Llais Ifanc Reloaded

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Election Day!

I love Election Day, which was last week, on Tuesday.

You know the day. It's when citizens rise up and say 'enough is enough' or 'I agree with the status-quo'. On this day, there wasn't much up for election here in Havelock. We had a election for Mayor (which was won by a guy who had been mayor before) and an election for Commissioners (an incumbent was reelected, another incumbent lost their seat, and a pretty young guy topped the poll). Besides that, there were some more interesting races:

Unlike the other states and insular areas Virginia and New Jersey elect their Governor in what is known as "off-off" years. New Jersey had to choose between millionaire #1 and millionaire #2; that is Sen. Jon Corzine and Republican Doug Forrester. In the end, Sen Corzine won with 53% of vote to Forrester's 44%. There was a swing of about 3% to the Republicans. I'm just glad the right millionaire won. I just now hope this new guy decides to stick around compared to the last guy.

I am more excited over the Virginia result, which had been really unexpected, since VA is really Republican (a Democrat hasn't carried the state since 1964 (even though Clinton was close to winning in the 1990's). During the race itself, the polls were topsy-turvy as to the point of who Virginians preferred for Governor - Democrat Tim Kaine or the Republican Jerry Kilgore. However, there was one point that swung the campaign in favor of Kaine. That point was an advert Kilgore aired that claimed due to Kaine's Catholicism, he would not put Adolf Hitler to death in Virginia. This ad was roundly critized by papers around Virginia. It was well deserved. Kilgore broke Godwin's law and it cost him. In the end, the result was 52% for Kaine and 46% for Kilgore, with a swing of less than 1% to the Republicans. This result proves that Democrats can win anywhere - including the South, which is a good thing.

There were a few interesting things in California that happened. Arnold hasn't been doing well as of late. He's been facing the same problem that every President or Governor since WWII has faced: working with a Lege that's not his party. Arnold got tied of this, so he put four questions about teacher tenure, limits on union dues for polititcal purposes, a spending cap, and redistricting. These all failed. I can't see now how Arnold can possibly win next year.

San Diego has a rough ride over the last few years. It all started with a pension fund that had been sinking since the mid-1990's. This all lead to a write-in candidacy being launched by Donna Frye for mayor. The candidacy attracted lawsuits over her qualifications to run and later, over the votes themselves. In the end, the mayor, Dick Murphy, won. However, he resigned months later. Amogst all of this, two Councilmen were convicted of taking bribes from gentleman's clubs. With these scandals, we are left with with the election result, which showed a strong victory for Jerry Sanders over Frye. Let's hope he does well.

They need it.

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