Buckley Wins in a Landslide

It’s been an absolutely wild night for Democrats, with big wins in Virginia, New Jersey, and Annapolis, where Gavin Buckley defeated Mike Pantelides by a huge margin.

UPDATE (11/14): These numbers are now official. (City of Annapolis)

OFFICIAL RESULTS

Mayor – D WIN: Gavin Buckley (D) 61.06%, Mike Pantelides (R-inc) 38.79%

This one took us by surprise. We knew there was an enthusiasm gap that favored Buckley, and we thought it might be enough to give him an 8-point edge. Instead, he clobbered the incumbent by 22 points, winning every ward and in fact, every precinct except one.

Ward 1 – D WIN: Elly Tierney (D) 60.12%, Larry Claussen (R) 35.54%

This didn’t end up being close either. Tierney won comfortably in both precincts, and her 24-point margin of victory tied with Rob Savidge in Ward 7 for the largest lead in any of the city’s contested elections.

Ward 2 – R WIN: Fred Paone (R-inc) 51.28%, Kurt Riegel (D) 49.42%

After a week-long recount of absentee and provisional ballots, Paone slightly increased his lead and was declared the winner. Democrats ended up being denied the sweep by 43 votes.

Ward 3 – D WIN: Rhonda Pindell Charles (D-inc) 96.19%

Ward 4 – D WIN: Sheila M. Finlayson (D-inc) 71.93%, all write-ins 28.07%

Toni Strong Pratt mounted a spirited write in campaign but Finlayson won easily.

Ward 5 – D WIN: Marc Rodriguez (D) 61.13%, James Appel (R) 38.87%

In the end, the ground game of Marc Rodriguez’ campaign was more than a match for Appel’s money, connections, and attack ads. Want to know how you can tell? Rodriguez actually out-performed Gavin Buckley in both precincts. Remember that one precinct in the city Buckley lost? Rodriguez won it.

Ward 6 – D WIN: Shaneka Henson (D) 95.01%

Ward 7 – D WIN: Rob Savidge (D) 61.74%, David Frankel (R) 37.76%

We were wrong about this one too – not only did Savidge beat Frankel, he did so by the widest margin of any contested election in the city: 24 percentage points. (After absentee ballots were counted, he actually tied Tierney in Ward 1 for the largest win margin.)

Ward 8 – D WIN: Ross Arnett (D-inc) 51.72%, Julie Mussog (R) 48.16%

This one is actually right where we predicted it: a close race between Ross Arnett and Julie Mussog that ended in a 4-point win for Arnett. This is the only ward where we saw significant party-crossing, as Mussog ran significantly ahead of Pantelides in both precincts. This one came down to absentee ballots, but when all was said and done, Arnett slightly increased his lead from 54 to 63 votes.