Decision 2010 live blog

12:41: Final thought: How many high-ranking Democrats in the House are going to retire once they get relegated to small offices with smaller staffs now that they are in the minority? It happened in 1994. It’ll happen again. Night all.

12:33: Kristi Noem, an attractive “mama grizzly” from South Dakota who has been trailing incumbent Democrat Stephanie Herseth Sandlin all night in the lone South Dakota House district, has just taken a narrow lead.

12:31: Classy as ever, Bob Etheridge refuses to concede.

12:28: Fox calls it for Harry Reid. Dang. Good thing he got all those casinos to strong-arm their employees into voting for him. That was probably his margin of victory. I take solace in the fact that he will remain the face of the Democrats in Congress, and it’s not a pretty one.

12:26: Harry Reid’s son defeated in the Nevada gubernatorial race by Brian Sandoval, another Republican with a Hispanic name. And you thought they were all in the Democratic camp.

12:17: Republican Mark Kirk wins Obama’s old Senate seat. He takes office immediately, not in January. Big slap in the face for Obama, who tried to maneuver his own guy into this seat and campaigned many times for him.

11:48: Toomey has won in Pennsylvania over Sestak, and Kasich has won the governorship in Ohio. Two more big GOP wins.

11:41: From David Bass over on Locker Room: “Final update. It appears that Republicans will have a 31-19 advantage in the state Senate and have a net gain of at least 14 seats in the House, putting their advantage at 66-54.” Wow. Taking the legislature with that kind of margin was a big surprise for the GOP. David notes how similar GOP gains weren’t realized in congressional races, with the exception of Renee Ellmers’ big win over Bob Etheridge.

11:36: For a party that conventional wisdom says is supposed to be challenged in getting Hispanics to support it, there sure are a lot of Republicans with Hispanic names being elected tonight. Likewise, there are a lot of black Republican candidates and black GOP winners tonight. Maybe the conventional wisdom needs to be, er, reassessed.

11:27: All 14 sales-tax referenda went down to defeat in N.C. tonight. Tax is a dirty word right now, even when supporters tried to convince voters that it was the only tax illegals pay.

11:00: California shows it’s as wacky as ever. Fox just called Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown winners there. Sometimes you get what you deserve. I can say the same for Connecticut for going with Blumenthal.

10:58: With 10 of 10 counties reporting, Renee Ellmers is shown with as 2,000-vote lead. This one’s over.

10:56: David Bass over at the John Locke Foundation’s Locker Room blog, has this: “It’s now safe to assume both the state House and Senate will be controlled by Republicans next year. The only question is how great a majority the GOP will command. First time the Republicans have controlled since the 19th century.”

10:54: Toomey now up in Pa., Kirk up in Ill., Ellmers up in N.C. The GOP has some momentum.

10:49: Wow. With 9 of 10 counties reporting, Renee Ellmers has just taken the lead over Bob Etheridge. She was down 700 a bit ago and is now up 1,000. Maybe the Libertarian won’t mess this up after all for Ellmers.

10:44: It was nice tonight to see Daniel Webster defeat the Devil down in Florida. Sorry, just had to say that.

10:40: Ron Johnson has defeated Democrat incumbent Sen. Russ Feingold in Wisconsin. Also, Nikki Haley, one of the candidates to get a Sarah Palin endorsement, has won the governor’s race in South Carolina.

10:35: Looks like 2nd District Democratic incumbent Bob Etheridge owes a big thanks to Libertarian Tom Rose. Rose if pulling 3,000-plus votes and Republican Renee Ellmers is only trailing Etheridge by 700 votes. Looks like the Libertarian is going to be responsible for putting a big-government, nanny-stater back in the Congress.

9:37: Finally some returns from Durham County. About time.

9:31: Marco Rubio is staking out the Tea Party leadership spot in his victory speech. Says tonight wasn’t a validation of the Republican Party, but is just a second chance for the party to do what it said it was going to do eight years ago.

9:29: Republican Sen. David Vitter wins re-election in Louisiana. That name-in-the-madam’s-blacl-book didn’t seem to hurt him.

9:27: Democrat Bawney Fwank, who almost single-handedly caused the financial meltdown, won his 16th term in Congress. I guess that $200,000 he lent himself turned the tide against Sean Bielat.

9:17: Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski won re-election in Maryland, so that sex scandal didn’t seem to hurt her much.

9:12: Fox projects GOP will win a net gain of 60 seats and take control of the U.S. House.

9:03: Still no returns from Durham County. Mike Ashe, head of the Board of Elections, needs to make some changes in their reporting procedures.

8:53: Forgot to mention, Democrat Incumbent Senator Blanche Lincoln goes down in Arkansas to State Sen. John Boozman. GOP pickup.

8:50: Rich Lowry tweets re the Manchin win: “how many Dems wish they had shot the cap-and-trade bill right now?”

8:45: Incumbent Democrat Barron Hill has gone down to defeat in Indiana. Republicans also pick up Indiana’s 8th District.

8:37: West Virginia Senate seat called for the Democrat Manchin over the Republican Raese. Manchin campaigned as a candidate who agrees with the Tea Party on the big issues. It will be interesting to see how he votes in Washington.

8:32: Hurt beats Democratic incumbent Perriello in Virginia’s 5th District. Perriello had a death wish, voting down the line for Obama programs in a moderate district which he won two years ago by only 700 votes when the students at UVa were motivated by the Obama campaign.

8:13: Donnelly has moved ahead of Walorski in the Indiana 2nd District race. Still early.

8:10: The Herald-Sun’s site seems down. Can’t get anything. And the Durham County Board of Elections page shows no indication they are going to post any returns tonight. Sheesh.

8:07: Still no returns from Durham. They can never get their act in gear.

8:01: Fox has called Florida for Rubio and Delaware for Coons.

7:30: Fox calls Ohio Senate race for Republican Rob Portman over Democrat Lee Fisher. That’s a hold for the Republicans.

7:29: Harry Reid’s enlisting of casinos to strong-arm their employees into getting to the polls and voting for him has been blasted by a former member of the Federal Election Commission, the Washington Examiner reports:

7:08: Jim DeMint is the winner in the S.C. Senate race, as expected, against surprise Democratic primary winner Alvin Greene.

7:04: In that key Indiana 2nd District race, the Republican Jackie Walorski is leading incumbent Joe Donnelly with 57 percent of the vote, but with only 5 percent in. That’s the race everyone’s watching. The feeling is, if Walorski wins over an incumbent early, and the polls have just closed in Indiana, it will be a long night indeed for the Democrats.

7:01: Fox News has called the Indiana and Kentucky Senate races for the Republican candidates, Dan Coats in Indiana and Rand Paul in Kentucky. A good start for the GOP on this election night and a depressing one for Democrats.