*Official Election 2005 Results Thread*

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Warner and Kaine on state now.

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  73 Y    Minor's Pregnancy            694,164  52.9     619,174  47.1 

  74 Y    Teacher Tenure               691,852  52.2     633,693  47.8 

  75 Y    Public Union Dues            747,761  56.7     573,102  43.3 

  76 N    Spending/Funding             589,768  44.6     732,241  55.4 

  77 N    Redistricting                622,278  47.5     686,485  52.5 

  78 N    Rx Drug Discounts            566,593  43.4     737,059  56.6 

  79 N    Rx Drug Rebates              483,672  37.2     814,174  62.8 

  80 N    Electric Regulation          440,928  34.5     834,078 

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Things are looking pretty good for Arnold in CA.  If he defeats the Teachers and the Unions it will be a major win for him.

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Is there anyway I can see where the results are comming from in CA?

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73,74,75 are getting closer and closer.

  73 Y    Minor's Pregnancy          1,154,794  51.2   1,101,061  48.8  Map

  74 Y    Teacher Tenure             1,141,370  50.2   1,134,089  49.8  Map

  75 Y    Public Union Dues          1,224,055  53.9   1,047,255  46.1  Map

  76 N    Spending/Funding             966,882  42.6   1,302,433  57.4  Map

  77 N    Redistricting              1,026,741  45.6   1,221,869  54.4  Map

  78 N    Rx Drug Discounts            960,745  42.9   1,278,166  57.1  Map

  79 N    Rx Drug Rebates              848,879  38.1   1,376,016  61.9  Map

  80 N    Electric Regulation          761,345  34.8   1,423,324  65.2

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  74 just flipped

73 Y    Minor's Pregnancy          1,250,983  51.2   1,195,697  48.8  Map

  74 N    Teacher Tenure             1,230,442  49.8   1,237,532  50.2  Map

  75 Y    Public Union Dues          1,316,797  53.5   1,146,910  46.5  Map

  76 N    Spending/Funding           1,042,694  42.3   1,418,421  57.7  Map

  77 N    Redistricting              1,109,169  45.4   1,329,829  54.6  Map

  78 N    Rx Drug Discounts          1,038,512  42.7   1,389,131  57.3  Map

  79 N    Rx Drug Rebates              919,717  38.1   1,491,857  61.9  Map

  80 N    Electric Regulation          824,390  34.8   1,542,965  65.2

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Prop 73 just flipped

  73 N    Minor's Pregnancy          1,371,085  49.8   1,376,947  50.2  Map

  74 N    Teacher Tenure             1,349,583  48.7   1,420,952  51.3  Map

  75 Y    Public Union Dues          1,437,923  52.0   1,327,422  48.0  Map

  76 N    Spending/Funding           1,137,341  41.1   1,625,224  58.9  Map

  77 N    Redistricting              1,213,049  44.3   1,525,104  55.7  Map

  78 N    Rx Drug Discounts          1,148,328  42.1   1,575,183  57.9  Map

  79 N    Rx Drug Rebates            1,053,564  38.9   1,650,656  61.1  Map

  80 N    Electric Regulation          932,228  35.1   1,722,886  64.9  Map

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Looks like the only one that will pass is the Union Dues.  That really too bad, the Unions nearly bankrupted themselves trying to defeat this prop, but it looks like that wont happen.

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Jfern, do you think 75 will flip?

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Personally I think it was a good night for the Democrats and some of the conservative bloggers agree.  I think we have the momentum heading into 2006 and the political breeze is at our backs. Will we win back the house and senate?  No, but we could make small gains in the senate and decent gains in the house.  Ill take that.  Especially heading into 2008 when it looks like Democrats will have an advantage in the Senate seats up for grabs. Here is what David Wissing had to say:

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By the way, gays may have 'lost' last night in Texas, but they won big in Maine.

AUGUSTA, Maine --Maine voters decided Tuesday to keep the state's gay rights law on the books, making Maine the last New England state to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation.

With returns from 84 percent of the state's 634 precincts, votes supporting the gay rights law were ahead 55 percent to 45 percent over those seeking to overturn the law that was approved by the Legislature. The count was 189,535 to 153,674.

