Election Results

Well, it looks like the Democrats have taken the House with a decent margin. The Senate, as of this morning, is still up for grabs, with two seats (per MSNBC) still un-called. Democrats need both and (again, as of the last time I looked) are leading in both counts, but by very small margins. Those are Virginia and Montana. So we'll see.

Here in Colorado, both of the gay rights issues went against me - Coloradans voted to amend the Constitution to enshrine heterosexual marriage, and against a referendum creating domestic partnerships for same-sex marriage. Apparently our Constitution is pretty easy to amend (seeing as we do it several times every election), so I'm disappointed but not terrifically concerned about the amendment. I'm more disappointed with the rejection of domestic partnerships. Still, both items had small enough margins to indicate continuing progress on these issues.

The local Republican I voted for despite the approximately 1000 pieces of mail I got about how much she hates seniors (Ramey Johnson) lost to Democrat Gwyn Green (the "fighting grandma" or somesuch). Now, I really don't think people should treat the political parties like sport teams ("I root for the Democrats, and whoever is playing the Republicans!"). I am non-partisan enough to try to vote for the better candidate in many races regardless of party. But I have to admit I am still partisan enough that, when I vote for a Republican and she loses, I feel mostly glad and relieved. So that's kind of crazy, but whatever.

Ed Perlmutter, my Democratic House candidate, won a previously Republican seat, and our Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter defeated Bob Beauprez. And it looks like a good picture nationally. I still have my fingers crossed for the Senate.

One funny thing was last night on MSNBC, they were interviewing a guy (I don't know who) who was talking about the language that Democrats need to use to make themselves look good (e.g., referring to "oversight" rather than "investigations"). That's all well and good, but then the guy said that when he heard Newt Gingrich in 1994 refer to a "Republican Revolution," he knew the Republicans were in trouble.

Oh, really?