2007 Election Night Roundup

It's a bit after midnight here on the West Coast, and as such most of the results of the 2007 off-year elections are in. Let's see what happened:

• Kentucky - Democrats won big in Kentucky, with their Beshear/Mongiardo ticket beating incumbent ticket Fletcher/Rudolph 58.7%-41.3%. Democrats also retained all other statewide Kentucky offices that they already held.


• Mississippi - Republican governor Haley Barbour was re-elected with 58% of the vote, and Republicans also won big in the other statewide contested races. However, Democrats took over the state Senate, giving them control of the state legislature.


• Virginia - Democrats gained 4 seats in the state Senate, taking control with 21 of 40 seats and probably giving them a say in the all-important redistricting process. Democrats also gained 4 seats in the state House, leaving the Republicans with a 53-45-2 majority.


• New Jersey - Democrats picked up one seat in the state Senate (for a 23-17 majority) and Republicans picked up two seats in the state House (for a 48-32 majority). A ballot measure providing bonds for stem cell research failed, probably due to voter concern about the state's budget woes.


• Indiana - In an upset, Republicans recaptured the office of Indianapolis mayor, with challenger Greg Ballard defeating incumbent Bart Peterson by about five thousand votes.


• Ohio - Democrats win mayor races across the state, most notably Canton by about a thousand votes. As a result, the mayors of the ten most populous cities in Ohio are all Democrats. At this hour, the Republican primary for the OH-05 special election is too close to call, with Steven Latta leading Club for Growth-backed Steve Buehrer by 1,496 votes.


• Pennsylvania - Democrats pick up two seats on the state Supreme Court, giving them control (yup, PA has a politicized judiciary). Democrat Luke Ravenstahl was also re-elected as mayor of Pittsburgh with at least 63% of the vote.


• Utah - Voters overwhelmingly rejected what would have been the largest school voucher program in the country. Also, Democrat Ralph Becker was elected Salt Lake City mayor 64%-36%, retaining the seat for the Democrats.


• Oregon - An 85-cent per pack cigarette tax was rejected by about 60%. However, a property-rights rollback was approved with 61% of the vote.

Here in California, there wasn't anything major going on - my only vote was for local school board, and my vote (shortly before 17:00) was only the 60th in the precinct. I'm expecting that to change the next time I go to the polls in February.

Welcome

Welcome to the Goobergunch Political Report, soon returning to goobergunch.net. It's a place where I, a 20-year-old Computer Science student at Harvey Mudd College, give my analysis on the latest political and electoral news. More interestingly (since everybody and their mom has a blog), I'm not afraid of crunching numbers and actually sifting through the Congressional Record to report on actual facts, instead of speaking in vague generalities.

For those of you that used to read this (are there any left?), I promise to update a bit more frequently than I used to. :)