Yesterday, while all the political junkies were waiting anxiously for the polls to close, Vox highlighted the tossup and leaning races that featured Georgetown alumni. Today, we’ve got the results of yesterday’s elections and how Hoyas fared.

Race yet to be decided

Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski (COL ’80) still might win her write-in bid for reelection. Total write-in ballots lead the race, but names on the write-ins cannot be counted until officials determine that a write-in candidate has a legitimate chance to win.

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Do you consider yourself a political geek and a Georgetown super-fan? If so, we’re here to help.

To celebrate Election Day, we tracked down all of the close races that involve Georgetown alumni; four Hoyas are deadlocked in toss-up elections, while five others are caught in close, but leaning, races.

Check back with Vox tomorrow for a full listing of the winning and losing alumni, including those that are running in races considered either solidly Democratic or Republican. In the meantime, start preparing those internship resumes.

Key Races

Alaska Senate

Incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski (COL ’80) lost to Tea Party favorite, and Sarah Palin-endorsed, candidate Joe Miller in her primary bid for reelection. Murkowski opted to try to remain in the race as a write-in candidate. FiveThirtyEight projects Miller winning, with Murkowski coming in a close second, and the Democratic candidate falling short of both.

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In a recent study of university employees’ political donations, the Center for Responsive Politics concluded that American colleges generally support Democrats. When a college does favor Republicans, it tends to donate much less money.

“Democrats are the primary beneficiaries of educators’ federal political donations,” Lauren Hepler, a Center intern, wrote.

The top donors during this election cycle, according to the study, include the University of California system ($483,981), Harvard ($424,478), Stanford ($375,553). All three schools heavily favored Democrat donations.

Although Georgetown didn’t crack the top ten, the study inspired us to do one of our own.

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Although she opened her speech quietly and in a strained voice Monday night in Georgetown University’s ICC Auditorium, Eleanor Holmes Norton was soon speaking loudly and passionately about the defining issue of her nine Congressional terms: voting rights for the District of Columbia.

“We are on the verge of getting this bill through both houses,” she said of a follow-up to the D.C. House Voting Rights Act of 2009. Hinting at the significance of Emancipation Day this Friday, April 16, Norton was optimistic that D.C.’s “200 years of struggle” would soon be coming to an end, and said that the hard work put into the bill by Democratic leadership would soon “bear fruit.”

Norton said she has been working hard to rid the bill of “an odious amendment” that would limit D.C.’s ability to restrict guns, and repeal gun registration requirements and D.C.’s semi-automatic ban. a mission that took on new meaning for her after the gunshot deaths of four D.C resident’s two weeks ago. Despite efforts by the NRA’s powerful lobby, Norton said she would “try to save as much of D.C.’s gun laws as possible.”

Turning to other issues, Norton stressed the importance of bringing “incremental change” to the country, but she also said it is because of a dogged unwillingness to compromise that some Democrats will lose their congressional seats in November’s midterm elections. “Be prepared to lose congressional seats,” she said, because Democrats “were not willing to sell our souls and not sell out the American people on health care.”

Turning to the College Democrats, who brought her to speak on the Hilltop Congresswoman Norton issued a challenge to some of the most active members of her party, saying that recent losses in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts “should sober Democrats still drunk from Inauguration.” Norton charged the same Democratic base that helped elect President Obama with proving that he “not only has landing power, but also has staying power.”

“The fight is on, bring it on,” she said. If 2009 was all about Obama, “in 2010 it is going to be about all of us.”

Photo by Shira Saperstein

David Frum

Political commentators David Frum and Bob Shrum (COL ’65) appeared at Gaston Hall tonight to discuss the “issues and implications” of the Presidential election.  SFS Professor Jacques Berlinerblau moderated the discussion.

Frum, a leading conservative thinker, served as the current Bush’s speechwriter during his first term and even penned a book about Bush entitled “The Right Man.”

Described by the Atlantic Monthly as “the most sought-after strategist in the Democratic Party,” Shrum is well regarded in the Democratic establishment despite the Shrum curse–every presidential campaign he has played a major role in has failed.

Frum spent a great deal of time discussing the rise and fall of the conservative movement, arguing that the Gingrich Revolution of 1994 will remembered as the high water mark for the conservative movement.  Frum was also very pessimistic about the GOP’s chances in November, saying, “I don’t think there’s a lot of doubt about what the outcome of this election is going to be, and I think it’s time that Republicans talk frankly about this.”

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