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!
