Election 2005 round-up
The trouble with these special elections is that they combine precincts so your polling place can wind up being quite some distance. Mine was and for some reason, I decided to walk to it. Went right through the ballot in about twelve seconds and I felt like I wanted to ask the workers there, “Hey, you got anything else I can vote on? I came a long way to get here.” — Mark Evanier.
Even more hoo-hawing than the mid-term elections (and keep in mind that even the presidential year elections are shrugged off by half of us Americans), we have the off year elections. You will remember that in 1993, we found out that the right kind of Republican could take New York City, this is one who’s married three times, once to his cousin, has roomed with gay roommates… 2001, we found out that they can elect another kind of Republican: a billionaire who can ride the coattails of that other type of Republican who’d turned his reputation over overnight on September 11. 2005, we find out that he (one who is in reality a Democrat with an “R” after his name) can basically buy his way to a 20 point victory over a Democrat with a “D” after his name. But this is neither a victory for good or for bad, so let’s move on.
Some things that went right in the Election 2005 Scheme:
#1: The Dover, Pennsylvania School Board Elections. All eight members up for re-election to the Pennsylvania school board that had been sued for introducing the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in biology class were swept out of office yesterday by a slate of challengers who campaigned against the intelligent design policy.
#2: Chris Coleman Defeats Randy Kelly 69 percent to 31 percent. A minority (or pluralistically minority opinion, if the case may be:) Dave Hueffmeier left the Rice Street Library polling place and said he was going to vote for Coleman but changed his mind and voted for Kelly because he got tired of everyone dwelling on Kelly’s Bush endorsement. “I’m so annoyed by this whole idea that you should not vote for Kelly because he supported Bush,” Hueffmeier said. “That has nothing to do with the running of St. Paul. It’s irrelevant and ludicrous.” I’m pretty sure that if you go to the “Democrats for Bush” page circa 2004, you’d find Randy Kelly #3 in the list of “Democrats for Bush” behind Zell Miller and Ed Koch.
#3: Tim Kaine over Jerry Kilgore for Virginia Governor: Bush put his reputation on the line by campaigning at the eleventh hour for Republican Jerry Kilgore – in a reliably “red” state that Bush won last November by eight percentage points – yet Kilgore was hammered by the triumphant Democrat, Tim Kaine. On Wednesday, some Republicans will undoubtedly argue that their Virginia defeat should not be viewed as a barometer of the national mood or as a referendum on the president and the GOP. But the Bush administration raised the political stakes and invited that perception by the evidence of its own actions. The White House sent the Republican National Committee into Virginia to build and run the voter-turnout machine. Bush himself appeared with Kilgore on Monday night in an effort to energize the party’s conservative base. In recent days, GOP officials had privately voiced concerns that a decisive defeat in Virginia could trigger a “meltdown” in the national party, and Kilgore aides complained to the conservative National Review that Bush had become a drag on their candidate.
You will remember the year 2002, when Bush’s last minute stumping moved Norm Coleman and the other close Republican candidates over the top. Times change. I must note, however — and this is a “for what it’s worth” — Virginia was the closest Southern state for the Democratic Kerry in 2004 (short of Florida)… more so than Arkansas… it is the one southern state that seems to be trending slightly in the Democrats’ direction (and thus, watch to see if outgoing Virginia governor Mark Warner wins the Democratic nomination in 2008).
There are some things worth groaing about with the election of Tim Kaine. Democrat Tim Kaine wrapped himself up tightly around the bible, and his Catholic faith. Though, to be fair, he used it to defend himself against attacks on his anti-Death Penalty stance (which he’s politcally moved himself to a position of “I personally stand against, but it’s the law so…) — which means its not a “Republican-Lite” situation or, worse, the creation of a “Sister Souljah”/ Triangulation moment (to embarrass those dastardly “Secularists”)… but that just means the warning signs in the air of a “Faith”-based left to compete against the Religious Right.
#4: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s package of measures to revive California appear to have suffered a knock-out blow in a bruising night at the polls for the Republican Party across the US.
With 90 per cent of votes counted at 1.25am (0930 GMT) today, all four ballot initiatives endorsed by the muscle-bound Republican “governator” had failed, two of them by wide margins.
I’m not going to say “Terminate Schwarzeneggar”, but…
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger showed up to his Brentwood neighborhood polling station today to cast his ballot in the special election — and was told he had already voted. […]
The poll worker told the governor’s staff he would have to use a “provisional” ballot that allows elections workers to verify if two votes were made by the same person. McCormack said the poll worker did the correct thing.
The governor, however, was allowed to use a regular ballot.
Har de Har Har.
#5: Maine Question #1 victorious. The vote reversed a trend that dates back to 1998, when voters narrowly rejected a gay rights law in a special election. Voters again opposed a gay rights law in a follow-up referendum two years later. […] The reason this is a good thing is because it annoys this guy: “I genuinely feel that we should not give anyone special rights,” said George Jablon of Augusta, who is retired. “We built the greatest nation in the world on biblical principles, and now we’ve abandoned that.”
#6: This is good news. Or maybe it’s not. I don’t know.
I’ve run out of steam. I see that an anti-tax measure went down to defeat in Washington, a defeat that paves the way to road pavement. That’s a good thing. Washington’s anti-smoking ban’s passage bugs me, and I can explain my mixed feelings on anti-smoking bans later, particularly if pressed. The “Reform Ohio” measures failed — perhaps it’s those dastardly Diebold Voting Machines? Jon Corzine defeated Doug Forrester in the New Jersey Senate race, which I guess moves us to one of the big 2006 Senate races (is this Jon Corzine’s selected replacement versus the popular New Jersey Republican?) And that “Creationist / Intelligent Designer School Board Ousted” story is meted out over news coming out of Kansas. (For that matter, the Maine gain for gays and lesbians is meted out with a defeat over gay marriage in Texas.)
Okay. Thus end it and, for the Voting Public, 2006 is right around the corner. There, we will get a clearer view of what direction the United States will take for the immediate future.
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UPDATE, and a couple addenums: #1: On second thought, the Texas Marriage Ban was a good thing… its language bans marriage, which — heck — let’s go ahead and throw it out of the state. #2: The Republican spin on Kaine’s victory in Virginia is that it shows how out of touch the Democratic Party is — Kaine ran as a Conservative — late term abortion, gun control, gay marriage. Interestingly enough, the party that ran promotions proclaiming Kaine’s “Conservative Credentials” was The Republican Party, as a dirty trick to suppress the Democratic vote.