Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest for the 5th of October.

I'm John Dickerson.

November.

It's November.

Shoot.

Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest for the 5th of November.

I'm John Dickerson.

I barely know what month I'm in.

David Plotz is here with me in Washington.

And Emily Bazelon is in New Haven, not in New Hampshire, as I once claimed. Welcome to all of you. It's the election has happened. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about the kinds of candidates. We'll spend some time talking about women candidates. And then we will talk about the effect of the election in the states where redistricting is an important issue because every 10 years after the

census, they redraw those congressional battle lines. And we'll talk about what happened and why

that's important, not just for next year, but for 10 years to come. First, the election.

So we'll start here with a few numbers. In the Senate, Republicans picked up six seats. So the final count in the Senate, there's still two undecided races in Alaska and Washington State. There are 52 Democrats, that includes the two independents, the caucus with them, and 46 Republicans in the House. As of this moment, 60 seats were picked up by the Republicans. That makes the count at the moment.

239 Republicans, 186 Democrats, and there are still 10 seats undecided.

The overall big picture of what happened.

Well, let me just get reactions from you, Emily, first, and then we'll talk about what happened and where the voters went.

I would say it was as good a night as it could have been for the Republicans, except for there were a few Senate races that tipped to the Democrats that could have gone the other way.

Other than that, I mean, to me, the governorships and the state legislatures, which we're

about to get to are really probably the most important. But they won most of the House races in the districts that Democrats had won when McCain ran against Obama. And, you know, has this feeling, at least at the moment, that those red districts are going back to their natural state of being and that 2008 was an aberration.

But, John, you can tell me why I'm over interpreting.

I don't think you're over interpreting, but let's go to David Plotz for his reaction.

Well, my reaction is very similar to Emily's, which is that a few very high-profile

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