straight party voting. It was too difficult to overcome,” Herndon said.

Background here and here. Full results later.

Paul beats Conway for the Senate seat, Yarmuth wins re-election, Fischer wins for mayor, and it looks like Ben Chandler won a very narrow re-election in KY-6.

Polls are closing in California, since it's about 10pm now: time to see what happens with Prop. 19.

EDIT (2010-11-11)
Write-in votes for Herndon counted; James win affirmed (C-J):

Democrat Ken Herndon, who ran a write-in campaign after the party’s executive committee selected David James as its candidate for the office, received 900 write-in votes, said Sue Toole, chief operations officer for County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw.

Based on recorded machine votes, James, a former Louisville police officer and Fraternal Order of Police president, had 3,070 votes, while Republican Candace Jaworski had 657 votes and independent incumbent council member Deonte Hollowell had 398 votes. Herndon had conceded the race to James election night.

Elections 2010

Today is Election Day. I'll be watching the results tonight on the PBS Newshour on KET, as well as WHAS11 and Fox41. The CNN Election Center has good information, and in addition to the Louisville Courier-Journal and the New York Times, there's the usual political blogs. Check out Marc Ambinder's hour-by-hour guide, or try Nate Silver's.

Other useful sites for elections and election watching include:

• Google Maps: Vote (and others)
• Kentucky Voter Information Center (ky.gov)
• Jefferson County Clerk Elections Center (jeffersoncoutyclerk.org)
• Vote Kentucky (ky.gov)
• Kentucky Board of Elections (ky.gov)
• Kentucky Unofficial Results (ky.gov)
• Jefferson County Unofficial Results (ky.gov)

See also various voter guides, including the LEO overview of the Metro Council and mayoral races and the C-J's 2010 Louisville/Kentuckiana Voter Guide.

The most interesting elections this cycle? Prop. 19 in California is the most important vote on cannabis legalization in years, and could have a huge impact on American drug policy. The Louisville mayoral and Metro Council races will be interesting, too, although all the write-in votes will require a hand count.