The exit polling is broken down in what may be too many different ways at the link. The long and short of it is that being white, older, male, and less educated made someone more likely to have voted for Ciattarelli.
One interesting point is that they asked people if they were concerned about political violence. Not enough people weren't concerned to be statistically meaningful, so the vote breakdown on the "No" side was "N/A."
There's a drop-down where you can get exit polling for the elections in other states.
The following is according to exit polling for the NJ gubernatorial election. In parentheses are the percentages of the overall votes for each group, followed by the percent of the group that voted for Sherrill, followed by the percent for Ciattarelli.
White (70%) 47% 52%
Black (10%) 94% 5%
Hispanic/Latino (10%) 68% 31%
Asian (5%) 82% 17%
Other (4%) 54% 43%
As mentioned at GftNC's NYT link, groups who shifted right in the last presidential election have moved back left after seeing what they really voted for. I'm curious how age groups voted we well and will probably dig something up later.
What really perplexes me about the current situation here in these United States is how people can ignore the inhumanity of the execution of immigration policy. Even if you think someone doesn't belong in the country, does that mean you have to think it's okay to essentially terrorize and kidnap them - children included? It's a completely disproportionate response to the simple violation of immigration law.
How do people accept this administration's insistence that they're almost exclusively detaining rapists, murders, drug dealers, gang members, and other violent criminals who are here illegally in the face of all the evidence to the contrary?
How do they ignore the detention of US citizens? "Oh, but they let them go after they found out" seems to be the excuse. But US citizens have still been put in terrible situations, sometimes lasting days at a time, with no recourse. We're not even talking about "those people" in these situations.
It's a lot to ignore, regardless of your policy preferences.
I'm resigned to the impossibility of figuring out how otherwise good and smart people have horrible politics. I can only observe, without having a worthwhile explanation, that they sometimes do.
It's much easier if the person in question is plainly an a**hole.
What's funny (not "ha ha") to me is that the notion of immigration undermining organized labor is based on an unstated assumption that Americans are too racist to join a labor union with "those people." But, at the same time, people who think this way will tell you that racism is no longer a problem worthy of addressing through public policy.
So however many years ago some dude told him immigration would weaken organized labor, which means liberals are stupid. Well, sh*t ... I guess that settles it.
I just found out one of my college roommates passed away late last night/early this morning. It wasn't a surprise. He had metastatic cancer and it was clear that he was nearing the end.
I hadn't seen or heard from him for roughly 30 years until about a month ago when his brother called me out of the blue to let me know the situation and to invite me to a birthday party he was throwing for him early this month. In the last month, I spoke with my former roommate on the phone a few times and went to see him three times - once at the party and twice at his house.
My wife finally got to meet him at his birthday party after hearing stories about him for years from me and other mutual friends who I did stay in touch with. He was the only one out of our tighter circle of friends that she hadn't met. She would joke that he was like Norm Peterson's wife, Vera, on "Cheers" (or Niles's wife, Mariss, on "Frasier") who never made an appearance on screen, leaving you to wonder if she really existed.
Even minus 100 pounds and in a wheelchair, he was still the same charming, funny, and engaging guy. He and my wife might as well have been lifelong friends after five minutes.
There was never any reason that we lost touch for so long other than that we simply got caught up in our lives in ways that had him in a different place than the rest of us. He was kind of an enigmatic guy who would go in whatever direction without looking back, though he did express regret about losing touch for so long once we all got back together. And, once we did, it was like no time had passed. We might as well have been back in college hanging out in the crappy apartment we all lived in together.
I'm not fishing for condolences with this comment. I just wanted to share something that I think illustrates the weird poignancy that life occasionally throws at you unexpectedly. It's like there was this significant part of my existence that had long been dormant but suddenly woke up to take hold of me and become, at least for a time, the most important focus of my personal life.
I can't find the word for it, but it's something like "heady," only without the thrill, maybe with a bit of "mind-f**k" thrown in.
Job security is one of the attractive things about working for the government at a lower salary than you likely would in the private sector. So much for that.
I'm surprised that the formalized concept of Euclidean rhythms didn't come about until 2004. It's like someone just last week being the first to recognize that people sit on chairs.
