Congressional Races: Being a Video Game Critic Doesn't Hurt a Candidate

For Election Day GamePolitics posted a watch list of congressional races in which the candidates had some connection to the video game scene.

Most of the incumbent senators and representatives on this list are (or have been) game critics and all of them won re-election. Those results seem to indicate that the video game issue lacks political significance among voters at the national level, at least for now.

Here are the results of those races:

U.S. Senate:

Roger Wicker (R-MS) - The video game critic (he currently has game ratings legislation in the Senate) won handily with 55% of the vote.

Ted Stevens (R-AK) - Although the race hasn't been called yet, amazingly, the corrupt, tech-challenged Stevens (he's the famous "series of tubes" guy) leads his challenger by 3,500 votes. Voters in red state Alaska may be thinking that Stevens will be forced to resign when he trades his pin-striped suit for a striped suit of another kind. When that happens the guv (let's see, what's her name again?) will appoint a Republican replacement.

Mark Warner - the tech-savvy Warner (he famously made a campaign stop in Second Life) smoked his opponent with 64% of the vote.

U.S. House of Representatives:

Lee Terry (R-NE) The co-author of the House version of the Video Games Rating Enforcement Act won re-election with 52% of the vote. 

Jim Matheson (D-UT) The co-author (with Lee Terry) of the House version of the Video Games Rating Enforcement Act won re-election with 63% of the vote.

Fred Upton (R-MI) Hot Coffee critic and sponsor of the 2006 Video Game Decency Act won re-election with 59% of the vote. He can thus expect a continued stream of Urgent! e-mails from disbarred anti-game attorney Jack Thompson.

Betty McCollum (D-MN) Game industry critic and supporter of Dr. David Walsh and the National Institute on Media & the Family won re-election handily with 69% of the vote.

Cliff Stearns (R-FL) Game industry critic and co-sponsor of the 2006 Truth in Video Games Rating Act won re-election easily with 61% of the vote.

Joe Baca (D-CA) Despite being named one the 10 Worst Members of Congress by Esquire magazine, serial video game legislator Baca cruised to re-election with 66% of the vote.

Ron Paul (R-TX) Running unopposed, Paul will return to Congress. Will he make a bid for president again in 2012? Do the inhabitants of Azeroth still love him? Only time will tell.

Peter Myers: We don't have the exact figures, but we know that the Green Party candidate received less than 5% of the vote.