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.
