Election Day 2013

Americans went to the polls this past Tuesday, as we do every year on the first Tuesday in November.  (Well, a small percentage of registered voters actually vote; in San Francisco key issues were decided by 25% of the registered voters and lots of folks don’t even register.)

This was not an election of big national import; few state or national lawmakers were on ballots – that’s next year, the so-called midterm elections.  And it’s still 3 years until the next Presidential election, 2016.

But that didn’t stop the media from endless speculation about what Tuesday’s results say about the current mood in various states and what might happen in 2014 or 16.

So here’s some election news and my two cents on trends we might be seeing.  (As always, read our friend Ed Kilgore’s daily political blog for analysis that is progressive, savvy, insider.)

• Chris Christie Two governors were elected, Chris Christie in New Jersey, a sort of moderate Republican and Terry McAuliffe in Virginia, a pretty progressive Democrat.  Christie was a shoo-in, had a very weak opponent, still has cred from his aggressive advocacy for the state after Superstorm Sandy almost exactly a year ago.  Lots of speculation that his ability to get a historically Democratic state to elect him twice has increased his standing as a possible Presidential candidate in 2016.  Add in that McAuliffe won, in a historically Republican state, defeating a Tea Party guy who ran on the old Republican tune of how awful Obamacare is, and how great guns are.   So the good Republican won, the bad Republican lost.  Lots of other factors, of course.  McAuliffe is an old Clinton operative and fundraiser, had lots of money and coattails. Would a progressive Democrat win without that assist?   Christie is the uber Jerseyite, belligerent, a little crude.  That might sell along the Jersey shore, but will it get him into the White House?  I don’t read a lot into either victory.  But confirmed Jerseyite myself, I am always happy to see folks from the Northeast, even Republicans, getting national attention.  It has been so refreshing to have a President for the first time in decades who is not from the South.  (Sorry, Ed, son of Georgia.)

• Marty WalshSpeaking of the Northeast, two new big city majors in Boston and New York who take over from mayors who have served forever, 12 years (NY) and 20 years (Boston.)  And in the case of NY, much more populist that their predecessors.  I know NY better, and Bill de Blasio could hardly be more different than current Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  Public Advocate leftie de Blasio, married to a black former lesbian, made his campaign’s central theme the widening gap between rich and poor, strongly critiquing Bloomberg’s Republican hobnobbing with his own kind, the rich and famous.  New Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is a former machine shop worker and a strong advocate for labor.  One could read into these elections the voters’ concern about that ever widening inequality gap, especially in cities; skyrocketing rents, fewer families, less services, tattered safety nets.  As more and more Americans live in cities and the US becomes a more and more urban nation, the election of these new mayors may give hope to folks trying to level the playing field and continue an Obama type government, rather than a return to a Bush/Romney type oligarchy.

• Speaking of votes against the income gap, San Francisco voters strongly rejected a massive new luxury condo highrise on the Bay that would have exceeded waterfront legal height limits by over 50 ft and provided $5 million homes for that good old 1%.  The project had been endorsed by many local and state leaders and the vote against it was a big surprise.  Hopeful sign that the folks don’t want SF to become even more of a rich techie enclave?

• Coloradoans voted in favor of taxing their recently legalized marijuana, to bring in more revenue, but they voted down more money for education.  Here in my home area local citizens also turned down school bonds.  Our public schools are in big trouble, but voters, who are mostly older and no longer have kids in school, seem to be cheap and grumpy about students and schools.

• Also here on the Monterey Peninsula the big issue was Measures K and M; how much development to allow on Fort Ord, a huge army base that was closed 20 years ago.  Since then a Cal State campus has been built there and other public type facilities have renovated some of the old barracks and other army building.  K would have allowed for a lot more development, including a racetrack with gambling.  M would have set aside even more than the current 80% of the former base dedicated to open space and prohibited cutting down hundreds of old oaks.  (All this very simplified.  I’m not even trying to explain the issue of the veteran’s cemetery that both K and M would have allowed.  Or not.  Depending on whose incendiary flyer came in the mail that day; we got over 30 mailers on K and M.  “Support our vets – vote for K!”  “Keep out organized gambling crime, vote for M!”) Naturally I voted for M, against K, along with the liberal leftie’s, Sierra Club etc.  But surprisingly BOTH K and M were defeated.  I think there was so much bullshit being thrown about in both camps, people were just disgusted.  I can see that.  I just hope it doesn’t keep folks away from the polls for the important races in 2014 and 16.

• In the Senate, Rand Paul is fighting plagiarism charges, and Ted Cruz is pretty quiet after his failed attempt to shut down the government.  So the Tea Party is in a bit of an eclipse.  Nearly all 7 Mormon senators actually voted last week in support of job protection against discrimination for LGBT folks.  (They still oppose marriage, but they can empathize with the problem of job discrimination based on identity.) 

So there are some hopeful signs, but there’s still lots of time left in this game…..

Copyright © 2013 Deborah Streeter