Election Night 2009

The Washington Post has already done breaking news on Virginia.

News Alert
08:01 PM EST Tuesday, November 3, 2009

McDonnell wins in Va., exit polls and early returns show.

Robert McDonnell wins the Virginia governor's race, exit polls and early returns show.

For more information, visit washingtonpost.com - http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/U38ITL/SQ9AE/NF5C2T/0AYY7W/22QL6/PJ/t

And it's on to New Jersey

News Alert
10:22 PM EST Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Christie defeats New Jersey Gov. Corzine.

Republican Chris Christie defeats New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine.

For more information, visit washingtonpost.com - http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/8VXTM7/FAZCU/Z6JDIZ/0AYI53/MNCDX/ID/t

Definitely not a good night for the Democratic gubernatorial candidates. Of course, both deserved to lose -- even though for different reasons.

"McDonnell governor" looked like the phrase for the Virginia election. I thought it might be too general and pull in lots of not election result messages. When I searched two hours after The Post declared Archivist found 1440 messages going back to 3:45 in the afternoon.

"Christie governor" looks like it worked for the New Jersey election. I searched at 9:45, there were 1500 messages going as far back as October 26. About one-third were before election day. There were a few more before the outcome was known. Then most of the messages of the first 1500.

November 8, 2009 and it is time to stop the search. There was an initial spike for each of the elections, and that was followed by a rapid drop in messaging. They were not 'big numbers' for breaking news.

The final total for Christie governor was 2022. The timeline was

The .txt file that can be read by Excel to acquire the data is: christie governor.txt

The final total for McDonnell governor was 1650. The timeline was

And the .txt file that can be read by Excel to acquire the data is: mcdonnell governor.txt