# Sanford defeats Colbert's sister **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 8, 2013, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758 "2013-05-08T01:30:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/21 "2013-05-08T16:38:59Z")
I imagine Stephen Colbert is having mixed feelings right now. On the one hand, his sister lost. On the other hand, he’s got a great source for material for as long as Sanford can stay in office. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/22 "2013-05-08T16:56:41Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Get ready for the Honorable Mayor Weiner of New York. He’ll be the next dickwad elected after a scandal. > [@Marley23](#): > > No, he won’t. He’s a joke candidate. Oh, he’ll be a dick joke for the rest of his public life, and would be even if his name were not “Weiner”. But that does not rule out a comeback. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/23 "2013-05-08T17:01:59Z")
Glad she lost but Sanford was the best candidate they could put up. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/24 "2013-05-08T17:08:24Z")
IOIYAR. (It’s OK if you are Republican.) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/25 "2013-05-08T17:08:32Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Oh, he’ll be a dick joke for the rest of his public life, and would be even if his name were not “Weiner”. But that does not rule out a comeback. I assure you it does. He’s a sleazeball who accomplished nothing of note in Congress until he had to resign over a sex scandal. We’re talking about New York City Democrats here. There are actual candidates with more funding, better resumes, and no scandals. And it’s not a special election where weird things tend to happen. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/26 "2013-05-08T17:09:48Z")
I was much more surprised that Sanford won the primary. A clear warning voters were willing to ignore his Argentine antics. Then his trespassing at the ex’s house broke and it seemed Colbert had a chance. But it wasn’t to be. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/27 "2013-05-08T18:08:16Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I continually underestimate the sheer stupidity of my fellow voters. One day perhaps I’ll learn. This was my first reaction to the news. Was the vote purely along party lines? I guess there were enough of the “As long as he has an R next to his name and can fog a mirror, he’s got my vote!” crowd. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/28 "2013-05-08T18:09:47Z")
It’s a very, very Republican district. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/29 "2013-05-08T19:08:19Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > I imagine Stephen Colbert is having mixed feelings right now. On the one hand, his sister lost. On the other hand, he’s got a great source for material for as long as Sanford can stay in office. I was wondering if Sanford will go on Colbert’s show for the “Better Know A District” segment. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/30 "2013-05-08T19:17:37Z")
That wouldn’t happen even if he hadn’t just run against Colbert’s sister. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/31 "2013-05-08T19:27:29Z")
I know, but Stephen Colbert would have such fun with it. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/32 "2013-05-08T20:07:22Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > It’s a very, very Republican district. For comparison, Romney gained 58.3% to Obama’s 40.2% in the 2012 presidential vote in that district. Sanford got about 55% to Colbert Busch’s 45%. Doesn’t look like much of a change from the presidential race numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/33 "2013-05-08T21:01:34Z")
They discussed this election on Talk Of the Nation on NPR. The political commentator suggested that Sanford campaigned more than Colbert-Busch. Perhaps she was over confident? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/34 "2013-05-08T23:41:30Z")
John Nichols of _The Nation_ [attributes Sanford’s win at least in part to Republican-controlled redistricting/gerrymandering.](http://www.thenation.com/blog/174235/our-elections-really-are-rigged-gerrymandering-and-districting-abuses) > [@](#): > > “On Nov. 6, Democrats won the most votes in contested House races,” explains Richie. “FairVote’s post-election analysis of partisan voting trends suggests an underlying national preference toward Democrats of 52 percent to 48 percent. (If there had been no incumbents and each party had run a candidate in every district, the Democrats would have won 52 percent of the votes.) With a comparable edge in 2010, Republicans gained sixty-four seats to take the House. But this year, winning a House majority would have required a much bigger swing toward Democrats, as much as 55 percent of the vote, a historical high.” > > This brings us back to Tuesday’s special election in South Carolina’s 1st district. Colbert Busch’s capable campaigning—or, perhaps, Sanford’s imperfect campaigning—resulted in a significant swing by voters to the Democratic column. But the district was designed to withstand a significant swing. > > In 2012, the Democratic nominee took just 29 percent of the vote. Colbert Busch took 46 percent. So, in what was probably a best-of-all-worlds scenario for the Democrats, their candidate raised the party’s percentage of the vote by almost sixteen points. But she needed a swing of more than twenty-one points. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/35 "2013-05-08T23:51:52Z")
Huh? There’s no evidence to support what you’re talking about. If anything the fact that there is a mandated black district in South Carolina by its nature has concentrated more Democratic voters than would otherwise be concentrated in one district. That’s got jack to do with gerrymandering (well, the 2010 gerrymandering driven by GOP legislatures–this is gerrymandering mandated by the DOJ.) If you look at Clyburn’s “black” district in South Carolina it is clearly the one drawn the most out of norm, and that’s specifically because of court rulings forcing many Southern States to have majority minority districts to insure minority House members. Plus, if you look at the South Carolina districts pre-2010, they are hardly any different. They had to be redistricted because South Carolina grew faster than average and regained its old 7th district. This resulted in some of the Northern parts of the 1st district around Myrtle Beach being cut off and some eastern parts of the 5th district being cut off to reform the 7th. But that was done in a pretty geographically compact way, and the 1st district has been the Charleston-centered coastal district it is right now for a long time, and if it hadn’t been redistricted in 2010 the section that went to the new 7th district doesn’t seem any more Democratic, so would not have altered the politics of the district. Basically, you just made a baseless, wrong claim. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/36 "2013-05-09T00:52:12Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > For comparison, Romney gained 58.3% to Obama’s 40.2% in the 2012 presidential vote in that district. > > Sanford got about 55% to Colbert Busch’s 45%. Doesn’t look like much of a change from the presidential race number With that sort of a district, more campaigning would mean calling more attention to that you are one of them “D” people AND family with someone in the despised New York Liberal Media. And let’s not knock debating the cardboard cutout of Nancy Pelosi. It’s better than an empty chair. (PLUS Pelosi, or an idea personified as Pelosi, is the boogeywoman par-excellence for the GOP in Congressional campaigns. “Do you want Nancy Pelosi as Speaker” is a very effective way to get R-voters motivated to get out there and vote in House races. ) ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/37 "2013-05-09T01:04:02Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > It’s not about personal foibles. It’s about hypocrisy. Then all Democrats who don’t pay their taxes should resign and forever leave public life. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/38 "2013-05-09T01:31:55Z")
> [@](#): > > Then all Democrats who don’t pay their taxes should resign and forever leave public life. Deal. Got any in mind? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/39 "2013-05-09T01:35:34Z")
Tom Daschle, Tim Geithner, Charlie Rangel, and didn’t Clinton have TWO AG nominees with nanny problems, not paying SS taxes? You might not know it if you don’t read right-wing media, but we have just as much fun with the hypocrisy issue as liberals do. I’d bet there are more Democrats with tax problems than Republicans with adultery problems. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758/40 "2013-05-09T01:51:15Z")
Unfortunate result IMO, but I wonder if Busch could have won had this election been held last Election Day. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sanford-defeats-colberts-sister/657758.md?page=3)