Election Post-Mortem

Earlier this evening, Dino Rossi, down by about 45,000 votes, called and conceded the election for Washington State Senator to the incumbent, Patty Murry, pretty much bringing to an end election season here in Washington.

With about 550,000 votes remaining to be counted, I question if maybe he wasn't a little premature in throwing in the towel.  Supposedly, most of the remaining votes are from King County, where Patty Murry was taking in 62% of the vote already.  Still...why quit before it's over?  Trying to save the state some cash by not having to count the rest of the ballots? 

As for the result itself...Patty won exactly how I thought she would win...Patty took the urban, I-5 Corridor vote, and Dino took the rest of the state, which wasn't enough.  In truth, for the short-term future, Patty Murray might be better for Washington that Dino would have been.  Patty is the #4 Democrat in the Senate right now.  She has the horse power to direct any extra money(if there is any, HIGHLY DOUBTFUL), our direction. 

Long-term...it doesn't matter.  If Dino had been THE GUY to give the Republicans the advantage in the Senate, it would be a bigger deal.  But, since they were still going to be a few seat short...it doesn't matter...The Senate will continue to spend money that doesn't exist, and our economy and government will suffer in the long term. 

State Wide Ballot Measures:
I-1053: Requires a 2/3rd majority in the legislature to raise taxes.  It Passed...YAY!

I-1082: Would have swapped from a State Run workers comp to a private workers comp...didn't pass.  Doesn't really upset me...I didn't have a horse in this race.

I-1098: Would have introduced a State Income Tax on those damn successful Rich Folks.  Failed, so no Income Tax.  Yay!

I-1100, I-1105: Would have done away with State Run Liquor system...I was for 1100, against 1105...I'm sad because 1100 didn't pass.  What are people thinking!?!?!?  Bring down the price of my LIQUOR, DAMMIT!

I-1107: Repealed 'temporary' taxes and tariffs put in place on bottle water and processed food stuff.  YAY!

Referendum 52: Would have created more Bonds to allow for 'Greening' schools.  It failed. 

Joint Resolution 8225: Reworded the State Constitution to allow the Legislature to recalculate the debt ceiling by taking the expected debt payments from the Federal Government into account.  Essentially allowed the state to adjust the REAL money value of the debt ceiling upwards, going to further into REAL DEBT.  It passed...I'm hoping folks just didn't understand what they were voting for.

Joint Resolution 4220:  Allowed judges more latitude in denying bail for people charged with committing certain heinous crimes.  Passed by an overwhelming 85%.  When that many people agree about something, I wonder if I went the wrong direction...I don't like to go along with the crowd that much.