I'm consistently amazed and annoyed by the distorted photos of photos I see people posting on social media.
They take the photos at angles that make people's heads huge or tiny. They don't crop out whatever's outside the original photo - usually a tablecloth or some such. They seem to be completely unconcerned about glare. The photos are often crooked.
I'm extremely anal about those things when taking photos of photos, so it drives me nuts. I'll sometimes take several photos until I'm satisfied.
I'd like to think of myself as the Stanley Kubrick of taking photos of photos.
<i>Why not a model focused on re-imagined Revolutionary War heritage and New England?</i>
Not necessarily New England, but this was more of a thing when I was a kid in the NJ suburbs of Philadelphia. My grandmother's house was decorated with plates depicting scenes from the Rev War and other such memorabilia. She had pistols and powder flasks, some of which were obvious replicas and others that may have been genuine. Her house was not at all rare in that regard.
People would display the old "Betsy Ross" flag year round, but it was everywhere around the 4th of July.
I know a few people who currently participate in Rev War reenactments, but they're NJ Loyalists (i.e. Red Coats). They tend MAGA-ish. It's kind of odd considering that they aren't on the side of the rebels. That would give them a sort of commonality with the rebels of the Confederacy. Maybe it's the authoritarianism they like (not "No Kings" but "Yes Kings").
I visited Gettysburg a few summers ago. Seeing the American flag there seemed to signal something completely different from what it does when I see it flapping around from the back of pickup truck where I live - pride in the Union that defeated the Confederacy rather than obnoxious faux-patriotic MAGAism.
This seems like the best thread to mention the group texts of Young Republicans. In the spirit of wonkie's original subject, high-profile Democrats should be pointing this out to the non-MAGA electorate. This is the progeny of the beknighted Charlie Kirk, who was demonstrably a white Christian nationalist despite his superficial "civility."
This is who they are - by choice. Saying so is not othering. It is truth.
Funny. It sounds triumphant to me, but maybe because I associate with the film "Excalibur." It is a triumphant scene, so whoever selected it for the soundtrack must have agreed with me. And I like it. To me, it's kind of metal. \m/
My natural impulses don't always tend toward kindness, but I made a rational decision at some point that I should try to be kind because it seems to be the best way to live, both for the people around me and myself. (That's not to say I don't regularly fail at it, but it's still a goal I strive for.)
That said, it can be complicated. You aren't being kind to someone when you allow someone else to be unkind that person if you're in a position to do something about it. You also can't be kind to one person when someone else will suffer for it, at least when that suffering outweighs the kindness.
How can I (or anyone) be kind to someone who is MAGA? That's generally complicated because the MAGA movement is largely unkind. What I'm talking about here is something other than, say, helping someone who is broken down on the side of the road if they have a tRump bumper sticker. I do mean how you interact where politics is involved somehow.
I don't know. Maybe it's not possible. To take it to an extreme, how could you be kind to tRump, himself? I write his name "tRump." It doesn't really affect him because he's almost certainly never going to see it, but it still isn't kind, right? Am I failing, or is he not deserving of kindness?
The first expression that immediately leapt to mind for me was "bite the dust." As I scanned down, I read the link to the previous "Typepad bites the dust" post. Had already I read it subconsciously? I tend to think so, but it's unknowable, at least with current technology.
How many arguments with the theme of "anti-racists are the real racists" have you read over the years? Perhaps the same goes for anti-fascists, says NOT me.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Still I Rise”
From here:
https://www.cnn.com/election/2025/exit-polls/new-jersey/general/governor/0
18-44 31% 45 or older 69%
Sherrill 67% 51%
Ciattarelli 32% 48%
The exit polling is broken down in what may be too many different ways at the link. The long and short of it is that being white, older, male, and less educated made someone more likely to have voted for Ciattarelli.
One interesting point is that they asked people if they were concerned about political violence. Not enough people weren't concerned to be statistically meaningful, so the vote breakdown on the "No" side was "N/A."
There's a drop-down where you can get exit polling for the elections in other states.
On “People and poliltics”
I've been trying to be the UK's favourite grandmother for a long time. No dice.
