Joyful tears and small disappointments

First, on a personal note: newborn + toddler + other medical concerns = very little sleep, and thus, little time/desire/coherence with which to blog.

My husband and I watched the election results come in, along with one of our closest friends. We allowed our son to stay up and watch the results with us. (By the way - hearing a 2-year old say "Barack Obama for Pres-ent" is very cute.)

Every time a state was called for Obama, there was a lot of cheering and, honestly, perhaps a frightening amount of dancing in our home. When Pennsylvania was called, the cheering was very loud. When Ohio was called, there was much rejoicing. We then waited eagerly for the polls to close on the West Coast, knowing that the race would be called for Obama shortly thereafter.

A flood of phone calls, back and forth, between our friends and family ensued. I came close to crying in my happiness and relief, but pride made me hold back in front of our friend. Of course, he reads this blog, so it doesn't do me any good now. However, when I started this blog, I promised myself I would be honest and open on it, so, there's the truth.

When my dad started school, he wasn't allowed to attend school with white children. He didn't believe until Tuesday night that he would live to see a black man elected President of the United States. I'm so grateful that he has.

From a national perspective, I'm thrilled with the outcome of this election. From a local perspective, I am somewhat disappointed.

On a personal level, a friend of mine was running for the Minnesota House of Representatives, and he lost his race. I'm so disappointed for him, and I know that he would have made a fine Representative. I hope that he decides to run again in 2 years; hopefully, I will have more time and physical energy with which to help him at that point.

Melissa Hortman, the Democratic incumbent in my local House race, easily won her bid for re-election. I am very pleased about this, but honestly, I'm a little shocked. Just based on the sheer aggressiveness of her opponent's campaign (and the nasty PACs aligned with him), I assumed she would be in trouble. I'm very glad that I was wrong.

I am disappointed that both Madia and Tinklenberg lost their bids for election in CD3 and CD6, respectively. While Michele Bachmann's paranoid red-scare comments helped Tinklenberg in fundraising and in gaining the DCCC's interest in his race, I worry that the new focus on the CD6 race took away the DCCC's focus on the CD3 race. Paulsen's campaign (and organizations on his behalf) ran some very hard-hitting campaign ads painting Madia as a liar obsessed with raising everyone's taxes. I saw very little response from the Madia campaign. I believe this may have cost him the race. Ramstad's representation of this district has been that of a relative Republican moderate, otherwise known as the "Whatever - just please don't raise my taxes" Republican.

Ah, and the race for Senate between Coleman and Franken. As things stand as of now, Coleman is leading Franken by 236 votes out of 2,422,848 votes cast (for those two - about 15% voted for Barkley, and about 1% voted for another third-party candidate.) Coleman's lead has been shrinking day-by-day as more results come in - and this is before a state-mandated recount. Coleman has shown incredible nerve in claiming that he hopes Franken will request that no recount happens, supposedly in an effort to save taxpayers' money.

Um....Norm....no one believes that absolute bullshit you're spewing. I'd say save it for someone stupid enough to believe that, but I'm not sure anyone like that exists.

The Amendment to the Minnesota Constitution designating funding for the outdoors and for the arts passed with about 59% of the vote. I voted against this amendment, mainly on the principles that 1) budgets shouldn't be Constitutionally determined, and 2) putting together the outdoors and the arts smacks of annoyingly-obvious special interests interference. However, all things considered, I'm not that disappointed that the amendment passed.

Hortman v. Reinhart - the local house race

I live in Minnesota House District 47B. Our incumbent state representative is Melissa Hortman (D). I truly feel bad for this woman.

Every two years, she's challenged by a Republican. Ok, nothing weird about that, right?

For some reason, the Republican challengers in our district seem determined to attempt to paint her as someone who is not loyal to the interests of our district. Pretty disgusting, but also not a surprising tactic, right?

But wow. The bizarre claims that are made about where her loyalty does lie are truly mind-boggling.

Two years ago, her opponent flooded my mailbox and littered my doorstep with mailings claiming that Representative Hortman was beholden to "Indian casino interests."

This year, the big scary claim is that Representative Hortman wants "unelected California bureaucrats to make laws for Minnesota."

Wow. That seems random, doesn't it?

Here's the deal: Representative Hortman introduced legislation designed to adopt California's vehicle emission standards. Because California started regulating vehicle emission standards before the feds did, federal law allows the states to choose either California's standards or (weaker) federal standards. States are not allowed to craft their own standards under federal law.

California's standards are created by the California Air Resources Board, which is under the umbrella of the California EPA. Whether it's the federal EPA or the California EPA, these "bureaucrats" are not elected.

Apparently, Representative Hortman's challenger, Andrew Reinhart, or to be more precise, "Local Action PAC" doesn't seem to understand that California has stricter air emissions laws because, well, air quality is important. Funny, but it seems to work, too. After all, California's rules have prompted the auto industry to create and showcase new, cleaner and more efficient vehicles. Something that doesn't really happen often in Minnesota.

Granted, Minnesota's air is not as bad as California's air. Do we really want to wait for it to get that bad before we actually act on it? Oh, wait, I forgot. We're talking about a Republican here. So yes, the answer would be that it would be better to do nothing and just hope that the auto industry starts making cleaner and more efficient vehicles out of benevolence. Free market is God and all that, right?

Also, apparently it has not occurred to "Local Action PAC" (which is a really chicken-shit name, by the way, and says something about the lack of character of Andew Reinhart) that if those unelected California bureaucrats go all crazy and enact something completely beyond the pale (all cars must run on moon dust) Minnesota could vote to go back to the federal standards.

Actually, the policy disagreement doesn't annoy me as much as the actual ad itself. I can accept that good-willed people might disagree on how best to regulate (or not) auto emissions.

I find it obnoxious that the photograph they have of Representative Hortman on this mailing makes her look like she has a mental affliction of some sort. I wonder if making your opponent look like a buffoon is part of "protecting your values" as Andrew Reinhart suggests that he will do. I wonder if his mother taught him that value.

I find it even more obnoxious that the flyer says "California and Minnesota are very different" and has two pictures. The picture representing California has a picture of a boy who doesn't comb his hair, is wearing suspenders and a belt with a very nerdy plaid shirt, and he's holding a flower while standing in front of a Prius. The picture representing Minnesota has a well groomed buff handyman standing in front of a pickup truck.

How dumb do you really think the people in this district are?

Why do you think that Toyota is doing really well compared to the Big 3? It might have something to do with the popularity of the Prius and the inability of the Big 3 to make a really fuel efficient vehicle.

How insulting do you have to be to the people of California just because they're smart enough to actually start doing something concrete about air pollution? Is this also demonstrative of Andrew Reinhart's values? Because it makes him look like an asshole.

What exactly is wrong with driving a Prius? (And no, I don't have one. Yet.)

I personally think that keeping Minnesota's air quality in the "not scary, asthma-causing" range is a worthy goal to shoot for. Why? Mostly because I think that breathing is a real family value.