A lot of non-Northern cities have a ton of suburban/exurban/rural turf within their borders, as the annexation process is generally much easier (and of course, often politically motivated!).
It's too bad the process is so politically entangled. I think a lot of cities would benefit from annexing more of their core territory at least. Core urban areas being split up across multiple municipalities adds unnecessary friction and inefficiencies.
It's also kind of bad from a social and practicality stand point. The fact that Cambridge, Somerville, and Brookline are all legally separate from Boston is crazy. Most of Cambridge feels more Boston-y than a majority of Boston-proper (by land area)!
It weakens a major city's ability to move forward when too little of the metro area is outside of the city proper. I only know the area of Boston particularly well, but that relatively small city proper vs major metro area applies to SF, Atlanta, Seattle, Miami, and presumably others. Maybe it's less of an issue elsewhere than it is in New England, where county level government effectively doesn't exist.
My Rust Belt hometown passed up many annexation opportunities in the 1960s/1970s because it didn't want to shoulder the expense of extending (then-city owned) water and sewer lines into the new areas. Had it done so, it would have a much larger population and tax base today.
Oh, and the areas that it passed on annexing? They've since incorporated as a separate municipality.
At least Boston has the excuse that they did want to annex more of their neighbors, but the neighbors disagreed. The annexations started to end not long after Brookline declined to be annexed. Now you can see the border between the two on satellite imagery, because Brookline's population density is so much lower than the neighboring parts of Boston.
In a bit of a funny contrast to your hometown's history, Boston's successful annexations were done via the carrot of extending Boston's water and sewer systems to those areas.
Why? The current mayor is a Republican and Mobile is a city located in AL-01, which is surrounded by s lot of red in a R+27 dark red district.
This is actually quite good turnout on the Democratic Party side considering Democrats don’t normally get traction in AL except if they are Doug Jones.
The AL Democratic Party was in dire straits back in the 2010’s.
But the problem is, Mayor Sandy Stimpson has been elected as mayor of Mobile for three terms beginning in 2013, two years before Trump launched his presidential campaign. Stimpson’s been quite conservative, and with a length business background.
And if this isn’t enough, Stimpson unseated Mayor Sam Jones in his first race, a Democrat who happens to be black. If there were no known controversies or problems Jones had as mayor, this is more evidence AL Democratic Party is not doing enough to keep Democrats in power in the state OR perhaps turn out voters. Stimpson was originally elected with 54% of the vote..
Yes but as it turns out, I was looking at a pre-2024 map when I was assessing the City of Mobile.
Mobile is primarily in AL-02 now. The county of Mobile ended up being split up in AL-01 and AL-02. Originally the City of Mobile was more situated in AL-01, which could account for why Stimpson was able to get leverage.
Also, Mayors previous to Stimpson weren’t all Democratic. Previously, Sam Jones was in office for eight years until being unseated by Stimpson. Prior to Jones, Mike Dow, an Independent, served six years from 1989-2005. Prior to that, Arthur Outlaw, a Republican, was in office from 1985-1989.
I think yesterday’s election results may be reflective of the shift in redistricting.
Cherokee is entirely in and it's 63.7-36.3. Fulton still has plenty left. A linear extrapolation gives a final Fulton total of 10900 votes splitting 6400 D - 4500 R. That plus Cherokee would be R 18150 D 11800, or R 60.6-D 39.4. Since E-Day has been a bit more R-friendly, call it 61-39.
I don't get the joke. I know explaining jokes risks making them less funny, but Is a particular day each year considered rapture day by some, or do they just hope for it every day?
There was a bit of stuff online about a seemingly decent sized number of people (relative to how crazy it is) who thought the rapture would be today (or tomorrow?). I didn't follow it much, but it broke through on various parts of the net.
Realistically I doubt that many people thought it was going to happen, but the internet picked up on them and decided to have a laugh at how crazy they are.
SCOOPLET | Missoula smokejumper Sam Forstag, a local union leader and wildland firefighter, is considering running against GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke in MT-01 (Trump+12, Tester+1), per 3 sources familiar. No decision expected before November.
Voters like people who are unapologetic and don't water themselves down to appeal to the middle (like Sens Ossoff and Warnock from Georgia). If Forstag wants to win, he needs to be himself. Address GOP attack points head on.
