PENNSYLVANIA – AT 11:46 A.M. ET:  Sorry for our late start.  I've been trying to get all the background I could about last night's special Congressional election in Pennsylvania.

Oh, to begin.  This wasn't emphasized enough in the "reporting," but whoever won last night, and there is still no official winner, will only serve briefly.  The election was held to fill the unexpired term of a resigned congressman.  There'll be another one in November, but the 18th Congressional District won't exist.  Due to redistricting, last night's winner will be running in a newly formed district, probably more Democratic and liberal.

Conor Lamb, the Democrat, is claiming victory.  An excellent candidate, he is ahead in the count by, maybe, two or three tenths of a point.  Absentee ballots are still to be counted.  Chances are, he will squeeze through, and run again in November.

The "journalists" of CNN are having a field day.  John King, who normally sounds marginally sober, was already speaking of a "blue wave," and actually used the Senate race in Alabama as an example.  In that case, the Republicans, in a Republican state, worked hard to lose an election by putting up Judge Roy Moore, a toxic candidate with a questionable background.  The Democrats put up a candidate who ran far to the right and sounded like a typical Republican. 

There may well be a blue wave in November, but it didn't begin last night in Pennsylvania, and it certainly didn't begin in the oddball Senate race in Alabama.

March 14,  2018