Last week, I highlighted nine ballot initiatives that were worth watching because of their policy implications and/or their role is showing whether voters wanted more or less freedom. The results, by and large, are very encouraging. Let’s take a look at the results of those nine votes, as well as a few additional key initiatives.

1. The big spenders wanted to impose an income tax in the state of Washington, and they even had support from too-rich-to-care Bill Gates. The good news is that this initiative got slaughtered by a nearly two-to-one margin.  I was worried about this initiative since crazy  Oregon voters approved higher tax rates earlier this year. In a further bit of good news, Washington voters also approved a supermajority requirement for tax increases by a similar margin.

2. Nevada voters had a chance to vote on eminent domain abuse. This is an initiative that I mischaracterized in my original post. The language made it sound like it was designed to protect private property, but it actually was proposed by the political elite to weaken a property rights initiative that the voters previously had imposed. Fortunately, Nevada voters did not share my naiveté and the effort to weaken eminent domain protections was decisively rejected.  This is important, of course, because of the Supreme Court’s reprehensible Kelo decision.

3. California voters were predictably disappointing. They rejected the initiative to legalize marijuana, thus missing an opportunity to adopt a more sensible approach to victimless crimes. The crazy voters from the Golden State also kept in place a suicidal global warming scheme that is driving jobs out of the state. The only silver lining in California’s dark cloud is that voters did approve a supermajority requirement for certain revenue increases.

4. Nearly 90 percent of voters in Kansas approved an initiative to remove any ambiguity about whether individuals have the right to keep and bear arms. Let that be a warning to those imperialist Canadians, just in case they’re plotting an invasion.

(more…)

While pundits sift through the ‘tea-leaves’ to learn the lessons of this midterm election, we hope that they realize this was a victory of the grass-roots, not the establishment GOP.  Winning candidates were those who had the backing of the tea party and 9-12 organizations and ran aggressive campaigns. Establishment candidates running saccharine campaigns mostly lost.

If the GOP is to capitalize on its success, it needs to incorporate the energy and commitment to principle displayed by the grass roots activists. It needs to realize that the game has really changed and the politics of the past two decades are over. Big Government has now learned that Rep. Michele Bachmann, one of the first GOP office-holders to recognize the importance of the tea party uprising, will enter the race for GOP Conference Chair.

(more…)

Illinois blogger, Marathon Pundit, is correctly demanding that EVERY military ballot be counted in the land of Lincoln.

The GOP had a terrific Election Day in the Land of Lincoln, winning a US Senate seat and at least three House seats. In the governor’s race, with 99 percent of precincts counted, incumbent Democrat Pat Quinn leads Republican challenger Bill Brady by 10,000 votes.

As the Democrats repeated ad nauseam is  during the 2000 Florida recount, “We need to count all the votes.”

And that includes all of the military votes.

Not only should ever military ballot be counted, the entire Illinois election should be forensically audited, regardless of outcome. Can you imagine how much fraud would be exposed?

(more…)

“There is,” Shakespeare’s Brutus said to Cassius, “a tide in the affairs of men.”

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

Such, I suspect, were the musings of Hillary Rodham Clinton last night as she watched the election returns from a safe and distant perch in an East Asian hotel, and her thinking was no doubt in accord with what was going through the mind of William Jefferson Clinton as well.

As expected, judgment day came on the first Tuesday in November, and the Democrats suffered an historic defeat. In the House, they lost at least sixty seats, and they lost at least six seats in the Senate as well. Their share in the overall vote fell well short of that accorded the Republicans.

Of course, the liberal media will go to great lengths to deny the obvious – first, that this constituted a fully conscious repudiation of the agenda pursued by the administration of Barack Obama and by its Democratic allies in Congress and, second, that William Daley – former Secretary of Commerce, brother of the Mayor of Chicago, and mastermind of the Daley machine – was correct when, on Christmas eve, he warned his fellow Democrats that “the political dangers of this situation could not be clearer,” explaining, “Either we plot a more moderate, centrist course or risk electoral disaster not just in the upcoming midterms but in many elections to come.” But no one will credit their spin, and Democrats everywhere will quietly and privately begin to rethink their relationship with Barack Obama.

Those Democrats who survived the Republican tsunami and retained their House seats this year may be apt to suppose that they will survive in 2012 as well. But Senators up for re-election in that year will be inclined to think other thoughts.

(more…)

Honestly, it doesn’t really matter what you want to call it. Today the Editors of Time Magazine will be “eating their words” of May 2009 when they declared the Republican Party an endangered species. They will have company at their feast, the Editors of Newsweek who declared that we are all socialists now.  Both of those concepts were killed off tonight.

This was the biggest transfer of power in the House since 1948. Nancy Pelosi will no longer be (as she once described herself) the most powerful woman in the world. As for the Senate it has been over a month since all but the most partisan analyst have given the GOP a real chance of winning the Senate.

