Schwarzenegger: I'll Be...Over Here, Licking My Wounds

Yesterday, in a thorough trouncing, all initiatives in Schwarzenegger's special interest election failed. The majority of Californians showed the Governator and his buddies that we weren't going to be led around by his empty glitz any longer. Hooray for us!

After long months of working to overturn the propositions of this needless - and needlessly expensive - special election, yesterday was a capper of a long day for many volunteers as they engaged in phone banking and precinct walking and, of course, voting, with a better than expected voter turnout - my own precinct had seen 200 voters by 11:30am, as opposed to barely 200 voters during the mayoral election in May. And last night my fellow volunteers and I watched the returns with growing elation, knowing that our hard work was definitely being rewarded. Granted, the initial results on 73, 74 and 75 were discouraging, but there was a definite sweetness that replaced the bitter as we watched those propositions flip into the negative column. There were many of us who hoped that 79 would pass (myself included, as it would directly affect my mother), but hopefully the proposition will be reintroduced next year when it won't be confused with an initiative that patently benefits the drug companies and no one else.

Even better, elections across the country were obviously trending towards the left side of the political divide, despite defeats in New York City, Ohio, Texas and Kansas, in which Bloomberg retained mayorship of New York City, Ohio voters thought reform efforts were confusing, Texans saved the world from certain annihilation by banning same sex marriages, and the Kansas Board of Education proved there's a lack of intelligence when it comes to Intelligent Design. Both Virginia and New Jersey have newly minted Democratic governors, in the form of Tim Kaine and Jon Corzine. Tucson's city council is now under Democratic control. Intelligent Design advocates have been ushered out the door of the Dover school board in Pennsylvania. Maine struck down an anti-gay initiative. Things are good in the House of Blue.

So let's pause today and celebrate our wins, both at the polls and in the press. We most certainly deserve a day of celebration. But let's get right back into the fire fight. We still have 2006 - and 2008 - to work for. Let yesterday be simply the appetizer of what needs to be - for the sake of the country - a scrumptious blue meal.

(And maybe your humble contributor will stop writing these entries before she's had anything to eat.)