The results are mostly what one would expect. John McCain won by a wide margin. Of the eight congressional districts, three will remain Democratic. Most statewide offices will go to Republicans, including superintendent of schools – one of the more depressing results of the election. Of course, Jan Brewer will remain governor thanks to her support of SB 1070.
True to form, however, Arizona voters took a far more balanced approach to the statewide propositions.
We voted down an attempt to make hunting and fishing a constitutional amendment, protecting wildlife lands for people who prefer not to go hiking alongside men with guns shooting at things.
We voted overwhelmingly against the gutting of the land conservation fund by the state legislature. This means our budget will be in more dire straits than the legislature had predicted, but our environment will remain protected.
Along those same lines, we voted overwhelmingly to protect early childhood education and healthcare programs from the legislature which sought to end them to close the budget gap.
On the other hand, we voted to give Arizonans the right to opt out of the national healthcare law – something that will surely face legal challenges down the road.
Medical marijuana is still too close to call. Other propositions were a mixed bag or remain too close to call.
In the end, Arizona remains a pretty independent state despite the Republican sweep. I don’t think it will last. Like the rest of the country, I think Republicans here are riding on a wave of anger and uncertainty. These waves crest quickly and break.
MeDrewNotYou
A bright note in Arizona. It looks like Raul Grijalva will keep his seat.
suzanne
As an Arizonan and former New Yorker, I have to say that days like yesterday make me seriously think about going home.
Zifnab
You could have said the same thing in ’06 or ’08. I’m not worried about losing another 60 seats in 2 years. But I am worried about what the Congress will settle down at once the turbulence stops.
We saw a $4 billion dollar election this year. Is that the new status quo? You’ve got never-rans picking up Senate seats against entrenched incumbents. That makes the Citizens United ruling a very scary thing.
How soon till Democrats start dipping into the pot? What good is a majority, if it’s financed by corporate cash?
We may win back Congress in ’12 or ’14 or ’30, but will there be any liberals left in office by then? Or will they all just be corporate drones with different letters in front of their names?
Brian J
I know next to nothing about Arizona politics, but it was depressing to see people that seemed like they could have big futures, like Kirkpatrick and Mitchell, fall. Then again, Giffords won in what was supposedly a hugely Republican district. I keep hearing people bring up her name and she’s usually on those lists like those that feature 20 elected officials that could be the first female president. People say that the Arizona Republicans are terrified of her political skills and she’s quite likely to make a Senate run.
arguingwithsignposts
Now that is some serious spin, E.D.
LarsThorwald
I came in here just to bid you a fond farewell for a couple of weeks. I’m shutting off the TV, deleting bookmarks on my browser (this is my first read every day, and my last, and I am here shutting off the lights as this is the last site I take down).
For two weeks it’s going to be trashy novels, dog walks, beer, friends, family, and looking at the world withour it being filtered through or reflected by opinion, news, and alla that.
As Lawrence said in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the season’s coming to an end, the tourists will soon be leaving, and I’ll be shutting down part of the house for the winter. mentally, that is.
I don’t know where we go as a country, or as a party. And there’s going to be lots of speculation and finger-pointing and yelling and screaming, and frankly I am tired.
See you all in mid-November. Be good to each other.
DC10
Wasn’t John McCain unable to name anything concrete he had done to benefit Arizona in all his decades as Senator (during a debate or interview)? But he still wins easily. I don’t understand his appeal at all.
Martin
Any discussion of the fact that ACA allows states to opt out if they provide a comparable health insurance alternative? So, MA and HI are already assumed to be opt-out states. Wyden offered that provision to encourage states that might be uncomfortable with ACA to develop their own systems.
Pangloss
Prediction: John Boehner’s first item of business will be placing an order for that awesome lavish jet that Republicans falsely accused Pelosi of flying in.
Violet
@LarsThorwald:
Have a nice break. Hope it does some good and when you return you feel refreshed.
Napoleon
Here in Ohio the Dems were routed like you couldn’t believe. In fact it is a miracle Strickland finished within 2 points based on all the other results. Even in what I would consider 2 pretty safe seats, Kucinich (west side Cleveland) and Ryan (Youngstown and west to Akron) won only 53% and 54% respectively. Kucinich actually went on the air late in the game with ads.
lamh31
OT, But Pfftt…I wish them luck with this:
To Repeal DADT, Gay GOP Group Zeroes In On Five Senators
arguingwithsignposts
@LarsThorwald:
I am almost there with you. I am restricting myself to Balloon Juice and TDS/CR. And TBogg because he makes me laugh. Other than that, I’m going to get as far away from politics as possible for a while.
