California is ailing.  Our unemployment rate is the third highest in the nation.  We have lost approximately 600,000 jobs just since Democrats returned to power in Washington.  Our state budget is in the red.  State public employee pensions threaten to push us toward insolvency.  Storefronts sits vacant on once-thriving commercial thoroughfares.  The Golden State has lost its luster.

And yet, we had an election where the main issues had little to do with the state’s fiscal health and very much to do with the Republican gubernatorial nominee’s personal wealth and touchy temperament.  In short, the issues of the recent campaign had nothing to do with the problems facing California.

When my father this morning called to express incredulity that the state could return Jerry Brown to the Governor’s mansion, I said it was like a homeowner with a leaky roof on a house where he could barely afford the mortgage payments hiring a contractor to build a new veranda.  Perhaps, the better analogy would have been to say that instead of talking about a new veranda, he was intent on hiring a green landscaper.

Brown talked about “green jobs” while the various candidates for statewide office ran on promises of promoting pro-environmental policies.  Should the legislature follow through on these promises , expect to see increasing numbers of businesses flee the state while those that remain will have to devote more resources to meeting state environmental mandates and fewer to increasing their operations, thus not able to create new jobs for out-of-work Californians or generate more revenue for the state’s increasingly depleted coffers.

California’s problems today aren’t an absence of so-called “green” policies, but an excess of them and, as Monty put it on Ace of Spades:

California’s most dire problems right now are related to public-employee obligations (pensions and healthcare). The power of public-employee unions in California have held the State and local governments in thrall for years, and with the election of Jerry Brown as Governor, the people of California have opted to spray kerosene on a blaze that was already threatening to overwhelm them.

With the passage of Prop. 25 as well as last night’s election returns, California Democrats, as Monty put it, “get to own the mess they made in the first place.”  Let’s hope that, in future elections, people hold them accountable.

NB:  In the original version of this post, I had incorrectly said that California’s unemployment was the highest in the nation.  It’s actually the third highest.  Since fixed.

While Californians now have nearly the identical state legislature we had yesterday, with almost super-majorities for Democrats uninterested in reforming the policies which have put our state on the brink of financial collapse, citizens of other states will have more reform-minded legislatures.

Republicans scored big in state legislative races.  From Erick Erickson:

. . .  this morning the Republican Party has picked up more seats in the House of Representatives than at any time since 1948 — that is more than sixty seats. Ike Skelton, Class of 1976, is gone. Many, many other Democrats are gone.

That, in and of itself, is significant. But that’s not the half of it. The real story is the underreported story of the night — the Republican pick ups at the state level.

There will be 18 states subject to reapportionment. The Republicans will control a majority of those — at least ten and maybe a dozen or more. More significantly, a minimum of seventeen state legislative houses have flipped to the Republican Party.

At Powerline, Scott Johnson says that the folks in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes turned the entire legislature over to the GOP, “Almost unbelievably, however, Republicans have taken both the Minnesota House and the Minnesota Senate. Republicans have not held a majority in the Minnesota Senate since state law was modified to require ballots to show partisan designations.”

“Republicans,” John Hood writes, “haven’t enjoyed this much power in state capitals since the 1920s.”  Michelle Malkin lists some of the chambers that flipped.

With Republicans now in complete control of Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, they will be able to “manage” reapportionment next year in a manner which benefits the GOP.   (more…)

Just because when he last entered the Governor’s mansion in 1975, he succeeded one actor turned Republican who left the Golden State in sound fiscal shape, doesn’t mean that another one will.

Arnold is, alas, not Ronald Reagan.

Perhaps I say that because I had mixed feelings tonight driving back from Carly’s party tonight in Orange County.  It was a good night for the Republicans nationwide, with Republican candidates knocking off three committee chairman, John Spratt of the Budget Committee (who got walloped in South Carolina), Ike Skelton of the House Armed Services Committee and James Oberstar of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

In addition, Appropriations Committee Chair David Obey will not be returning.

In California, Gloria Allred and the public employee unions helped the Democrats sprint across the finish line.  Their unions professional phone banks helped turn out the vote and turn the tide.  Watching Jerry Brown declare victory without breaking a smile, it seemed I was watching a clip of a university professor leading a rally in the early 1970s.  His election, Paul Mirengoff writes, sends us back to the future that doesn’t work.

Together with a cooperative media, he helped make this race about Meg Whitman’s flaws.  And her campaign failed to define him as an eccentric has-been, a man to whom recently-recalled Governor Gray Davis once served as understudy.  At a later date, I will write about Meg’s loss — for it was much more her loss than Brown’s win.

Thirty-six years ago, when he was first elected governor, Jerry Brown took over a state that was fiscally sound.  Today, he faces a state with perennial budget woes.  Personally, I don’t think he’s equipped to face this mess.  A majority of my fellow Californians disagreed.  But then, the campaign was never really about the state’s shaky fiscal standing.   And now, we have to hope, we have to pray that Jerry Brown is up to fixing it. (more…)

Please stay here all night to watch our live Election Night broadcast.  Anchored by Tabitha Hale & Melissa Clothier at FreedomWorks HQ in Washington, DC.  And I’ll be co-anchoring from GayPatriot Election HQ in Charlotte, NC.

