- Michael Bloomberg has been re-elected mayor of New York. I'm not a fan, and really believe that he's done a mediocre job in just about every way. The Olympic bid was a huge waste of time, the anti-smoking jihad sanctimonious and wrong, and the glacial pace of re-development at Ground Zero is especially an embarrassment.
But regardless, with the economy in good shape, crime still down, and the infrastructure not having fallen to pieces, voters were really given no over-arching reason to turn Mayor Mike out of office, so he's in for four more years. And the Democrats will go 16 years without holding the mayoralty of one of America's most liberal cities. That's what happens when you put a sub-mediocrity like Freddy Ferrer on the ballot.
Let the otherwise nondescript and boring 2005 New York mayoral race be a lesson: putting your opponent in animated gay porn never, ever works in American politics.
- Jon Corzine is the new governor of New Jersey, and will be allowed to appoint his own replacement in the Senate. So did his ex-wife call him last night to concede? In other governor's race news, Democrat Tim Kaine won in Virginia, and since Kaine's opponent ran an ad arguing that Kaine "wouldn't have supported the death penalty, even for Hitler," I suppose the election result is proof that Godwinn's Law has indeed migrated to real-life politics.
- Best of all- in Dover, PA, 8 of the 9 school-board members who favored teaching of the fraudulent pseudo-science known as "intelligent design" were turned out of office. Don't expect Rick Santorum to carry Dover next year.
- People are calling yesterday's election results a huge rebuke to President Bush, and while his candidates were defeated in New Jersey and Virginia, neither governorship changed party hands, and the status quo prevailed.
Indeed, today marks the beginning of 2006 mid-term election season, and I can imagine it'll be much more exciting than last night. Do the Democrats have a huge, huge opportunity to make major gains in '06? Absolutely. Do I trust Howard Dean and Co. not to fuck it up? Not exactly, no.
Posted by Stephen Silver at November 9, 2005 03:41 PMOhhhh... Don't forget St Paul booting the mayor out of the office.
His campaign slogan: "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face" - Maybe he would have been better off with "When I endorsed George Bush, I thought it was a SNL skit."
Good times.
Posted by: Jeff S at November 9, 2005 07:04 PMor, as a cohort of ours would say, "don't cut off your clitoris to spite your vagina."
Posted by: LilB at November 10, 2005 02:17 PM