(I do realize that what I just said is contradictory, but it fits with the spirit of our new teabagging overlords)
Stillwater
@arguingwithsignposts: Now that is some serious spin, E.D.
EDK seems believe that moving massively to the right in both policy and politics is evidence of independent thinking.
Emma
Lars: I’m declaring news other than early-morning BBC world news off-limits. I am in awe of those commenters who keep their fighting spirits up, but mine have taken a beating. I once joked about not signing up to live in the Bladerunner universe, but it looks as if the crazy 40% are going to get us there. The United States government and the United States media are wholly owned subsidiaries of the American corporations, and I don’t see a way out. Maybe getting away from it all and rethinking my own personal future will help.
Brian J
@suzanne:
Why? The Democrats may have done well statewide, but in individual races in upstate New York, they got killed. It’s as if 2006 and 2008 didn’t happen.
By the way, did anyone see Carl Palladino’s concession speech last night? He quite literally held up a baseball bat and said that he wasn’t done with Andrew Cuomo. As the astonished people on MSNBC said, this wasn’t a spur of the moment thing. It was part of a planned speech.
Brick Oven Bill
We are sorry to see you go away for a couple weeks Lars. As Violet noted, we hope you find refreshment.
suzanne
I broke the news to my munchkin that, despite our best efforts, the candidate who we all worked so hard for this cycle, Harry Mitchell, didn’t win. She says (in a very melodramatic tone), “Now Schweikert’s gonna blow up the WORLD.” I said, “Not really. It means that, for the next couple of years, our government isn’t going to get a whole lot done.” She replied, “Then we’ll have to work EXTRA hard next time!”
Atta girl.
suzanne
@Brian J: I’m from Long Island. If I ever was going to move back, that’s where I’d like to go. Which is much more liberal/progressive than the part of Phoenix I’m living in right now, let me tell you.
Oscar Leroy
What’s she doing in 2012?
bozack
In addition to zifnab’s point about the new structure of elections, another reason things may be different this time is that we haven’t seen an economy this bad since the Great Depression. It’s a lot easier to maintain anger in bad times.
Lolis
I wonder how much the corporate money had to do with the outcome last night.
arguingwithsignposts
I will say that I’m glad all the google ads seem to have switched to stuff other than rightwing political ads.
Demz Taters
@arguingwithsignposts: Spin? That’s outright delusion.
Martin
Oh, and CA with our 12.5% unemployment rate elected Boxer by 10 points, Brown by 12, most every other state office went Democrat by 20 points (AG is still close with the Dem leading) and there are two Dem House incumbents effectively tied with their challenger, but every other House Dem in CA held their seat. At worst, 32 of our 53 House seats will be Democrats.
BR
@Emma:
If it makes you feel any better, I don’t feel crushed by the election because it’s so very insignificant compared to the financial / energy mess that’s imminent (as in starting next year with the next downleg of the financial crisis plus an energy crisis on its heels two or three years later).
Mike E
@arguingwithsignposts: Really serious spin:
Thank goodness the Free Market will take care of this! Wait..wha?
Admiral_Komack
@lamh31:
Their optimism will get stomped.
IronyAbounds
Let me add my voice to those saying this is delusional. We elected a Governor who is completely out of her depth, just because she joined the fear the Browns club. We elected an Attorney General who is a jerk and a hack. We elected a Superintendent of Public Instruction who is going to do his best to undo public education. Giffords and Grijalva barely held on against Teatard extremists. Quayle the Wonder Dunce won his race. This election has taken Arizona from dabbling in purple status right back to deep dark fire engine red.
Amanda in the South Bay
I normally defend Kain, but come on. Arizonans elect a fucking mediocre nutjob as governor, but its okay, they (maybe) voted somewhat sanely on irrelevant ballot measures!!
Please, any state that elects a fucking idiot like Brewer is pretty much in the shitter.
Brian J
@suzanne:
You’re from Long Island? That’s where I live. A lot of the races here were MUCH closer than they were in the past. The only one that was ever really considered a race was NY-01, but Bishop squeaked out a victory. Israel and McCarthy were down massively from their last elections, but they still won. It’s not surprising that King won, and hugely at that, because even in wave years, he survived by a healthy margin. This area was traditionally Republican, although moderately so, but perhaps even a big wave can’t bring it back for them. At least there’s that.
Anyway, I thought Phoenix was supposed to be a genuinely liberal area of Arizona. I guess I must be confusing it with some other part of the state.