Strategic moderation on some issues always helps (for example Bernie on guns, immigration and racial inequality in 2016) and this is an urban Obama-Trump district containing 1. Missoula 2. Bozeman 3. Butte 4. Kalispell)
The last two-House elections: 49.6-46.5 and 52.3-44.6.
No, Ossoff and Warnock are quite liberal voting record and agenda wise. Not middle of the road at all unless you take into account the image they are projecting to GA voters.
Those are all mainstream Dem positions. Progressive punch puts them smack dab in the middle of the party in the Senate. Though that is a little to the left of what you'd expect from two senators in a mostly red state.
Ahhh but mainstream Democrat positions since Bernie ran in 2016 and 2020 are still quite liberal compared to how Democrats used to be pre-2015 considering what he did to push the DNC Convention to go more to the left.
Being against private prisons and against Citizens United are still liberal positions.
Both Ossoff and Warnock have quite a liberal voting record and agenda wise. Not middle of the road at all unless you take into account the image they are projecting to GA voters.
Not a fair way to truly assess whether anyone in Congress is truly liberal, especially considering liberals can have plenty of different points of view. These ratings and rankings from the sheet you are sharing sound like purity tests.
Leftist from the standpoint of the DSA sure but On the Issues in my observation has a more accurate read out of a House or Senate member. It does in fact compile stances issues wise and voting records.
Unless DSA actually wants to tell the truth, I will treat things with a grain of salt here.
I hope that the state of Paul Wellstone doesn't send the co-leader of the literal modern day DLC (Majority Dems Super PAC) to the Senate. Angie Craig recently was the only Democrat to speak at crypto summit before Don Jr and Tim Scott who thanked the barons for removing Sherrod Brown.
As an aide to Tommy Tuberville, whom he hopes to succeed, Morgan Murphy engineered the strategy of blocking senior military promotions to protest DOD abortion policies. A car enthusiast who is said to own nine Cadillacs, he has much in common with the average Alabama voter.
What results from Democrats doing exactly what Republicans do to us when we hold power? Success in dividing our opposition, a news story that lasts months not hours and a full blown civil war between Trump and those who don’t vote with him on the Epstein discharge petition about to break out in a big public way. Why haven’t Democrats been doing this since 2016?
Once the petition passes on the floor, the ball gets handed to the Senate, giving the story even longer legs and more attention by American media/voters. Winning elections and the political game in America doesn’t just happen, we need to take the fight to the GOP, corner them and force them into deciding on which bad choice to make.
They won’t make bad decisions politically until we force their hand because they only care about power and doing whatever it takes to keep it. This is how we beat them at their own game. By doing this to their party over and over again on issues that divide their party.
“I don’t think there’s too many options,” Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) told reporters when asked about the House discharge petition in late August. “I think you have to take it up, right?”
Virginia GOP are crowing about high early turnout in 11 districts, which is REALLY premature. How many of their voters are secretly voting for Spanberger and not the Youngkin acolyte with the bad hair?
In boring election news: Wu will officially be unopposed for the final ballot in Boston's mayoral race. After Kraft dropped out, the third place finisher would typically advance in his place, but that person didn't receive enough votes to qualify for the final two. I don't see any information on what is required, only that he didn't meet the mystery threshold.
I expect very low turnout, which will impact the city council seats. There are four at large spots, and 4th place got 12.6% vs 5th place at 10.8% (voters get four votes). District 7 was also close, with the top two getting 15.7% and 15%.
Does Kraft's name still appear on the ballot, even without actually campaigning? If so he should get a significant number of "not Wu" votes, though obviously not nearly enough to make it competitive, which he clearly wouldn't have even if he'd continued.
I'm not 100% sure. I would assume based on the reporting the DaRosa doesn't qualify to make it to the ballot to replace Kraft that it would mean that Kraft is fully dropped out. But that is only a guess.
According to this NBC News article, the third-place finisher Domingos DaRosa needed 3000 votes in the Top-2 election to make the ballot. He had just over 2400 votes, so he was about 600 short.
It doesn't seem like Kraft's name will be on the ballot either as the Secretary of the Commonwealth (or Secretary of State in other states) said Kraft filled out the necessary paperwork to get his name off the ballot last week. So Wu seems to be the only person on the ballot.
71-28 Grijalva with 75% reporting.
If that margin holds, it will be a 17 point overperformance from Raul Grijalva's 2024 victory.
69-30 with 87% in.
