Grab bag: elections and stuff

Posted on November 4th, 2009 by ecthompson

voting boxAfter every election, it’s just like McDonald’s selling hamburgers, pundits are going to try to look for some overarching theme that will tie all the elections together. The fact that there was low voter turnout and low voter interest seems to get an asterisk. I don’t think that there is any overarching theme. If there’s any theory, I’ll go with the theory that all politics is local.

In Maine: the voters in Maine decided that discrimination against gays and lesbians was okay. The gay marriage initiative was defeated.

Michael Bloomberg, after changing the rules and spending over $90 million of his own money, won a close election for mayor of New York City. It must be nice to be a billionaire.

In Virginia, the Republican candidate easily won the governor’s mansion.

In probably what was the most contentious race, New York’s 23rd Congressional District, Doug Hoffman was running as a conservative third-party candidate. Bill Owens, the Democrat, won 49% of the vote. The last time a Democrat held this seat was over 100 years ago. Look for much prognostication over this race.

On a completely different note, I did go see Michael Jackson’s This Is It. Absolutely fabulous.

Here’s what Kos took from yesterday -

There will be much number-crunching tomorrow, but preliminary numbers (at least in Virginia) show that GOP turnout remained the same as last year, but Democratic turnout collapsed. This is a base problem, and this is what Democrats better take from tonight:

  1. If you abandon Democratic principles in a bid for unnecessary “bipartisanship”, you will lose votes.
  2. If you water down reform in favor of Blue Dogs and their corporate benefactors, you will lose votes.
  3. If you forget why you were elected — health care, financial services, energy policy and immigration reform — you will lose votes.

Tonight proved conclusively that we’re not going to turn out just because you have a (D) next to your name, or because Obama tells us to. We’ll turn out if we feel it’s worth our time and effort to vote, and we’ll work hard to make sure others turn out if you inspire us with bold and decisive action.

The choice is yours. Give us a reason to vote for you, or we sit home. And you aren’t going to make up the margins with conservative voters. They already know exactly who they’re voting for, and it ain’t you.

Tags: Elections // View Comments

  • ecthompson
    You are singing my tune.

    Thanks for your comments.
  • ecthompson
    Joe -

    Kos' last book was called Taking on the System. Dems are slow learners. :)
  • ecthompson
    You are singing my tune.

    Thanks for your comments.
  • ecthompson
    Joe -

    Kos' last book was called Taking on the System. Dems are slow learners. :)
  • Joe White
    "Give us a reason to vote for you, or we sit home."

    I am surprised that it has taken some progressives this long to begin to stand up to the Democrats who have been marginalizing them for a long time.

    When are you going to seriously put together a third party option that will represent you fully?
  • askcherlock
    Watered-down reform could take a serious toll on the Democratic Party. All the issues you quoted from KOS are the true reasons this party support is getting weak at the knees. Lest the Dems forget, some of us worked awfully hard for issues which have yet to see the light of day. It is discouraging for the most ardent of Party members.
  • askcherlock
    Watered-down reform could take a serious toll on the Democratic Party. All the issues you quoted from KOS are the true reasons this party support is getting weak at the knees. Lest the Dems forget, some of us worked awfully hard for issues which have yet to see the light of day. It is discouraging for the most ardent of Party members.
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