The Daily Parker

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Election night wrap-up

I'll have more tomorrow, once I've slept a bit and digested some of these results. In sum, though, I am immensely relieved that reason appears to have won and extremism (and bald-faced lying) seems to have lost.

President Obama is about to take the stage at McCormick Place, so we're minutes from those much-anticipated words, "Governor Romney called me a few minutes ago to congratulate me." Meanwhile, there's even more good news coming through the Intertubes right now:

  • Democrat Brad Schneider has unseated Bob Dold in my home-town district, the Illinois 10th. With Tammy Duckworth's victory, this makes the north Chicago suburbs a sea of blue, and gives the Democratic Party two more house seats.
  • The Denver Post projects that cannabis legalization will pass in Colorado.
  • Tammy Baldwin is winning in Wisconsin. If the trend continues, not only is it a Democratic pick-up in the U.S. Senate, but also she'll become the first openly gay U.S. Senator in history.
  • With Democrat Maggie Hassan winning the New Hampshire governor race, and Democrat Annie Kuster winning in the New Hampshire 2nd CD, four of New Hampshire's top 5 offices are held by women. With 57% reporting, Democrat Carol Shea-Porter right now leads in the New Hampshire 1st. If she wins, it will be the first time in history a state's entire Congressional delegation is female.
  • Anti-gay ballot initiatives appear to have failed in Minnesota, Maine, Washington, and Maryland.

Tonight's election feels to me like a widespread rejection of the far right, and a reaffirmation of reason and patience as principles of governance. We didn't win everything—Michele Bachmann will probably squeak out a narrow re-election—but we won a lot more decisively than I'd expected.

Four more years. No war with Iran. Tea Party extremists thrown out of office. Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire who tried to buy himself some politicians, zero-for-six (including Mitt Romney). And Mitt Romney himself, the man who figured he could lie his way to the White House, soundly defeated even before all the ballots were counted in the magical swing states of Ohio and Florida.

I'm really very pleased with the way this turned out. And I'm excited about the strengthening coalition we've put together.

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