Jon Stewart, Rally to Restore Sanity

Jon, as always, hits the nail on the head:



I actually got teary-eyed watching this.....

Post-Mortem Part I: The Good, The Bad, and Previewing the Ugly

This is the first of three posts looking at the election. Part one will look at the good and bad of the 2010 election. Part two will look at the ugliest race of the 2010 election. And Part Three will be a preview of what's next. So,on to part one:

The Good

*Sam Granato

Yes, I have Granato on my good list. Why? Well, despite running a "name on the ballot" race formost of the last 18 months, he started actually campaigning at the end. And the result was the Most successful Democratic Senate race since 1992. Maybe it's the power of incumbency, but 1992 was the last time we had a new US Senator, with Bennett winning by 16 points.

*Philpot Phailure

For the fifth straight election, Republicans ran on a Matheson=Pelosi platform. And for the fifth straight time, Matheson was re-elected.

*Sim Gill

A Democrat back in the DA office. Now's the time for Sim to rock.

*Patrice Arent

OK, this is personal, as Arent is my Representative-Elect. However, any candidate who asks for volunteers to help take down yard signs via Facebook is one to respect.

The Bad:

*Losing 20% of our Legislative Democrats

Yes, we only lost 6 seats (5 in the house, 1 in the Senate). However, we only had 30 seats to begin with. A 20% cut hurts. bad.

*Losing control of Salt Lake County Council

I suppose it was inevitable, with the Pubic Safety Tax Fee and everything.

The Ugly:

Well, it needs it's own post. I'll post that a little later. It's a post on a race hat's missing from this list. And it uses boxing metaphors. It's good stuff, except it's going to piss a few people off.

Election News: Jack Morman Wins!

No, I didn't misspell that. Check it out, from The Pasadena (TX) Citizen:

Jack Morman did what few have tried and those who did failed: unseat Sylvia Garcia.

Morman, a Republican who calls Deer Park home, defeated the two-time Harris County Precinct 2 commissioner in a battle where nearly every vote counted.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Morman had 66,057 votes (50.89 percent) to Garcia’s 63,747 (49.11 percent). Where Morman won was in early and absentee voting, where he got 40,095 of 72,611 ballots cast, more than 55.2 percent.

On his Facebook page, Morman said, “I'd like to thank everybody for all their hard work and support over the past year. Tonight is a credit to all of my family, friends and supporters who made this possible. Now it is time to get to work for the people of Precinct 2!”

Meanwhile, Garcia conceded victory to Morman.

He's got to be the winner of the best name ever. I'm thinking that we need to have a candidate legally change their name to Ingrid M. Mormon and be listed on the ballot simply as I. M. Mormon. We'll win for sure.

-Bob

Beau Babka Campaign Breaking the Law

I go to vote this morning, and what do I see parked in front of my polling place?

Tacky? Yes.

Illegal? Yes.

From the Salt Lake County Poll Worker Manual, page 48:

Campaigning or other activities that interfere with voting or influence voters is prohibited. Ask the offenders politely to stop or refrain from their activities. If the activity does not cease, call the Elections Division. Any threatening or dangerous behavior should be immediately reported to local law enforcement first, then to the Elections Division. Electioneering includes oral or written attempts to persuade voters to refrain from voting or to vote for or against a candidate or issue. No electioneering or campaigning is allowed within 150 feet of the polling place.

And that truck is definitely less than 150 feet from the polling place(the building right behind the truck).

To be fair, the truck was removed by the time we left our polling place.