Here is a recap of last night’s election and referendum results:
Ohio - Voters overturned Governor Kasich’s bill that stripped public sector employees of their collective bargain rights. Margin: 61 to 39 percent.
Mississippi – Voters rejected a referendum that would have conferred legal personhood status to a fertilized egg at the moment of conception. Margin: 57 to 43 percent. In Mississippi, you will no longer order scrambled “unborn chicks” for breakfast or call senior citizens “undead corpses.”
Main – Voters reinstated the right to register on election day, thus giving Governor Paul LePage a resounding defeat. Margin: 60 to 40 percent.
Arizona – Voters recalled state Senate Leader Russell Pearce, the architect of Arizona’s controversial anti-immigrant law. Margin: 52.4 to 45.4 percent. After January, the former Senator will have more time to mow his own lawn and wash his own laundry.
Georgia – Voters struck down long-standing blue laws that banned Sunday alcohol sales. Henceforth and forevermore, the Bible Belters will have one more path for finding Jesus.
North Carolina – voters gave Democrats a clean sweep of mayoral races in Greensboro and Charlotte (the city that will host the 2012 Democratic National Convention). Voters also sent a clear message to the Wake County School Board, returning majority control to the Democrats. Last year, the Republican controlled school board scrapped a decade-old busing plan that kept the local schools desegregated. This was a high-profile election due to the influence of outside money from the Koch-funded PAC, Americans for Prosperity.
Do these election returns represent a swing of the political pendulum? Is the infatuation with fatuous fatheads finally over? Hardly! Not all news last night was good news. In Virginia, the Democrats lost more ground.
An old Octopus Proverb: Change does not come from hope. Rather, as creatures of habit and complacency, human beings change only when motivated by excruciating pain. Virginians, it seems, have a higher pain threshold due in no small part to their proximity to Washington DC.
Update: Voter turnouts were far higher last night compared to election cycle 2010 - double in some contests. If there is one lesson to be learned from these results, high voter turnout marginalizes the lunatic fringe and makes a difference. Never, never stay away from the polls - vote, vote, vote!
Thanks Octo for putting all of this info in one place. The wind appears to have blown in the right direction and maybe there is enough pain for change to come.
ReplyDeleteWake is my county of residence and voter turnout was two times that of voter turnout for the 2009 local election, the one that put the lunatics in chare of the school system. What was truly delightful was that the school board chair lost his re-election bid, He was 100% in favor of the return to neighborhood schools and the dismantling of all efforts to maintain socioeconomic diversity in the schools.
I don't think the walls of Jericho have fallen but I certainly think that they're got a few more cracks in them.
The election results tell me that not all America is made up of hate-filled, racist crazies - and that despite the MSM's tilt to the right and Fox News' high ratings, people aren't paying a lot of attention to them. Virginia was a disappointment, however, because it indicates that Cantor will not be tossed out on his arrogant ass.
ReplyDeleteOcto,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post. I think the results show the rapid back-and-forth we have been observing for a while now: just as soon as the Republicans get some power thanks to frustration with Democrats, they begin to abuse it in the most shameful, stupid, arrogant and public way, and even some of the dumbest voters begin to notice, which shifts things back towards the Dems for a at least a year or two. At this point, I think President Obama's chances are looking pretty good.
Voter turnout is crucial to better outcomes. That's why Republicans are doing everything they think they can get away with to discourage and suppress voting.
ReplyDeleteThe dim bulb who sneers and says all politicians are no good, so why bother, is casting a vote by not voting. Then, the lousy results that follow bad election outcomes serve to reinforce the scoffers' notion that they were right. That, in turn, encourages more people to become scoffers.