On “Still I Rise”
The following is according to exit polling for the NJ gubernatorial election. In parentheses are the percentages of the overall votes for each group, followed by the percent of the group that voted for Sherrill, followed by the percent for Ciattarelli.
White (70%) 47% 52%
Black (10%) 94% 5%
Hispanic/Latino (10%) 68% 31%
Asian (5%) 82% 17%
Other (4%) 54% 43%
As mentioned at GftNC's NYT link, groups who shifted right in the last presidential election have moved back left after seeing what they really voted for. I'm curious how age groups voted we well and will probably dig something up later.
I mean, 94% of the Black vote. Wow!
On “People and poliltics”
What really perplexes me about the current situation here in these United States is how people can ignore the inhumanity of the execution of immigration policy. Even if you think someone doesn't belong in the country, does that mean you have to think it's okay to essentially terrorize and kidnap them - children included? It's a completely disproportionate response to the simple violation of immigration law.
How do people accept this administration's insistence that they're almost exclusively detaining rapists, murders, drug dealers, gang members, and other violent criminals who are here illegally in the face of all the evidence to the contrary?
How do they ignore the detention of US citizens? "Oh, but they let them go after they found out" seems to be the excuse. But US citizens have still been put in terrible situations, sometimes lasting days at a time, with no recourse. We're not even talking about "those people" in these situations.
It's a lot to ignore, regardless of your policy preferences.
"
People and politics in NJ are looking okay tonight.
"
Hating on gays and controlling women are paramount.
"
I'm resigned to the impossibility of figuring out how otherwise good and smart people have horrible politics. I can only observe, without having a worthwhile explanation, that they sometimes do.
It's much easier if the person in question is plainly an a**hole.
On “Horrifying stuff”
What's funny (not "ha ha") to me is that the notion of immigration undermining organized labor is based on an unstated assumption that Americans are too racist to join a labor union with "those people." But, at the same time, people who think this way will tell you that racism is no longer a problem worthy of addressing through public policy.
"
So however many years ago some dude told him immigration would weaken organized labor, which means liberals are stupid. Well, sh*t ... I guess that settles it.
On “I got depressed so I bought hydrangeas”
I just found out one of my college roommates passed away late last night/early this morning. It wasn't a surprise. He had metastatic cancer and it was clear that he was nearing the end.
I hadn't seen or heard from him for roughly 30 years until about a month ago when his brother called me out of the blue to let me know the situation and to invite me to a birthday party he was throwing for him early this month. In the last month, I spoke with my former roommate on the phone a few times and went to see him three times - once at the party and twice at his house.
My wife finally got to meet him at his birthday party after hearing stories about him for years from me and other mutual friends who I did stay in touch with. He was the only one out of our tighter circle of friends that she hadn't met. She would joke that he was like Norm Peterson's wife, Vera, on "Cheers" (or Niles's wife, Mariss, on "Frasier") who never made an appearance on screen, leaving you to wonder if she really existed.
Even minus 100 pounds and in a wheelchair, he was still the same charming, funny, and engaging guy. He and my wife might as well have been lifelong friends after five minutes.
There was never any reason that we lost touch for so long other than that we simply got caught up in our lives in ways that had him in a different place than the rest of us. He was kind of an enigmatic guy who would go in whatever direction without looking back, though he did express regret about losing touch for so long once we all got back together. And, once we did, it was like no time had passed. We might as well have been back in college hanging out in the crappy apartment we all lived in together.
I'm not fishing for condolences with this comment. I just wanted to share something that I think illustrates the weird poignancy that life occasionally throws at you unexpectedly. It's like there was this significant part of my existence that had long been dormant but suddenly woke up to take hold of me and become, at least for a time, the most important focus of my personal life.
I can't find the word for it, but it's something like "heady," only without the thrill, maybe with a bit of "mind-f**k" thrown in.
"
Job security is one of the attractive things about working for the government at a lower salary than you likely would in the private sector. So much for that.
On “Weekend music thread #03 Rhumba and the clave”
I'm surprised that the formalized concept of Euclidean rhythms didn't come about until 2004. It's like someone just last week being the first to recognize that people sit on chairs.
"
And here’s Sepultura in their full Afro Caribbean mode back in 1996
CDs are very durable, because I should have worn all the bits off my "Roots" CD years ago.
