'Tis Tuesday in November, So . . . Elections!

Hey, just 'cause it's an off-year election doesn't mean i'm not paying attention.  Truth be told, I pay more attention to off-year/midterm elections because they're usually far more interesting than the presidential ones.

So, here's a quick recap of the night

• Bob McDonnell (R) is the new governor of Virginia
• Chris Christie (R) is the new governor of New Jersey
• Bill Owens (D) won the congressional race in NY23 (New York's 23rd district, for you non-politics people)
• Main voters overturned their legislature's law legalizing gay marriage
• Michael Bloomberg (R/I) is still mayor of New York City
• Democrats picked up another House seat, from Northern California
  

Writing this in the few days after the election, I can't say I'm surprised by any of it.  Disappointed by a lot, sure.  I would have liked to see the governor's races and the Issue 1 in Maine go down differently.  But when you think about it, y'all should've seen it coming.

Jon Corzine, the incumbent in NJ, was hated, hated by so many people . . . even those of his own party.  For such a small state, it has a ton of problems.  I can completely see why he would lose.  Even though Obama campaigned for him, Corzine has none of the glitz and glamour and excitement that the so-called "Obama surge voters" associate with the president.

Virginia, well, they have a history of being rather unhappy if their governor is from the same party as the president.  Add to that the fact that they are historically a very Republican state, and, well, bye-bye, Mr. Deeds.

Maine's Issue 1 was California's Prop 8 all over again, right down to the same firm running the "yes" campaign's attack adds.  And, yes, it makes me just as mad the second time round.  When you have ultra-fundamentalists/conservatives running blatently false ads, you have little chance of people voting the sensible way.  And yes, I'm aware that that's a generalization.  Not everyone who voted "yes" is fundamentalist, and they're perfectly entitled to their own opinions.  But this repeal is a disappointing setback to equal-rights activists everywhere.  Not to mention that the ads that were run for the "yes" campaign were completely unture (there was nowhere in the law where it was stated that gay marriage would be taught in schools).  They were purely playing on irrational fears, which leads me to believe, once again, that most Americans just don't think enough.

NY23's race was probably the one I was watching most closely, because the dynamics there were so interesting.  It's a historically Republican seat, yet the Republican nominee here, Deirdre Scozzafava, was basically forced to withdraw from teh race by her own party, for being too liberal.  I think she simply had a good head on her shoulders, but anyway.  That left the Democrat running against the Conservative Party nominee -- who just so happened to pick up an endorsement from Sarah Palin (maybe that's why he lost!)  Add to all that the fact that Scozzafava still walked away with 5% of the vote, AND threw her support behind the Democrat, and you have a fascinating election.  I think this one went pretty well :)

As for Michael Bloomberg, all I can say is "duh".  He goes to all the trouble to make himself eligible for a third term, then spends a ridiculous of his own money on the (entirely self-financed) campaign.  It would be crazy if he wasnt elected.  Although the margin of victory was much smaller than anyone (including me) had thought, seeing as how Bloomberg was leading the polls by double digits.

And Democrats picked up a second congressional seat, this one from California.  So overall, an okay night.

So what does all this mean?  I don't think it means as much as other people think.  It's not really a reflection on Obama so much as it is a reflection on the party in power.  And I think we Democrats did pretty well tonight.  I also think that if the two gubernatorial races had been in, say, Texas and Alabama, that we would have been much less surprised to see two Republicans walk away with the seat.  Theres so much hype here, in my opinion, because Virginia, although historically Republican, voted for Obama last year, so people were maybe half expecting that trend to continue.  Also, NJ is a historically Democratic state where the Republican candidate won pretty handily.  So that might have been a surprise to some people.

Okay, this post is getting way long now, and I'm tired.  G'night everyone :)