catch the wave

(rather than multiple new posts as i hear new facts, i'll update this entry as i hear more)

projected winner names in bold

in indiana:
for the US house:
joe donnelly (D) has defeated incumbent chris "the count" chocola
john ellsworth (D) has apparently crushed incumbent john hostettler
mark souder (R) has bested tom hayshurst, keeping his seat
the indy star is projecting that baron hill (D) has defeated mike sodrel
cnn is projecting that julia carson (D) has kept her seat, defeating eric dickerson
and unsurprisingly, pete visclosky (D), steve buyer (R), dan burton (R), and mike pence (R) have retained their seats.

this means that of the three most-closely-watched house races in indiana, democrats have picked up all three seats. the fourth most-closely-watched was souder/hayshurst, which was considered a longshot, but hayshurst put on a very strong showing (around 46%). before this election, the indiana delegation was 7 republicans and 2 democrats. now it will be 5 democrats and 4 republicans. boo-ya!

dems appear ready to retake the indiana house. however, they also appear to have lost seats in the indiana senate. notably, greg "the flogger" walker (R) appears to have won in district 41.

in the marion county prosecutor race, carl brizzi (R) seems to have squeaked by melina kennedy. frank anderson (D) handily defeated steve davis for sheriff.

todd "captain election" rokita (R) has defeated joe pearson for secretary of state.

nationally:
in the senate:
bob casey (D) has vanquished rick santorum in PA
sheldon whitehouse (D) has defeated lincoln chafee in RI
sherrod brown (D) has defeated mike dewine in OH
ben cardin (D) has defeated michael steele in MD
joe lieberman (non-democrat from the joe lieberman party) has apparently kept his seat in CT
amy klobuchar (D) has won it in MN
hillary clinton (D) has regained her seat in NY

at this point (2am), it looks likely that democrats will take enough seats to regain the US senate.

democrats are definitely going to retake the US house. as of 2am, they've already picked up 26. msnbc is currently predicting a gain of 39.¶