Election day

[Sheherezade]

Does anyone have anything interesting in their area? Our election here has been pretty ho-hum. The Cleveland mayor race is pretty tight, though. We had some election reform issues, but ...nothing big like last year. What's going on in your area?

[samssugarmomma]

The most controversial thing for us in TX is the marriage amendment to ban same sex marriage.

Would love to hear how the mayor race turns out in my old stomping grounds.

[Amiens]

Well for WA there was a tort reform, repealing the gas tax, and monorail. Wish we could've voted on those.

For ID, because we don't "belong" to a city- all we could vote for was for Fire Commissioner. Very ho-hum

Crystal

I *think* there was not an election here. Could that be? No ballot received in the mail, no reporting on the front page of the paper....rather eerie.

[DCJenn]

We had the ridiculous VA governor's race all over the news here. and talk about negative...

So, Kaine, the Dem is a pro-life dem- and by pro-life, that also includes the death penalty. He's morally and ethically opposed to it. So, the Rep. Kilgore started running these nasty ads that said that Kaine wouldn't put Hitler to death if Hitler had been given the death penalty.

Yikes.

So, the Kaine people came back with him saying the the death penalty was the law in Virginia and as Gov., he'd be obligated to follow the law.

Kilgore lost by a pretty impressive margin though. I'm not surprised as his ads were by far nastier than Kaines. (Not that kaine's an innocent bystander to the negativity.)

Maybe we're finally starting to turn a corner with the negative stuff.

Jenn

As a native Virginian and with my parents still in the Commonwealth, I was quite happy to see Kaine get the nod. I watched a few debates on C-Span and Kaine absolutely owned Kilgore on all of the brief footage I saw. I think the negative adds (by Kilgore) just sealed the deal for Kaine. But in my estimation (or maybe this is just how I was viewing the race ), Virginians were happy that Kaine as Warner's Lt. Gov. was part of the team that helped put Virginia's financial house in order. It wasn't too long ago that the state was feeling the pain of Gilmore's reckless car tax gimmick. Also, did I mention that Kilgore seemed to be an absolute dolt during the debates?

[SueC]

Ya know, I don't think an election happened here either. I didn't get a little postcard in the mail, nor did I see any signs or commercials for any major issues. I was interested in the Cleveland race, since that's all NPR could talk about the other day. I suppose I could do a search online, and maybe I will, but does anyone care to post the result to that one??

[Rapunzel]

Well, we're technically Texas residents (military) but I didn't vote in this particular election. I didn't think to get an absentee ballot in time (ie I forgot there were elections coming up until I saw this thread pop up ). But, I just spoke to my mom (in Texas) and she said that the big thing is that the ammendment to the TX constitution defining marriage passed by a wide margin (and, yes, I would have voted for it so I'm quite pleased with that result - I guess they didn't need my forgetful butt to pass that one ). Other than that I'm not sure what has happened in my home state in the last 24 hours.

Jennifer

[Sheherezade]

Frank Jackson (the new guy) won Cleveland. Jane Campbell is out. It was very close. As the newspapers stated, it was a lackluster campaign followed by little information on the new plan for Cleveland. I did vote for Jackson - mostly because the city seems stagnant. I think there was a strong feeling that change is good across the region. Lots of incumbents were challenged and some ousted. I hope that feeling --change -- starts sweeping the nation. I'm less than thrilled with our current world state. Of course, we didn't pass ANY of the campaign/election reforms proposed to the state charter. Bummer. The argument against was that people would get around them anyway -- that it would encourage cheating. Well, maybe - but at least it would be against the law! There is so much corruption in politics. Blehh. The news is like a soap opera these days. I'm tired of nuances - let's get out some handcuffs already. (And that's just Ohio politics - and my first year here! )

I am so glad Kaine won!

The guy they interviewed on NPR was going on about how Kaine wasn't doing things like a normal Dem, wasn't sticking to the dogma sent down by the DNC. And then that those who were living in the comfy confines fo NOVA didn't want change because he was a continuating of the Warner Kaine administration...but lots of rural areas carried him too.

I am giddy at the thought of Warner running. He did all sorts of "bad" things like get the budget straightened out after that stupid car tax thing...yeah, lets run the state without a budget because the legistlature won't repeal the car tax.

OMM, a Warner Feingold ticket would be killer.

[Ames]

Were those Kilgore adds not the most ridiculous thing ever! They've got to be the most negitive campaign adds I've seen in a while. The one about the woman whose husband was a police officer that got shot was so sad. I thought it was just horrible that they were exploiting her husband's death for a political campaign.

[Sheherezade]

I didn't vote for Cleveland mayor - but SueC asked who won so I felt the need to report it. I didn't think she'd care about Chagrin Falls big upset -Thomas Brick!! (Who? ) I thought the initiatives were a little awkward, too - but honestly I wasn't as informed as I wanted to be on the issue. I voted for most of them out of frustration with the political crapola.....

[SueC]

And thank you Angie! As predicted, I never did search online for the answer myself.

[Sheherezade]

I'm an idiot -- I guess what I meant was I liked him better than Campbell based on what I'd read. I had to go back and read my own post to see what I'd typed!

The initiatives were confusing - but all the info I read came out so close to the election it was hard to take it in. I voted for because they seemed like a good idea - and the criticisms seemed to be that they were not enforcable or open to fraud. I had an idealistic moment standing in front of the punch card. Maybe, just maybe ....it'll work!! We'll have a month to vote and no fraud!

I voted for our city council here based on who knocked on my door and how they answered my questions. Not the answers, mind you... but how I felt about the *way* they answered my questions. I haven't lived in this town long enough to know local issues. So I guess I'm not the most informed/enlightened voter.....