Morning Reads: Tuesday's 'Tornado Election'

Good morning — On this day in 186o, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States and exactly a year later, Jefferson Davis officially was elected to a six-year term as president of the Confederate States of America, a post he had held since February. Each would serve until the spring of 1865; Lincoln felled by the assassin’s bullet, Davis forced from office when the War between the States ended and the Confederacy was formally dissolved.

Here are some of the stories that caught our attention this rainy morning in New York:

The “tornado election” –> Americans elected many Republican candidates on Tuesday that oppose the positions the American people say they hold on many issues. NYT’s Taking Note blog concludes that’s what happens when voting decisions are “fueled by anger rather than careful analysis.”

Back to business –> Also at the NYT, with Republicans taking the Senate US business is preparing for a major push on goals like an overhaul of the corporate tax system, building Keystone XL, lighter environmental and financial regulation, and more.

Doubling down on the Dems –> One day after the elections, WaPo’s Matea Gold reports that the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA kicked into high gear.

A 32% “return on investment” — > Also at WaPo, Tom Hamburger asks, just what did environmental activist and billionaire Tom Steyer get for the $70 million he spent on behalf of green-friendly congressional candidates? Answer: nowhere near what he’d hoped. But, Steyer tells USA Today’s Fredreka Schouten, “I’m not remotely disappointed. … We are in it for the long haul.”

Money perhaps misspent –> In IBT, the prolific David Sirota tells us that Democrats spent 16 times more on US Senate races than on state legislature campaigns so that we now have “67 legislative chambers controlled by Republicans and just 29 controlled by Democrats… [the GOP holds] more than 4,100 of the country’s 7,383 legislative seats.” These numbers are “a critical development,” the NYT’s Adam Nagourney and Monica Davey write, “at a time when most major policy has been coming out of states, rather than Washington.”

Mandate? Agenda? Huh? –> Simon Maloy at Salon says the GOP won big but they’re like the dog that finally caught the car it’s been chasing — now what?

From the state that gave you San Quentin –> Shane Bauer of MoJo notes the passage in California of Proposition 47 which changes to misdemeanors certain non-violent crimes previously classified as felonies, including petty theft and minor drug possession. “Some 40,000 fewer people will be convicted of felonies each year,” he writes. “Thousands of prisoners could be set free. People with certain kinds of felonies on their records can now apply to have them removed.”

For manic-depressive statistics wonks –> Google offers this spreadsheet on voter turnout stats. Wisconsin wins the midterms with 56.9 percent. Indiana comes in last at 28 percent. Overall average for the US was 36.6 percent, lower than in 2010. Reminder: in late September, the Scottish referendum on independence drew 84.5 percent of their population to the polls.

Silver lining –> At The Guardian, Trevor Timm suggests that while Senator Mark Udall’s loss in Colorado is a blow to the advocates of surveillance reform and government transparency, “On his way out the door, Udall can use congressional immunity provided to him by the Constitution’s Speech and Debate clause to read the Senate’s still-classified 6,000-page CIA torture report into the Congressional record – on the floor, on TV, for the world to see.”

Weakened –> While a third of Iraq is “dotted by active battle fronts,” the NYT reports that the days of easy and rapid gains for the Islamic State may be ending, as the “group’s momentum appears to be stalling.”

Nyet –> Russia has announced it will boycott the global nuclear security summit scheduled for 2016 in Washington, “the latest sign of the deteriorating relationship between the two nuclear powers.” According to Peter Baker at the NYT, “Without Russia, the only nation whose nuclear capacity rivals that of the United States, advocates fear the effort will lose much of its meaning.”

The Ebola questions –> And some solid, straightforward answers from Nature magazine, which asked scientists what they know, and examined the puzzles yet to be solved about Ebola and other filoviruses. Erika Check Hayden reports.

And speaking of the War between the States –> Showtime has announced Anthem, an upcoming series created by former Obama and Hillary Clinton speechwriter Jon Lovett: “The pilot begins on a typical presidential election day. When it ends, America is on the brink of a second civil war.” This time, the insurrection will be televised…

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