October 2022: Reed is passed nearly unanimously by the Senate as the new HUD Secretary. As the midterms come down to the final days, polls for Governor and Senate races indicate bad news for Democrats in the South, while they should hold on decently in the Midwest and Northeast. House races seem to still favor Republicans, though a massive break towards the GOP late in the campaign like in 2010 or 2014 does not appear in the offing. In New Jersey, Tom Kean announces the centerpiece of his reform program - expanding the number of elective, rather than appointed, offices. Under Kean's new plan, New Jersey will join most other states in electing an Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Auditor, State Treasurer and State Insurance Commissioner. The program also includes shifting every county to a County Executive-Freeholder Council style of government, capping appointed county positions to a maximum of two five-year terms that must be renewed by local officials, stricter ethics reporting requirements, and an end to local party organizations controlling ballot line placement. It is one of the most ambitious government overhaul programs in decades.
October 2022 (continued): After time served and a hefty fine, Sturgeon and Salmond are released from Spanish jail and return to Scotland, where they excoriate Osborne for not helping their release. The independence question in Scotland and the UK is now extremely polarized, but polling indicates that there is not a majority in favor of leaving the UK. In a move that has scary shades of the Venezuelan conflict, UN peacekeepers are sent to the North Korean buffer zones after China and Russia accept the move, with the refugee crisis getting worse each month and more and more people fleeing into the South, Russia and China. Heinrich has high-level meetings in Beijing with Ahn, Xi, Kishida and Lavrov to chart out a plan for containing the threat. Two mortar attacks by paramilitary forces in North Korea kill 17 in Seoul near the end of the month, even as China makes a concerted effort to move heavy weapons captured in fighting out of the country. Near the end of October, Heinrich and Xi agree that Pyongyang will need to be secured.
And now, for Sports: The Houston Astros win their first World Series in their third try when they defeat the New York Mets in six games, winning the last one on the road at Shea Stadium.
The Mets play at Citi Field. They haven't played at Shea since 2008.