The vote "reaffirms the basic values that are intrinsic in Maine," said Gov. John Baldacci, who signed the law earlier this year before it was put on hold by the pending referendum. "Mainers don't like discrimination ... if it happens to one person it happens to all of us."

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, calls the outcome "a much-needed victory in our national movement" after a string of losses in other states on gay marriage issues. "We needed to show we can win."

Paul Madore of the Maine Grassroots Coalition, which wanted to repeal the law, did not immediately return a phone message. But the pro-repeal side, hoping for a turnaround as votes were counted in small towns, refused to throw in the towel even as the other side claimed victory.

The issue, which was put to a statewide vote for the third time since 1998, pitted a coalition of mainstream religious and business groups and politicians against a network of Christian church groups that viewed gay rights as an assault on traditional marriage.

Tuesday's vote was a referendum on the law, enacted earlier this year, to amend the Maine Human Rights Act by making discrimination illegal in employment, housing, credit, public accommodations and education based on sexual orientation.

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If the Democratic plan is to attack Bush in place of proposing real, workable ideas (and workable is key-- mostly Democrats propose even greater spending), they will lose in 2006.

Lose as in... Lose seats?  Or lose as in fail to capitalize on an opportunity to make big gains?

Regardless of your answer I agree the Democrats need a clear and nationally unified message in 2006 if they plan on making gains.

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Prop 78 recieved 41%.  Prop 79 recieved 38%.  In the only relative head-to-head matchup between Schwarzenegger and Democrats, Schwarzenegger won.  The rest is just anti-special election attitude and this bizarre clinging to the status quo.

Again, why did the status quo win everything when 61% of Americans think we're on the wrong track?

Why do I get this feeling had 73-77 passed you'd be singing a different tune today?

By the way, were you on FOX news last night around 1am est?  You sound an awful lot like the Arnolds press guy.  This guy was good. 

"Arnolds not in trouble." 
"Low numbers?  What low numbers? Our internals have the Governor sitting at a little over 50% approval."
"This is no big deal.  All this means is the Governor will have to go to Sacramento and get things done himself."

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Prop 78 recieved 41%.  Prop 79 recieved 38%.  In the only relative head-to-head matchup between Schwarzenegger and Democrats, Schwarzenegger won.  The rest is just anti-special election attitude and this bizarre clinging to the status quo.

Again, why did the status quo win everything when 61% of Americans think we're on the wrong track?

Why do I get this feeling had 73-77 passed you would be singing a different tune today?

By the way, were you on FOX news last night around 1am est?  You sound an awful lot like the Arnolds press guy.  This guy was good. 

"Arnolds not in trouble." 

"Low numbers?  What low numbers? Our internals have the Governor sitting at a little over 50% approval."

"This is no big deal.  All this means is the Governor will have to go to Sacramento and get things done himself."

Of course I'd be much happier if we'd broken the unions forever, but the fact is Nick, the state is in exactly the same shape today it was in yesterday.  The election was about change, but nothing changed.

I guess your right.  I really didnt have a horse in this race so I cant say whether I think the change would have been good or bad.  Ill leave that debate to you Cali residents.

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From what I understand the Unions already have an 'opt out option'.  So basically what 75 would have done is made it optional to put in rather than optional to opt out.  Am I reading that correctly?

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From what I understand the Unions already have an 'opt out option'.  So basically what 75 would have done is made it optional to put in rather than optional to opt out.  Am I reading that correctly?

NO.  The current status allows members t opt out of donations to politics if and only if they are willing to opt out of union health and pension programs as well.  They would then be represented by the union for collective bargaining purposes only.  They would also have to specifically seek out that their dues not be used for political campaigns.  What 75 does is it allows workers to opt out of political contributions without losing health and pension benefits and makes the choice to opt out more accessible.

Seems to me like it would help indivdual union members, but hurt the unions as whole.

Do you think a majority would choose to opt out had 75 passed?

Thats pretty sad that the unions would strip members of healh care and other benefits simply because they chose to opt out of giving political contributions.