As many of my readers are surely aware, I make political endorsements in every election in which I am eligible to vote, from little school board elections all the way up to presidential elections. In Virginia, we have elections every single November for local, state, and/or federal offices. I traditionally make my endorsements some time in the latter half of September, just over a month before the election.
2009 is no different. I am working this week on researching the candidates and making endorsements for Governor of Virginia, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Attorney General of Virginia, the 86th District of the Virginia House of Delegates, and a Fairfax County bond referendum. I am expecting to begin publishing them early next week.
Also, as I have done since 2004, I am planning to cover election night with live results in all of my endorsed elections. I suspect that all eyes will be on Virginia and New Jersey, the only states with gubernatorial elections this year, so be sure to check here for the real deal on Virginia’s results. I make calls based on my own method—an independent analysis of media reports, exit polling, and official returns. I have been known to occasionally call an election [correctly] before any mainstream media outlet does, if the data supports the call.
Most notably (and the one I’m really proud of), I called the 2004 Presidential election for George W. Bush (R) literally hours before any of the major media outlets did based on my own analysis of Ohio’s return data that turned out to be correct.