IT AIN'T OVER – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  The election, that is.  There is still the Louisiana Senate runoff, and some House races are being recounted.  And then there's Arizona, where a particular House race holds special interest because we might be seeing the birth of Republican star.

She is Martha McSally, graduate of the Air Force Academy, the first woman in American history to fly a combat aircraft into enemy territory.  She also sued the United States Government when she was assigned to Saudi Arabia and forced to live as a Saudi woman, in other words, as a second-class citizen.  She won her case, and changed the rules governing the requirements imposed on American servicewomen who are posted to Muslim countries.  No more demeaning rules.

McSally ran as the Republican candidate in the district once represented by Gabby Giffords.  You'll recall that Giffords had to retire after being shot by some sicko.  Her assistant took over her seat.  Now, he and McSally are almost deadlocked as a recount of their contest looms.  From The Hill: 

Rep. Ron Barber (D-Ariz.) and Republican Martha McSally are both going about business as usual on Capitol Hill while gearing up for a recount back home that could stretch through the end of the lame-duck session.

The GOP hopeful, who leads by 161 votes, attended freshman orientation in Washington this week, optimistic that her advantage would hold. Meanwhile, Barber lost a legal challenge on Tuesday that might have been his best shot at closing the gap.

“Some of these cases of votes not getting counted make your hair stand on end,” a Barber ally told The Hill.

The Democrat’s campaign petitioned the Pima County Board of Supervisors to delay certifying election results to allow time for consideration of more than 130 provisional ballots the campaign says have been erroneously disqualified.

The Barber camp says the votes were rejected because, in some cases, the voters’ addresses weren’t on the voter rolls, the voter accidentally cast a ballot at the wrong polling place, the voter had recently moved, a signature didn’t match or an early mail-in ballot wasn’t received.

However, the McSally campaign argued that some of the ballots are missing critical requirements, like a poll worker’s signature, and only missing ballots can provoke a delay in certifying a canvass, and these were never missing.

The Board — comprised of three Democrats and two Republicans — ruled 4 to 1 against delaying certifying the results to allow for more time to verify the provisional ballots in question.

COMMENT:  Unless something truly odd happens, McSally will prevail.  Her story alone makes her a potentially major figure in politics.  We'll wait for official certification of her victory to discuss it further, though.

November 20, 2014