2011 elections

[oceanchild]

Anything interesting happen in your neck of the woods? I'm fascinated by down-ballot elections.

Our elections were last week, because of a quirk in the Colorado constitution. Two tax increases died - one at the state level for education, and one municipal for recreation centers. My city also elected a new mayor, but honestly, he's kind of boring. Haha.

I also watched Washington state with interest because I've done some work on liquor laws in the past. Washington is now going to allow grocery stores to sell hard liquor.

So... any fun tidbits to share?

[SoonerTexan]

Facebook told me Cassy voted

[poky]

We voted down some legislation that would have gone even further than Wisconsin did in destroying unions, here.

[HouseofWool]

We voted down some legislation that would have gone even further than Wisconsin did in destroying unions, here.

There is a serious misconception about the Wisconsin legislation. It was not to destroy unions, but rather,in part, to prevent the unions from overspending on health care. Even with the funding cuts that came because of budget shortfalls, school districts that waited to ratify their teachers' contacts are saving huge sums of money.

The average cost for the WEAC funded health insurance (which was self insured) was 4 -5 times what it would have cost for comparable state funded insurance.

Even as a staunch liberal, I have a hard time seeing how substantial savings are a bad thing. Many of the school districts that waited are also hiring instead of laying people off.


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[scarlett09]

There were no elections here. No state, county, or municipal races or referendums. Kind of weird not going to the polls.

There were some interesting races at home for State Assembly & Senate (all of their seats are up for grabs every 2 years). A couple of them got really nasty with attack ads in one of the largest media markets in the country. Carl Lewis didn't wind up on the ballot for Assembly in his district after a state judge threw him off of it (I forget why, I think it was a residency issue).

And in a more local race in our region, a former Penn State football player won election to the county Board of Freeholders (kind of ironic considering all of the talk about Penn State right now ). You might have heard of him - Adam Taliaferro, paralyzed while making a play during a game against Ohio State in 2000. With successful therapy and rehab, he can walk and care for himself, went to law school, and is now a politician. It's a nice story.

[SuzySunshine]

We had party primaries for our open congressional seat - there were some school levies but none in our area. I think they all failed.

The WA liquor law was on the TV here a lot and it sounds like it could also affect OR in the future.

This was my first, and only, OR election and I loved that I got my ballot in the mail and then sent it back - SO easy!

[moonlight]

nothing exciting here. just city council. i was disappointed to see seats being unopposed. I tried talking with the lady running against current mayor but she didn't really care to talk with me about my how I was excited about a new city park and the new store coming to town. She really pissed me off. How can you go door to door and not want to chat people up about services and eco development?? i marched myself down to the voting booth yesterday and voted for the current mayor.