Some final thoughts and figures on the 2006 election and then I'll likely shut up on the subject of elections for quite some time (but not on politics).
Firstly, some numbers. Hey, I can, on occasion, be a bit of a numbers junky (my one claim to fame on a geeky boardgaming website is that I posted an excel spreadsheet doing a detailed [for me] statistical analysis of which "dealmakers" [a role in the game] had an innate advantage... Yes, I'm quite sad).
There were, on my ballot, 23 positions to vote for (not counting initiatives).
Of those, I voted for 15 of them. Of the 8 I did not vote for, one I lacked sufficient information to make even a vaguely educated guess of a vote (not much out there about County Commissioners) and 7 others ran unopposed.
That's right, I do not vote for people who run unopposed, a trait I apparently share in entirety with my father (though I was unaware of that fact until 2 days ago). I do this on general principle. If someone is not opposed in an election, then they aren't actually up for election. Occasionally, on a whim, I'll write in someone from the area that I think is a good person for all unopposed seats, but I didn't know anyone in the area well enough to give them that honour.
The 15 votes I cast broke down by party thusly:
Democrat - 10 - 66.67%
Republican - 1 - 6.67%
Green - 4 - 26.67%
About half my votes were placed for the eventual winners of their respective contests, which is about par for the course for me, but likely will be the high-water mark of my time in Michigan. This is because MA and NY (my prior homes) are more liberal states than MI is, and I tend to vote fairly liberal... you do the math, I'm all mathed-out.
I cast more votes for Democratic candidates this year (as a percentage) than I likely have in years. This was mostly the pragmatist in me doing what I could to elect winners who would oppose Bush-ist policies towards the top of the ticket.
There was one notable exception though: I voted for the Green Candidate, David Sole, for Senator. See this post for why.
My most "out there" vote this time around? I voted for Michael Merriweather for Wayne State University Governor (one of two slots up this year). Why is that out there? Well... he's a Green and he's an undergrad student at WSU. But I liked what he had to say. His statements seemed reasoned, rational and intelligent, and he had a good perspective.
Most students running for the various University boards this year (and there was at least one running for each board) seemed to be over-the-top naive idealists. I love such people... they keep my supply of hope for this world from running dry... but when you're asked how you'd help deal with the rising costs of higher education due to state spending cuts, your answer shouldn't be about how getting the federal government to shut down the Department of Defense and re-direct that money into education would solve the problem.
Well, unless you're running for President. Give me that answer then and we'll talk about my vote...
On the macro-level (that's college-talk for "big picture"), I was quite pleased to see the Dems take both the House and, surprisingly, the Senate.
Mind you, I don't think most of the Dems up there are all that spectacular, but at least they'll stand in opposition to our insane overlord, and that's good enough for now.
Oh, and one other thing:
Bernie Sanders got elected to the Senate in Vermont. No one was actually shocked by this (the man is an icon in that state; deservedly so), but it should be noted that this is a historic event.
He is the first Socialist to ever be elected to the Senate. I bet there's a bunch of dead Cold War leaders rolling around in their graves right now.
Way to go Bernie! I love this guy and couldn't be gladder he's made it to the Big Boy's Chamber. Now we just need to get him to run for President.
Oh, and if you want to learn a bit about why I like this Jewish/Polish Socialist from New York, check out his entry in the Wikipedia and this article called "Being Like Bernie" from The Nation last year (a great read, imo).
Anyway, that's all I've got. Ciao for now!
Posted by Campbell at November 10, 2006 05:21 PM