Yes, I will gloat in the Democrat victory

I have not hidden the fact, even though I am politically independent, I dislike the GOP so much that I will not vote for a Republican. However, I did vote for one on Tuesday and that was Joe Testa who is Franklin County Auditor.

I am pleased as punch that the GOP lost BIG Tuesday. They lost most of the offices here in Ohio including Governor. They lost the majority in the US House and are on the brink of gaining control of the US Senate.

The national victory for the Democrats is a HUGE rebuke to President Bush, the GOP, and their neo-con cronies. They were the ones who squandered the budget surplus, got us into a protracted war in Iraq on fabricated evidence, and ruined our reputation in the world community.

The wingnuts can try and spin it anyway that will help them feel better but the GOP LOST and they lost big.

The Democratic victory was also a rebuke to the cable TV and radio talking flacks who had no clue what was going on, so much so that until today kept attacking Democrats on behalf of their GOP masters.

You can stick it up your asses Karl Rove and Fox News…..

After 2004, I really thought my fellow citizens were mentally challenged but after tonight they are just slow on the uptake. It took them 6 years but they finally arrived at my conclusions and turned the bums out.

The other small satisfaction I got is in two different races related to my fight to keep church and state separate.

Deborah Owens Fink, the state school board member who was leader of the movement to force Intelligent Design into Ohio public schools, lost her election to another term. She had only 28% of the vote as of 11 PM

In Indiana, Rep. James Hostettler (R-IN) who introduced the “Public Expression of Religion Act” that was passed as the “Veterans’ Memorials, Boy Scouts, Public Seals, and Other Public Expressions of Religion Protection Act of 2006”, lost his House seat tonight.

See also:
A Voter Rebuke For Bush, the War And the Right

I voted today

I voted today, for the first time in my new district.

It was in the vestibule of my local grocery store, so while pondering all the judges running for election, I got see all the morning shoppers getting their coffee and groceries. I am use to going behind a curtain so it was a bit of getting use to.

Ohio has an ID requirement. My driver’s licence has my previous address and some news reports were saying that others had issues casting a regular ballot with a DL with an old address. Despite the fact that the law says it doesn’t matter if the address is old as long as you are in fact registered at the current address.

Did I mention there were a lot of judges on the ballot?

Those were votes I wished I made more effort to research before today.

Late info on Republican candidates

A friend of mine passed on this list of info about some of the various Republican candidates this election season. Some pretty interesting reading.

–AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl
AZ-01: Rick Renzi
AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth
CA-04: John Doolittle
CA-11: Richard Pombo
CA-50: Brian Bilbray
CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave
CO-05: Doug Lamborn
CO-07: Rick O’Donnell
CT-04: Christopher Shays
FL-13: Vernon Buchanan
FL-16: Joe Negron
FL-22: Clay Shaw
ID-01: Bill Sali
IL-06: Peter Roskam
IL-10: Mark Kirk
IL-14: Dennis Hastert
IN-02: Chris Chocola
IN-08: John Hostettler
IA-01: Mike Whalen
KS-02: Jim Ryun
KY-03: Anne Northup
KY-04: Geoff Davis
–MD-Sen: Michael Steele
MN-01: Gil Gutknecht
MN-06: Michele Bachmann
–MO-Sen: Jim Talent
–MT-Sen: Conrad Burns
NV-03: Jon Porter
NH-02: Charlie Bass
NJ-07: Mike Ferguson
NM-01: Heather Wilson
NY-03: Peter King
NY-20: John Sweeney
NY-26: Tom Reynolds
NY-29: Randy Kuhl
NC-08: Robin Hayes
NC-11: Charles Taylor
OH-01: Steve Chabot
OH-02: Jean Schmidt
OH-15: Deborah Pryce
OH-18: Joy Padgett
PA-04: Melissa Hart
PA-07: Curt Weldon
PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick
PA-10: Don Sherwood
–RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee
–TN-Sen: Bob Corker
–VA-Sen: George Allen
VA-10: Frank Wolf
–WA-Sen: Mike McGavick
WA-08: Dave Reichert

Ohio Republicans don’t want democratic elections

This November, Ohioans will have a chance to make a fundamental change in the way elections are operated in the state. From donation limits, to independent redistricting, to “no-excuse” absentee balloting, and to removing politics from the administration of election, the four proposed constitutional amendments would try to make up for the joke of an election the state had in 2004 when we joined Florida as a laughing stock of the nation.

Of course the Republicans are against it as it might threaten their 10 year hold on the legislature and state elective offices as well as the number of the GOP sent to Congress.

Issue 2 would allow Ohioans to vote early or to vote by mail, ensuring easy access to elections. Issue 3 would put tough limits on campaign contributions, reducing the influence of money in politics. Issue 4 would create an independent redistricting commission to take the power to draw legislative districts out of the hands of partisan lawmakers. Issue 5 would remove partisan politicians from the administration of state elections.

Issue 4 is the most controversial.

Currently a panel made up of legislators draw districts after each census. Since how the districts are drawn can influence who gets elected and who doesn’t, the party in power tries to make as many districts “safe” for their candidate and protects their “majority” in the state house. They draw them in such away to remove the possibility of any serious competition by stocking the district with their party faithful. Since the party in power stocks the district it is near impossible for a candidate from another party to get elected.

With these “safe” seats the people in the district have little or no say on which candidate they can vote on as that is decided behind close doors.

In some cases, a current legislator is “promoted” to a state wide office or agency. That person then resigns their district seat and their party’s central committee appoints a person to fill the seat until the next election, then it being a “safe” seat, it amounts to the committee choosing who will be the representative for years to come with no input from the voters he/she are suppose to represent.

Issue 4 would stop the politicians from drawing their own legislative districts and puts an Independent Commission in charge of this process. It would return accountability to voters where it belongs.

In 2002, the nearby village of New Rome was in the news because of the undemocratic operation of the village council. It had not even bothered with elections they simply “reappointed themselves.” Half of the council members were found not to be in office legally. Even though there was a general lack of interest, from the residents, in the council positions, the state still passed a law that allowed it to force the town of 60 to go out of business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Rome,_Ohio

If state legislators find the operation of New Rome to be so abhorrent to the principles of democracy that they passed a law to close it down, then it makes one wonder why they seem to be against protecting the same principles when they are subverted on the state level with created “safe” seats.

Reform Ohio Now

Common Sense Reforms for Ohio

“Statewide election proposals fare well” – Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch – 10/01/05