I’m generally skeptical about allowing the people to legislate by referendum, but I am also unimpressed with the federal government’s inability to let the minimum wage grow to reflect depreciation in its value due to inflation. So, good for New Jersey, which just raised its minimum wage by a dollar, and good for SeaTac, Washington, which just raised its minimum wage to $15/hour.
I am glad that Portland, Maine decided to decriminalize marijuana. I believe they are the first city in the East to do so. That doesn’t mean you should smoke pot, kids, but you also shouldn’t get a criminal record just for spleefing up.
There is a ton of spin going on with respect to the election results last night. That’s understandable, but it’s not very interesting. What you want is not spin, but analysis.
I haven’t had a chance, yet, to really look at the turnout in Virginia, but I do have some preliminary observations. I think the best race to examine is the Attorney General race because the governor’s race had a significant third-party candidate who drew almost seven percent of the vote, and the Lieutenant Governor race featured a lunatic who underperformed. The Attorney General race is still too close to call and will probably involve a recount. While the Democrats are crowing that they succeeded in getting 2012 levels of black turnout, that wasn’t necessarily enough to win them a two-way race between two decent candidates. They also left, barely, as many as seven House of Delegates seats on the table because, while they held the incumbents below 52%, they couldn’t get over the hump.
We can argue all day long about whether the results are best explained by Cuccinelli’s weaknesses or McAuliffe’s weaknesses, but the chances are that both presidential candidates in 2016 will be stronger. I may change my mind once I have a chance to delve into the returns and exit polls, but it appears that Virginia is still a toss-up state. If the Democrats’ turnout had been worse last night, I’d actually feel better about our prospects going forward.
Kudos to Trapper Ivan McIntyre for having the best wrap-up of the Novoyork Autonomous Okrug Administrator race. Watch the revanchists retreat.
We enjoyed big wins in the mayoral race in Boston, too, as well as in Toledo, Cincinnati, Charlotte, Greensboro, and St. Petersburg, Florida.
And, this morning, Rep. Jon Runyan (R-NJ) announced that he will not seek reelection to a seat in a district that Obama narrowly carried in 2012.
The Republicans have little to celebrate, although Chris Christie did set himself up nicely to have a strong rationale to be the party’s 2016 presidential nominee. The Establishment is happy about that, and they are also happy that Cuccinelli lost and that a Tea Party lunatic lost in a Alabama special election for a seat in the House of Representatives. It was a bad night for the Republicans, but a worse night for their Tea Party wing.
Fun.
They might have phrased this differently:
…Jennifer Johnson topped David Johnson…
I could have told you the state is still toss-up. Republicans have controlled the state house since 2000 when they gerrymandered it to hell. Even in wave years like 2007 we still couldn’t bring them below 54 seats. 2011 we got destroyed. So if we cracked that nut a little bit by keeping their victories low it’s not too shabby. Also Terry had terrible coattails I can imagine; Kaine gives off that Virginia vibe needed to get into their own territory.
Anyway, the state was the most important in 2013 and I suspect will be the most important in 2016. Right now I’d put Virginia as to what New Mexico was in 2000 and 2004. And then in 2008 it switched.
It just kills me that people don’t see how critical off-Prez years are to their lives. Just a little more political education on the part of Dem organizations might help get the additional 2-5% turnout needed for these races. I wonder what the turnout was among people who would be eligible for expanded Medicaid in VA?
Anyway, VA is no different than other states in this regard. 75% in Prez years and 45% in off years is fairly “normal” I believe: http://sbe.virginia.gov/VotingStatistics.html
Of course, there is also an alienation between party bosses and the grass roots as well that keeps getting in the way.
I checked my precinct last night and it had 16% turnout. The biggest thing on the ballot was county commissioner, so I’m not surprised that it was low, but it was very low.
Yikes. For some local races, all it takes to win is a very small 4-10 group of dedicated canvassers with a good narrative to tell.
