IL-GOV: They’re still counting, but it looks like this one is over with. Who would have thought that Rod Blagojevich’s running mate, Gov. Pat Quinn, D, would win a full term, even as Republicans seized Barack Obama’s Senate seat?
IL-08: Rep. Melissa Bean, D, appears to have lost, something no one expected.
IL-10: Republicans were supposed to lose Republican Rep. Mark Kirk’s seat when he ran for Senate. They didn’t.
MN-08: Okay, yes, in your dreams you might have thought so, if you’re enough of a political nerd. But House Transportation Chairman James Oberstar, D, appears to have lost despite all those orange stimulus signs.
NC-02: Who would have thought that Reps. Mike McIntyre and Larry Kissell would hang on, but Rep. Bob Etheridge would lose this one?
TX-27: Rep. Solomon Ortiz appears to have lost.
ID-01: Maybe the real shock is that this one is a shock. We weren’t surprised — we said this one would flip — but no one else did. All the NRCC would say about Raul Labrador is that he was a Republican candidate for the House. He won anyway.
NY-13: Rep. Mike McMahon, who held the Democratic and conservative lines, lost his race. Unexpected.
MI-7: There’s only one way to explain Republican Tim Walberg’s victory: All of the polls were wrong. And all of the union money spent against Walberg in what became the most expensive House race in America was wasted.
VA-09: Ouch. Rep. Rick Boucher, D, finally lost, and it wasn’t even close.