Prior elections to use as benchmarks for tonight:
Grijalva won 63-37 in 2024, 65-35 in 2022, and 65-35 in 2020.
Harris won it 60-38, Gallego 63-33, Kelly 68-30, Hobbs 66-33, and Biden 66-33.
Some county-by-county benchmarks:
Cochise (portion): Harris 60-39
Maricopa (portion): Harris 58-41
Pima (portion: Harris 64-35
Pinal (portion): Trump 66-34
Santa Cruz: Harris 59-40
Yuma (portion): Harris 50-49
How bad a sign is this for us?
A lot of non-Northern cities have a ton of suburban/exurban/rural turf within their borders, as the annexation process is generally much easier (and of course, often politically motivated!).
It's too bad the process is so politically entangled. I think a lot of cities would benefit from annexing more of their core territory at least. Core urban areas being split up across multiple municipalities adds unnecessary friction and inefficiencies.
It's also kind of bad from a social and practicality stand point. The fact that Cambridge, Somerville, and Brookline are all legally separate from Boston is crazy. Most of Cambridge feels more Boston-y than a majority of Boston-proper (by land area)!
It weakens a major city's ability to move forward when too little of the metro area is outside of the city proper. I only know the area of Boston particularly well, but that relatively small city proper vs major metro area applies to SF, Atlanta, Seattle, Miami, and presumably others. Maybe it's less of an issue elsewhere than it is in New England, where county level government effectively doesn't exist.
My Rust Belt hometown passed up many annexation opportunities in the 1960s/1970s because it didn't want to shoulder the expense of extending (then-city owned) water and sewer lines into the new areas. Had it done so, it would have a much larger population and tax base today.
Oh, and the areas that it passed on annexing? They've since incorporated as a separate municipality.
It's frustrating, isn't it?
At least Boston has the excuse that they did want to annex more of their neighbors, but the neighbors disagreed. The annexations started to end not long after Brookline declined to be annexed. Now you can see the border between the two on satellite imagery, because Brookline's population density is so much lower than the neighboring parts of Boston.
In a bit of a funny contrast to your hometown's history, Boston's successful annexations were done via the carrot of extending Boston's water and sewer systems to those areas.
Why, were you expecting Democrats to win Alabama and states like it?
The Dems had been overperforming and I'm worried this may mean we're going to start underperforming. Maybe not yet, but soon.
Not good. Still not over yet, but I’m concerned.
What party did the incumbent mayor belong to?
I heard D's haven't held this office in 12 years
GOP
Why? The current mayor is a Republican and Mobile is a city located in AL-01, which is surrounded by s lot of red in a R+27 dark red district.
This is actually quite good turnout on the Democratic Party side considering Democrats don’t normally get traction in AL except if they are Doug Jones.
The AL Democratic Party was in dire straits back in the 2010’s.
the partisanship of AL-1 as a whole isn't super relevant to Mobile's politics. It's 51% black as of the 2020 Census.
But the problem is, Mayor Sandy Stimpson has been elected as mayor of Mobile for three terms beginning in 2013, two years before Trump launched his presidential campaign. Stimpson’s been quite conservative, and with a length business background.
And if this isn’t enough, Stimpson unseated Mayor Sam Jones in his first race, a Democrat who happens to be black. If there were no known controversies or problems Jones had as mayor, this is more evidence AL Democratic Party is not doing enough to keep Democrats in power in the state OR perhaps turn out voters. Stimpson was originally elected with 54% of the vote..
Unlike the partisanship of AL-1, this is actually relevant info.
Yes but as it turns out, I was looking at a pre-2024 map when I was assessing the City of Mobile.
Mobile is primarily in AL-02 now. The county of Mobile ended up being split up in AL-01 and AL-02. Originally the City of Mobile was more situated in AL-01, which could account for why Stimpson was able to get leverage.
Also, Mayors previous to Stimpson weren’t all Democratic. Previously, Sam Jones was in office for eight years until being unseated by Stimpson. Prior to Jones, Mike Dow, an Independent, served six years from 1989-2005. Prior to that, Arthur Outlaw, a Republican, was in office from 1985-1989.
I think yesterday’s election results may be reflective of the shift in redistricting.
Wow now it is ONE VOTE difference https://x.com/taniel/status/1970659297362354239?s=61&t=5copDbz1aPl7ASsRCUclLg
Are there any E-Day votes to compare, yet?