Demz Taters
@MeDrewNotYou: He barely squeaked it out and would have lost if 6 percent of the vote didn’t split between the Libertarian and independent candidates. But it means that at least the House progressive caucus keeps its leader. It’s one of the few bright spots out of last night.
Brian J
@Martin:
Supposedly, CA is supposed to gain a few seats in the next redistricting, and districts will be drawn to the Democrats’ favor. Can you shed any light on that?
Linda Featheringill
Dennis usually doesn’t do much of what you would call actual campaigning. He usually just goes around and shakes a lot of hands and listens intently to people. And places those Dennis! signs on lawns. Kind of nice, really.
But I guess that is over now. If one challenger got this close to unseating him, there will be another threat ahead.
Mike E
That sounds good…I’ll be heading to the family’s Thanksgiving fest in a lil bit myself, after skipping a year due to no worky. Their reaction to my daughter (at 15, now a young lady) will be a nice emotional wave to float on even for just a few days. I wish everyone a good break in the coming season(s)!
MeDrewNotYou
@suzanne: That’s awesome; something to truly cheer me up on a pretty dark day.
Ash Can
@Pangloss: Actually, his first item of business might be a hair-pulling slapfight with his majority whip.
@lamh31: Sully must be supplying those guys with weed by the bale.
Napoleon
@Linda Featheringill:
I like those Dennis! Signs. As soon as I saw him on the air I thought “oh no, if he has internal polling which says he needs to be on TV this is going to be ugly”.
I went to bed early and the first thing I saw this morning and the first result was the Boccieri wipe out I almost reached for whiskey because you knew it was going to be even worse then you though the day before. I mean Mike DeWine who was tossed out of the Senate beat a guy for AG the was endorsed by every major paper and has done some wonderful things.
AB
@Brian J: It’s like the last decade didn’t happen. I don’t get it… didn’t all these people live through Bush, too?
Brian J
@Napoleon:
I believe it. I spent the last few hours before I went to bed last night using the interactive map from The New York Times that showed which races had been called. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New York had big patches of blue that went red. It was quite startling to see.
Bob L
@DC10:
He’s cranky and old so that appeals to the cranky and old retirees in Arizona. Same deal with that dork of a sheriff down there.
Mike Lamb
@IronyAbounds: What’s left for Hupenthal to undo?
arguingwithsignposts
@Bob L:
You’re very charitable with your name for Arpaio the douchenozzle fuckwit fascist.
suzanne
@Brian J:
Yes, you’re confusing it with Tucson.
Michael
@lamh31:
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…
I’d like to be there the day they try to do that – it’ll be the slow clap day of the century.
Ash Can
Note to all: Ignore my stupid comment about congressional slapfights. My reading comprehension is sucking this morning about as badly as last night’s election results are.
Note to self: Don’t post any comments on teh intertoobz on mornings after you stay up till all hours drinking beer and arguing politics with the husband.
Michael
@Linda Featheringill:
Clearly, he wasn’t progressive enough.
Demz Taters
@Brian J: Flagstaff is where you’ll find the DFH’s.
Michael
@Emma:
More “Rollerball” than “Blade Runner”.
Steve
@Linda Featheringill: Kucinich very well might have lost in the primary if there had been a single opposition candidate rather than a number of contenders splitting the vote. Opinions seem to be mixed on whether he actually represents the district or spends most of his time bopping around the country on vanity campaigns for President. I’ve read that in 2006, he pledged to the voters that if they reelected him he wouldn’t run for President a second time, and then the day after he won his primary he filed the papers for a Presidential run. I don’t warrant that those details are 100% accurate, mind you.
Personally I don’t like Kucinich because I believe his brand of concern-trolling is completely unproductive. He complains that legislation is never liberal enough, and maybe it isn’t, but he never actually manages to move anything to the left. If anything he serves to delegitimize liberal positions a little. Also, I never quite got over learning that he was totally anti-choice right up until the day he decided to run for President as a Democrat, when he apparently had an epiphany.
piratedan
for those of you that are new to the state political makeup…a quick primer….
Phoenix – Red runs strong in Maricopa County, thanks to a healthy Mormon population, loads of retirees and rich folks that manage to delude folks into voting against their own self interests….
Pima County/Tucson – pretty much blue turf but the happy friendly folks in the State keep finding ways to gerrymander more red into the congressional districts making it tough to keep electing blue folks.