On “Something Different”
I'm consistently amazed and annoyed by the distorted photos of photos I see people posting on social media.
They take the photos at angles that make people's heads huge or tiny. They don't crop out whatever's outside the original photo - usually a tablecloth or some such. They seem to be completely unconcerned about glare. The photos are often crooked.
I'm extremely anal about those things when taking photos of photos, so it drives me nuts. I'll sometimes take several photos until I'm satisfied.
I'd like to think of myself as the Stanley Kubrick of taking photos of photos.
On “Bal des Ardents”
That is such a wild story. I'm beginning to think that monarchy is a bad idea.
On “The South shall writhe again”
<i>Why not a model focused on re-imagined Revolutionary War heritage and New England?</i>
Not necessarily New England, but this was more of a thing when I was a kid in the NJ suburbs of Philadelphia. My grandmother's house was decorated with plates depicting scenes from the Rev War and other such memorabilia. She had pistols and powder flasks, some of which were obvious replicas and others that may have been genuine. Her house was not at all rare in that regard.
People would display the old "Betsy Ross" flag year round, but it was everywhere around the 4th of July.
I know a few people who currently participate in Rev War reenactments, but they're NJ Loyalists (i.e. Red Coats). They tend MAGA-ish. It's kind of odd considering that they aren't on the side of the rebels. That would give them a sort of commonality with the rebels of the Confederacy. Maybe it's the authoritarianism they like (not "No Kings" but "Yes Kings").
I visited Gettysburg a few summers ago. Seeing the American flag there seemed to signal something completely different from what it does when I see it flapping around from the back of pickup truck where I live - pride in the Union that defeated the Confederacy rather than obnoxious faux-patriotic MAGAism.
/stream of consciousness
On “Let’s start calling a thug a thug”
Here's one from your side of the pond, GftNC.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/15/young-republicans-racist-group-chat-messages-leaked
"
This seems like the best thread to mention the group texts of Young Republicans. In the spirit of wonkie's original subject, high-profile Democrats should be pointing this out to the non-MAGA electorate. This is the progeny of the beknighted Charlie Kirk, who was demonstrably a white Christian nationalist despite his superficial "civility."
This is who they are - by choice. Saying so is not othering. It is truth.
On “Weekend music thread #1”
Okay, it's not me. Doesn't like backslash.
"
That is "\m/."
"
Funny. It sounds triumphant to me, but maybe because I associate with the film "Excalibur." It is a triumphant scene, so whoever selected it for the soundtrack must have agreed with me. And I like it. To me, it's kind of metal. \m/
On “Let’s start calling a thug a thug”
My natural impulses don't always tend toward kindness, but I made a rational decision at some point that I should try to be kind because it seems to be the best way to live, both for the people around me and myself. (That's not to say I don't regularly fail at it, but it's still a goal I strive for.)
That said, it can be complicated. You aren't being kind to someone when you allow someone else to be unkind that person if you're in a position to do something about it. You also can't be kind to one person when someone else will suffer for it, at least when that suffering outweighs the kindness.
How can I (or anyone) be kind to someone who is MAGA? That's generally complicated because the MAGA movement is largely unkind. What I'm talking about here is something other than, say, helping someone who is broken down on the side of the road if they have a tRump bumper sticker. I do mean how you interact where politics is involved somehow.
I don't know. Maybe it's not possible. To take it to an extreme, how could you be kind to tRump, himself? I write his name "tRump." It doesn't really affect him because he's almost certainly never going to see it, but it still isn't kind, right? Am I failing, or is he not deserving of kindness?
On “WTF moments at cultural borders”
The first expression that immediately leapt to mind for me was "bite the dust." As I scanned down, I read the link to the previous "Typepad bites the dust" post. Had already I read it subconsciously? I tend to think so, but it's unknowable, at least with current technology.
On “Where are the 5 words?”
Antifa is a big threat to the US Constitution and the American people's civil liberties, unlike the powerless federal government.
I wonder if anyone will miss the sarcasm in that.
"
How many arguments with the theme of "anti-racists are the real racists" have you read over the years? Perhaps the same goes for anti-fascists, says NOT me.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.