(more…)

A new day is rising.

Big win for the Dems, but is it enough to save face?

Rep. Bob Etheridge lost tonight. It all began here.

Marco Rubio wins. Grayson is gone–beaten handily by a terrific candidate and former state senator named Daniel Webster. (He will live up to his name.)  And Republicans look like they are going to pick up three other Congressional seats in the Sunshine state: Steve Southerland has beaten Cong. Allen Boyd,  Colonel Allen West is taking down Congressman Ron Klein, and Congresswoman Kosmas is losing to Sandy Adams.

But there is more good news.  Rick Scott has been leading all night, and  Republicans will control the entire cabinet for only the second time in state history by winning the Agriculture Commissioner race (Adam Putnam),  Chief Financial Officer (Jeff Atwater),  and Pam Bondi (Attorney General).  These are all vibrant conservatives who have great political futures.

Oh,  and then there is Referendum 1.  It’s non-binding,  but it calls for the federal government to balance the budget.   It passed 72% to 28%,

(more…)

Bad news for our west coast contingent, bad news for the country.  While liberal economic policies have driven the state of California into the ground, the Golden State is sending Barbara Boxer back to Washington and Jerry Brown to the state house.

Big Government’s Mike Flynn broke the story and it obviously caught fire despite the national and Ohio media blackout.  Charlie Wilson has been forced into retirement.  And by a good margin.  No one likes a wife beater.

Here are your results.

Incredible timing with this news.  Bad news dump of the year?  The Los Angeles Times reports:

ACORN, a national organization whose mission included registering and turning out low-income and minority voters, announced on this election day that it was filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Founded in 1970, the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now had in recent years become a target of conservatives who accused the group of engaging in widespread voter fraud. It was forced to scale back its efforts after a scandal erupted, centered around undercover video footage that purported to show ACORN staff helping young activists posing as a pimp and prostitute engage in illegal activity.

Subsequent investigations found that the footage had been substantially edited, but the damage was done. Congress ultimately passed Republican-backed amendments to appropriations legislation that ended federal funding for the group.

(more…)

Nobody in the media has called this yet, but based on what we’ve seen, Phil “I don’t worry about the Constitution” Hare will have to look for a new job tomorrow.

Polls have closed in CO and returns are trickling in….

So far, it APPEARS that Dem stronghold of Boulder and/or Denver city/county is being reported, as the results seem very heavy toward the Dems – far beyond even the most optimistic Dem polls.  As Denver is the largest city/county, it will skew results quite a bit.

Governor:
Hickenlooper 57%
Tancredo  31%
Maes  9%

Senate:
Bennet  54%
Buck 41%

This is gonna be a long, cool night here in the mountains, so stay tuned.  We have a lot to do to cover the initiatives as well as all the races.

EARLIER TODAY, I HAD A CHANCE TO INTERVIEW BOB BEAUPREZ, FORMER CONGRESSMAN-

I just finished a phone interview with former Colorado congressman Bob Beauprez, who represented Colorado from the 7th district when it was formed.  Mr. Beauprez has had a front-row seat in this election cycle; in the 2008 cycle he was the GOP representative for Governor, losing to Bill Ritter who is not seeking re-election this time. (more…)

In early voting Marco Rubio has been declared the winner in the U.S. Senate race and Rick Scott (R) leads in the Governor’s contest. Races you may not have heard of but represent possible huge wins for conservatives:

Steve Southerland looks like he is going to beat incumbent Congressman Allen Boyd (D). Why is this a big deal? A Republican has not won this seat since Reconstruction: 1866. Dems outnumber Repubs by roughly 2 to 1 in this district. Boyd, who has held the seat since 1996, has never received less than 58% of the vote. (He ran unopposed in 2006.) Boyd liked to fashion himself as a moderate Democrat. Voters in the north Florida district are no longer buying it. Southerland is no RINO. Opposed to Obamacare, big government, cap and trade, etc.

Col. Allen West leads incumbent Cong. Ron Klein (D) in Palm Beach. West is a war hero and a strong fiscal conservative.

Pam Bondi looks like she is going to win Attorney General for the State of Florida. Her Democrat opponent, Dan Gelber makes Obama look moderate on some matters. Bondi is a strong conservative jurist. She’s a rising star for Republicans

It also looks like voters are also going to make the right choice on a number of ballot initiatives: they are apparently going to reject ACORN designed efforts to redraw congressional districts, repeal the public financing of campaigns, and give property tax relief to soldiers deployed overseas…. (more…)

Based on what we’ve seen so far, it is clear that the GOP will take the House. The reign of Nancy Pelosi is officially over.

The same polling place where two New Black Panther members appeared in 2008. This time, they ran into one apparent party member in front of the main doorway.

Alan Grayson has lost his fight for re-election. Savor this moment.

The media have called the seat for Democrat Chris Coons.