The REALLY important race was for the SOS (Ken Bennett won that, the turd) because as soon as Gov. Jan cops to her illness or gets indicted (50/50 as to which happens first), he’ll take over as the Guv. Why would Brewer be indicted? It’s a follow the money kind of thing. Both Gov. Birdbrain and the Light Overlord in Training (State Senator Russell Pearce, the “brains” behind SB 1070) are hip deep in the pockets of the private prison industry. I’ll give you three guesses as to who benefits if SB 1070 is ever given the nod to be “enforceable” and the first two don’t count.
As for Ms. Giffords, she’s run against wingnuttia three times and is still on top but much more difficult this time (considering the money set against her) but there are rumours that she may drop the dime and take her chances against Senator Secret Hold (Kyl) who has yet to pass or sponsor any legislation that has any significant meaning for his constituency beyond statements that “donuts taste good” or the like.
Just Some Fuckhead
Ha. Recently we were notified we were losing our family coverage with our employer as they were reducing their coverage to save money.
We looked into our options and at this point there is precious little to opt into with the ACA.
So I find that kind of amusing.
rawdawgbuffalo
shows me how dumb america really is and How Black Folk Gave the GOP the Nation
MBunge
“We voted overwhelmingly against the gutting of the land conservation fund by the state legislature. This means our budget will be in more dire straits than the legislature had predicted, but our environment will remain protected. Along those same lines, we voted overwhelmingly to protect early childhood education and healthcare programs from the legislature which sought to end them to close the budget gap.”
So, Arizona voters put Republicans in charge of their state, then vote again to prevent them from actually running the state like Republicans. Democracy, bitches!
Mike
Bob L
@Michael:
In a way it would be hysterical and would fit the insane way Washington runs. You can almost see some GOP congress critter defending it in some town meeting with “But we stopped Shariah law!”
Brian J
@AB:
Someone I was talking to on swingstateproject.com said that it was probably unsustainable. After all, there are currently 29 seats in New York, and up until last night, only two of them were held by Republicans. Some of them, like Massa’s district, were supposedly guaranteed to go to the Republicans. The same might be said for John Hall’s district.
Then again, none of them lost by that big of a margin. Maybe some of them can be taken back in a few years. But still, so many of them are just…gone. It’s really incredible and heart breaking to see. I can’t say that all of them were the ideal Democrats, but they were Democrats.
By the way, how bizarre is it that Bill Owens hangs on while someone like Acuri loses?
bootsy
@Michael: More Mad Max than Rollerball.
Maybe Mel will run for Pres. (He was actually born here, and I think despite the jew-hating he would still get 80% of the right’s votes).
Violet
@piratedan:
What illness? Is she sick with something?
suzanne
@IronyAbounds:
Yup. In the Secretary of State race, we ran a fully decorated naval officer, who happens to be Native American, against a corrupt asshole whose son was involved in a scandal involving sexually inappropriate behavior with kids. Guess who won. Our new Superintendent of Public Instruction ran out on an interview with a HIGH SCHOOL REPORTER because the kid caught him in a lie. Guess who won. Our Governor, for fuck’s sake, accepted a bribe in exchange for her signature on SB1070, has no education, and has been caught demonstrably lying. Guess who won. My Congressman, who was a teacher and principal for years, then a mayor, and was rated one of the most bipartisan members of Congress ran against some Teabagging asshole with next to zero experience. Guess who won.
Linda Featheringill
@Michael:
LOL!
Peter J
Let me know when the democrats get 60 votes in the Senate again.
ruemara
I dunno. I can’t take solace in these results. It sounds like you want Democrats to insulate your state and govern, but you send teatards to Congress to fuck over national policy. Thanks a fucking lot.
Anya
This election thought me that if you have R next to your name, you are assured to be elected to high office in Florida, Arizona, Georgia and Texas, no matter how corrupt, incompetent and poor campaigner you proof to be. It remains to be seen, however, if raping, killing and torturing puppies and children on live teevee would damage your electability in those states.
Just Some Fuckhead
@suzanne:
You think that’s bad? We sent a used car salesman to Congress.
MikeJ
@bootsy: Despite? They like Israel, not Jews.
Brian J
@Steve:
I like the fact that he’s willing to support his side when it comes time to campaign. It’s not a secret that he’s had some vocal disagreements with a lot of other Democrats who have run for president, but he’s willing to put party loyalty ahead of everything else when he needs to. That should count for something.
It is a little ridiculous that he so blatantly flip flopped on the issue of choice right when he ran for president, but he’s hardly the first to do that. It’s gotten so common now on both sides that nobody seems to care.
