*snortle* *chuckle*

[fishweewee]

pulled this off of my bloomberg.

K e r r y a `Drag' on Some Statewide Races, Report Says (Update1)

Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator John K e r r y's presidential candidacy was a ``drag'' on other Democrats and probably cost his party statewide victories in Alaska, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Dakota, a report on voter turnout said.

The report released today by the nonpartisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate said exit polls showed more Democrats defected from their party than did Republicans. K e r r y ``lacked clarity'' on issues and failed to present a vision for the future, the report said.

``He was a terrible candidate,'' said Curtis Gans, director of the committee. ``He was emotionless and passionless and humorless. He was mostly stiff and boring.''

K e r r y got fewer votes than Democratic candidates for either governor or senator in 30 of 37 states, the report said. Republicans gained four seats in the Senate, including the defeat of the Senate's highest-ranking Democrat, Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota. Republicans have 55 seats and Democrats have 44, with one independent. Before the election, Republicans had 51 seats.

A spokesman for K e r r y, the four-term Massachusetts senator, wasn't immediately available for comment. A spokesman for the Democratic National Committee didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Turnout in the Nov. 2 election was the highest since 1968, and 60.7 percent of eligible voters cast ballots for president, the report found. Turnout rose by 6.4 percent, or about 17 million votes, from the 2000 election, the report said.

Voter registration rose to 71 percent of people eligible, the highest level since 1964, when about 72 percent were registered.

President George W. B u s h won more than 11.5 million votes over his 2000 total, and K e r r y, who had 48.3 percent of the vote compared with B u s h ' s 50.8 percent, received about 8 million more votes than Democrat Al Gore won four years before. More than 78 million people eligible to vote didn't do so, the report said.

Alaska, Oklahoma

In Alaska, incumbent Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski beat former Governor Tony Knowles to keep the Senate seat she was appointed to by her father. Republicans retained the seat of retiring Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma. Republican Representative Tom Coburn won the seat.

In Missouri, Republican Secretary of State Matt Blunt defeated state auditor Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, in the race for governor.

The state with the highest turnout was Minnesota, where 77.3 percent of eligible voters cast ballots, followed by Maine, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Oregon. Hawaii had the lowest with 48.9 percent.

A December report by Michael McDonald, a political science professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, found that 60 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot for president. That was a 5.9 percent increase from 2000.

B u s h ' s margin of victory of slightly more than 3 million votes, or 2.4 percentage points, was the closest for an incumbent president in U.S. history, according to McDonald.