Based on the E-Day votes from Cherokee only pushing things a bit to the right, I'd guess this one ends up more like 61-39 vs 63-36.
Cherokee is entirely in and it's 63.7-36.3. Fulton still has plenty left. A linear extrapolation gives a final Fulton total of 10900 votes splitting 6400 D - 4500 R. That plus Cherokee would be R 18150 D 11800, or R 60.6-D 39.4. Since E-Day has been a bit more R-friendly, call it 61-39.
Shanah Tovah everyone!
Happy Rapture to some?
I'm Greek Orthodox, that Rapture nonsense is made up evangelical BS.
That part was sarcasm, sorry that it didn't translate.
You don't need to apologize, it was obvious lol
Ayyy another in the wild!
I’m just mad I didn’t think of that grift of selling pet insurance to people who think they’re going to get raptured first
I don't get the joke. I know explaining jokes risks making them less funny, but Is a particular day each year considered rapture day by some, or do they just hope for it every day?
There was a bit of stuff online about a seemingly decent sized number of people (relative to how crazy it is) who thought the rapture would be today (or tomorrow?). I didn't follow it much, but it broke through on various parts of the net.
Realistically I doubt that many people thought it was going to happen, but the internet picked up on them and decided to have a laugh at how crazy they are.
Quite reasonably so. Thanks for the explanation.
Janus covered most of it, there was a South African pastor that announced the rapture would be today and it made the rounds on the social internet.
SCOOPLET | Missoula smokejumper Sam Forstag, a local union leader and wildland firefighter, is considering running against GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke in MT-01 (Trump+12, Tester+1), per 3 sources familiar. No decision expected before November.
Forstag spoke at a Bernie rally this year.
https://x.com/JacobRubashkin/status/1970186539394031952
He has the vibes but his platform needs to be moderate imo.
Voters like people who are unapologetic and don't water themselves down to appeal to the middle (like Sens Ossoff and Warnock from Georgia). If Forstag wants to win, he needs to be himself. Address GOP attack points head on.
Strategic moderation on some issues always helps (for example Bernie on guns, immigration and racial inequality in 2016) and this is an urban Obama-Trump district containing 1. Missoula 2. Bozeman 3. Butte 4. Kalispell)
The last two-House elections: 49.6-46.5 and 52.3-44.6.
Both of those guys are in the center of the party.
They are both middle of the road Democrats, neither neoliberals nor leftists.
Right. How do we know they are authentically like that and not "watering themselves down"?
They are watering themselves down, it's politics. Tim Walz used to be a Blue dog when he was in a swing seat.
No, Ossoff and Warnock are quite liberal voting record and agenda wise. Not middle of the road at all unless you take into account the image they are projecting to GA voters.
https://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Jon_Ossoff.htm
https://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Raphael_Warnock.htm
Those are all mainstream Dem positions. Progressive punch puts them smack dab in the middle of the party in the Senate. Though that is a little to the left of what you'd expect from two senators in a mostly red state.
Ahhh but mainstream Democrat positions since Bernie ran in 2016 and 2020 are still quite liberal compared to how Democrats used to be pre-2015 considering what he did to push the DNC Convention to go more to the left.
Being against private prisons and against Citizens United are still liberal positions.
Both Ossoff and Warnock have quite a liberal voting record and agenda wise. Not middle of the road at all unless you take into account the image they are projecting to GA voters.
https://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Jon_Ossoff.htm
https://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Raphael_Warnock.htm
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gPBdBrqVCbtuy7f1bjOdCDUzEv5RqbbU1yYAr3KoHYE/edit?gid=686052829&pli=1#gid=686052829
Congressional Left Tracker
Not a fair way to truly assess whether anyone in Congress is truly liberal, especially considering liberals can have plenty of different points of view. These ratings and rankings from the sheet you are sharing sound like purity tests.
Leftist from the standpoint of the DSA sure but On the Issues in my observation has a more accurate read out of a House or Senate member. It does in fact compile stances issues wise and voting records.
Unless DSA actually wants to tell the truth, I will treat things with a grain of salt here.
Ossoff and Warnock got elected to the Senate by less than 3% points. I don’t think it’s so black and white.
We have that item in the very Digest you're commenting in!