Also in North Carolina, the real estate developer lobby failed to elect two proto-Republicans (the city races are “nonpartisan”) to the city council and a progressive mayor gets yet another term.
The progressive lost in Cincinnati. Cranley, while an honest Democrat, was the safe vote for the status quo and the status quo in Cincinnati, by any sane measure is right of center. The local Business Courier summed it up well:
“The election presented a clear choice. Those who hoped Cincinnati was in the process of transforming into a city with much bigger ambitions, that it would become something other than America’s biggest small town, lost.”
Thank you for the correction.
I know it’s extremely important for the media to annoing a republican contender three years out-there’s nothing they love more than the “inevitable” or “presumptive” GOP nominee, even when it’s a lazy one note grifter like Palin-and that they are desperate to spin the party as anything other than the stone-age neo-confederate traitors that they really are (and proudly proclaim themselves to be), but how does this annointing help Christie?
I remember after the 2008 election there was some euphoric talk on the left that the GOP would presumably have learned it’s lesson. What subsequent elections have shown is that the party is simply incapable of learning it’s lesson. Now we have institutional people within the GOP hoping that 2012, or the shutdown debacle, or whatever, might have taught the party a lesson. These people are dreaming. The base of the party will never ever learn it’s lesson. Anyone hoping that the GOP will start behaving in a more respectable manner before 11.2014 or 11.2016 or whenever have literally zero evidence to work on. But so, if Christie is the annointed one, he then will be asked in a public and national way to take a stand w.r.t. this relentless craziness. Basically no response can help him.
It seems like it would be far better for Christie to simply dissappear from the national conversation until 2015 at the earliest. I don’t see how being the standard bearer of this chaotic clown car of traitors and grifters helps at all.
Barbara Buono is not only not another Martha Coakley, in the second 2013 debate she demonstrated skills better than most Democratic candidates for high office.
If Christie is such an awesome candidate, why did he spend over five times as much on TV/radio ads than Buono?
Why the Democratic Party will never seen another penny from me:
Sometimes a party decides to places its resources where they’re most likely to do good. Christy has looked very strong since at least 2012. Would it have been worth dumping in a ton of money to get a smaller loss?
It was both money and resources that were denied Buono. An experienced, skilled, and attractive Democratic politician that should have a future in favor of one that even Democrats don’t like.
Winning teams require the spending of the money and time to build them and not squandering all the money to hire one weak pinch hitter to get a single win.
Would have cost less to have Buono bloody Christie’s nose than it will cost to do so in 2016.
We worked pretty closely with the SeaTac initiative (which SEIU was the major force behind, focused on the pretty grim exploitation of airport subcontractor workers – everything from baggage handlers to newsstand clerks) – it was actually a much broader measure than minimum wage, also including requirements for paid sick leave and a host of other workers’ rights. It was intended as a national model unions can take elsewhere.
It was also Kshama’s signature issue, and she forced both Seattle mayoral candidates to adopt a $15/minimum wage as a stated goal. Last night we announced a 2014 initiative to that effect for Seattle.
the body language in this pic is HILARIOUS
Brigid Bergin@brigidbergin 3h
Scenes from the first meeting between Mayor Bloomberg and @deBlasioNYC. They’re seated on the stage of the bullpen. pic.twitter.com/Y0BgCR05Az
https://twitter.com/brigidbergin/status/398111420413259776/photo/1
here’s something on Bloomberg’s “legacy”. I hadn’t kept up with the multiplication of his personal fortune (his principal legacy), last I’d heard it was times 4, now it’s times 7
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/let-s-face-it-bloomberg-s-legacy-is-terrible
After the travesty of cannabis prohibition is over, the wonders of cannabis will show just how depraved our “leaders” really are.
I went over to the defunct 538 site but there is nothing there but old posts from September. I miss Nate Silver’s analyses badly.
We enjoyed big wins in the mayoral race in Boston, too…
Really? Two Dems in a very close race, both white Irish guys, neither particularly progressive — who is the “we” in that circumstance?