As for everything else, I’m not sure what to think. I guess you could say that he’s not much of a factor because he’ll never be in a position of leadership and he’ll probably never run for anything outside of his district again, so there’s no point in getting to worked up about him. At least that is what I try to think.
suzanne
@Anya:
The son of our new Secretary of State allegedly sodomized kids at camp with a broom handle while he was a counselor, then pleaded to a lesser charge. Doesn’t seem to have damaged his dad’s electability one whit.
Anya
@suzanne: I am not big on guilt by association. I am sure your SS is an asshole, but unless he condoned his son’s behavior or did some cover up, I wouldn’t hold him responsible.
Having said that, if he was a Dem, I am sure the guilt by association would have ended his chances.
suzanne
@Anya: I actually know the new SoS and his son; they’re the uncle and cousin of a friend of mine. And Dad did indeed use his influence to sweep his son’s actions under the rug and help him avoid more severe charges and having to register as a sex offender.
piratedan
@Violet
pics of her over the last year show some marked aging and weight loss. Her inability to string more than seven words together in a coherent sentance can be taken to be that she’s either an incredibly crappy public speaker or that perhaps there is some sort of malady in play. It’s denials all around being issued from their camp, but hell Tucson watched something similar with the cult of Lute when the coach had a stroke that was misdiagnosed for about a year. Maybe she’s perfectly fine and all of the speculation is simply that, but this is Arizona and the current cycle has been, elect a Republican and they won’t finish their term because while they can dupe the voting public, they can’t dupe the feds.
Brian J
@Just Some Fuckhead:
This may be my partisan side talking here, but while I am not sure which candidates in particular you are talking about, it certainly likes they are bound to be well out of their depths as House members. That is, they are complete jokes and will be found to be as such by voters at some point. There are always a few tools that manage to survive, of course, but you have to hope that a bunch of these guys are merely sitting ducks.
Charity Froggenhall
@Michael:
Log Cabin Republicans still think that, just because they voted for someone, that person should give them, oh, I don’t know, basic human rights and dignity.
They’re so cute.
freelancer
@bootsy:
More Damnation Alley than Mad Max. Have you ever seen some of the insect life in the Southwest?! They’re a step away from giant maneating cockroaches.
catclub
@AB:
“It’s like the last decade didn’t happen. I don’t get it… didn’t all these people live through Bush, too? ”
You know that ‘I remember’ video ad from yesterday.
They don’t remember that, either.
Martin
@Brian J: Well, with Prop 20 passing, drawing district lines is no longer in the hands of the governor’s party. It goes to a nonpartisan panel to draw up the new district lines with some fairly vague language about preserving demographic groups.
That’s not likely to be good for Dems, if for no other reason than we’ll have a cycle where districts will have no incumbents, and those incumbents were more likely to be Dems than Republicans. Certainly in some cases Dems will find their homes shifted out of their district and crap like that.
The big worry from (some) Dems was that the carefully crafted blue districts in LA and OC helped white incumbent Dems and with a more neutral landscape would now favor latino Dems, or in some cases asian GOP candidates. It’ll be very interesting to see how things play out, but it’s not likely to help Dems in 2012. Democrats, however, are considering changes to state law to allow non-residents to vote in state elections. This won’t affect House races because those are federal offices, but it’ll have a big, and probably positive impact on voter turnout. 15% of CA residents are non-citizens and would be eligible to vote on state and local races.
anozira
yea, thats great reelecting Grijalva back in. mr. boycott ARIZONA!, his own damn state. that guy needed to go, what a jerk!! he never thought of what that would do to the people who work in Arizona in this economy. lame
Irony Abounds
As for Giffords, one reason she may run for the Senate is that you can be sure the Republicans will make certain that she is redistricted out of any hope of winning in 2012. Arizona does has a “independent” redistricting commission, but the end result will be to give the Dems Pastor’s seat and Grijalva’s seat (yes, he narrowly escaped this year and lives to run in what will undoubtedly safer seat in 2012) and the Republicans everything else. I still have to laugh at Kain’s thought that Arizona remains independent. The Blue Dogs got killed here last night, and it wasn’t because they weren’t progressive enough.
Ken
I would guess that Arizonans (like pretty much everyone else questioned about the ACA) want to keep the parts that forbid insurance companies from denying or terminating coverage, while getting rid of the parts that require people to pay for coverage – free ponies for everyone! If they do manage that combination, we will finally be able to see the insurance company death spiral in action. Come to think of it, that probably won’t happen; the companies will simply stop doing business in Arizona, since the alternative is bankruptcy.