Peggy Flanagan endorsed by a majority of members of the House DFL Caucus.
https://x.com/peggyflanagan/status/1970134186070581312
I hope that the state of Paul Wellstone doesn't send the co-leader of the literal modern day DLC (Majority Dems Super PAC) to the Senate. Angie Craig recently was the only Democrat to speak at crypto summit before Don Jr and Tim Scott who thanked the barons for removing Sherrod Brown.
Other than Dean Phillips (ymmv), it's crazy how little in-state support Craig has.
As an aide to Tommy Tuberville, whom he hopes to succeed, Morgan Murphy engineered the strategy of blocking senior military promotions to protest DOD abortion policies. A car enthusiast who is said to own nine Cadillacs, he has much in common with the average Alabama voter.
And yet, He'll still win by 20.
No he won’t.
Because I bet he isn’t going to be the nominee,
Former MN state Senator Nicole Mitchell sentenced to six months in jail, with work release conditions.
What results from Democrats doing exactly what Republicans do to us when we hold power? Success in dividing our opposition, a news story that lasts months not hours and a full blown civil war between Trump and those who don’t vote with him on the Epstein discharge petition about to break out in a big public way. Why haven’t Democrats been doing this since 2016?
Once the petition passes on the floor, the ball gets handed to the Senate, giving the story even longer legs and more attention by American media/voters. Winning elections and the political game in America doesn’t just happen, we need to take the fight to the GOP, corner them and force them into deciding on which bad choice to make.
They won’t make bad decisions politically until we force their hand because they only care about power and doing whatever it takes to keep it. This is how we beat them at their own game. By doing this to their party over and over again on issues that divide their party.
https://archive.ph/ZA9wn
“I don’t think there’s too many options,” Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) told reporters when asked about the House discharge petition in late August. “I think you have to take it up, right?”
Virginia GOP are crowing about high early turnout in 11 districts, which is REALLY premature. How many of their voters are secretly voting for Spanberger and not the Youngkin acolyte with the bad hair?
https://virginiamercury.com/2025/09/23/gop-districts-take-early-lead-in-virginias-first-week-of-early-voting/
"This is delusional but you don’t have to read the whole thing.
Boils down to: he’s shutting down the government because he thinks he’s a king."
https://x.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1970493739186761916
In boring election news: Wu will officially be unopposed for the final ballot in Boston's mayoral race. After Kraft dropped out, the third place finisher would typically advance in his place, but that person didn't receive enough votes to qualify for the final two. I don't see any information on what is required, only that he didn't meet the mystery threshold.
https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/09/22/boston-mayor-wu-will-run-unopposed-reelection
I expect very low turnout, which will impact the city council seats. There are four at large spots, and 4th place got 12.6% vs 5th place at 10.8% (voters get four votes). District 7 was also close, with the top two getting 15.7% and 15%.
Does Kraft's name still appear on the ballot, even without actually campaigning? If so he should get a significant number of "not Wu" votes, though obviously not nearly enough to make it competitive, which he clearly wouldn't have even if he'd continued.
I'm not 100% sure. I would assume based on the reporting the DaRosa doesn't qualify to make it to the ballot to replace Kraft that it would mean that Kraft is fully dropped out. But that is only a guess.
According to this NBC News article, the third-place finisher Domingos DaRosa needed 3000 votes in the Top-2 election to make the ballot. He had just over 2400 votes, so he was about 600 short.
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/boston-mayor-michelle-wu-reelection/3813942/
It doesn't seem like Kraft's name will be on the ballot either as the Secretary of the Commonwealth (or Secretary of State in other states) said Kraft filled out the necessary paperwork to get his name off the ballot last week. So Wu seems to be the only person on the ballot.
https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/josh-kraft-officially-off-bostons-mayoral-ballot/KZFSWXSPXRCHXK6CQGBYYWBWVM/
Thanks for finding and sharing that! I was curious what the threshold in question was.
2026 TX Senate GOP Primary poll by Pro-Wesley Hunt group
Ken Paxton: 38%
John Cornyn: 28%
Wesley Hunt: 23%
——
H2H
Wesley Hunt: 39%
Ken Paxton: 38%
—
Wesley Hunt: 46%
John Cornyn: 37%
——
"Hunt is inching closer to launching Senate bid" - Punchbowl news
https://punchbowl.news/newsletter/
https://x.com/IAPolls2022/status/1968625710668357878
Did they test Cornyn/Paxton?
So the race is Ken Paxton vs Wesley Hunt in a race to decide who unseats John Cornyn in next year’s primary.
Fascinating race!