Also, please join the chat room! I’ll be chatting here and on Twitter all evening as well.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Via Instapundit, Wyoh offers some guidelines to Republicans who win election today:

No more “stimulus” that stimulates exactly nothing.

No more government “support” of private industry.

No more pushing through legislation that you freely admit you did not read.

No. More.

Either act like adults charged with the responsible management of this country, instead of drunken teenagers with mom’s credit card, or we will un-elect you at the first opportunity.

Those are some good first steps.  This of course will be followed by cutting government spending and reducing federal regulations — or state regulations — as the case may be.

Today, the voters in California have a choice between a career politician who has failed to accomplish anything much for her state despite her three terms in the Senate and a savvy woman who rose from being a secretary to succeed as a CEO of Fortune 500 company.

One woman said $787 billion big-government project would (or saving) 400,000 jobs in the Golden State, while the state lost over 500,000 job since she voted for the expenditure.  The other took charge of a tech company just as the tech bubble was about to burst and helped it remain solvent.

Most business analysts now credit Carly Fiorina’s decision, controversial at the time, to merge HP with Compaq with saving the company.  And while other companies have collapsed in that downturn — as well as the current one, HP continues to survive and thrive.

It is no secret to blog readers that I am big fan of Carly Fiorina.  I believe she has what it takes to represent the Golden State in the United States Senate.  She knows that the problems California faces are not because government isn’t doing enough, but because government is doing do much.

She knows that draconian environmental regulations prevent water from flowing in the Central Valley, causing once-fertile fields to lie fallow.  She knows that excessive federal and state regulations coupled with high taxes put unnecessary burdens on small businesses, increasing their paperwork requirements and encouraging many to leave the state.

In short, she knows that the answers to California’s problems don’t lie in Washington, but in Los Angeles, Fresno, San Luis Obispo, San Diego, Yuba City, Anaheim, Redding, Carpinteria, Bakersfield, Barstow, Anaheim and, yes, even in San Francisco.

She wants to get Washington out of the way so that the citizens in these cities — and hundreds of other jurisdictions from the Oregon border to the Mexican can do what Californians, what Americans, do best, address those problems which ail us, together with our families, in our communities, in our churches and synagogues and even in gay and lesbian centers in cities so fortunate to have them.

If you live in California, join me in helping elect Carly Fiorina to the United States Senate.

Willie Brown once called Barbara Boxer the luckiest politician in California.  She’s had an interesting strategy to cling onto power in this once-Republican state that has been trending Democratic for the past twenty years.  And she has done so by spending limited time in the jurisdiction she represents in the Senate, returning primarily when election time rolls ’round.

She won a contested Democratic primary in 1992 as the only woman running against 2 male opponents, with a primary “primary electorate [that] was 55 percent female“.  Since then, she has managed to avoid primary challenges by appeasing the left-wing interest groups which dominate her party, making it difficult for a Democrat to challenge her.  With an incumbent’s financial advantage and the Democrats’ demographic edge in this state, she has managed to survive against weak Republican challengers in years (1998, 2004) where voters tossed out few incumbents.

The media have all but ignored this career politician.  Only a handful of newspapers and other media in this huge state pick up stories which journalists would rush to cover if they involved a Republican.

• She steers money to her son through her PAC (a story only belatedly picked up the Los Angeles Times and run on a Saturday, the day when the newspaper is least read).
• She had a major meltdown on CNN, exaggerating her record on tax cuts.  Most California media ignored her on-air confusion.
• She refused to debate Carly Fiorina multiple times while the Republican agreed to.
• She dodges the media in ways that would make Sharron Angle blush.
• She refuses to release letters of diplomatic courtesy she wrote on behalf of far-left organization which delivered supplies to the families of enemy insurgents, supplies which may have ended up in the hands of those fighting our troops.
• She patronized the president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce (yet didn’t object when he called her Ma’am).
• She did object when an Army Brigadier General called her “Ma’am”

Barbara Boxer is indeed lucky.  Had these stories been more widely covered in California, she would not even enjoy the same standing in the polls as does her outgoing colleague from Wisconsin.  And Russ Feingold held “open meetings in each of the state’s 72 counties every year” during his entire Senate tenure.  Boxer hadn’t visited some regions of this state since her last campaign.

Today, let’s vote out this career politician.  She has failed California for far too long.  And it’s long past time our news media took note of it.

Call Me Madam Joe from RightChange on Vimeo.

Perhaps the biggest thing Democrats learned from Obama is that when you have high hopes, you often end up sorely disappointed.  Perhaps, the liberal Democrats with whom American-born British commentator Janet Daley spoke in New York, would be less despondent today had their expectations not been so high two years ago.

Via Facebook, I recently e-mailed some Republican friends this article on the various prognosticators’ predictions of Republican gains in 1994.  Most forecast about 25.  Republicans won 54.  Now, most are predicting Republicans will pick up about that many.  ”You do the math,” I quipped.  Earlier today, Bruce linked two polls suggesting an even bigger blowout than those, who failed to anticipate the size of GOP save, in 1994, anticipate this year.

And while I’m predicting the GOP picks up 63-67 seats, while wondering if that number is “too conservative“, I urge a little bit of caution, not because I’m not optimistic, but because, well, I want to avoid disappointment.  What if the Republicans “only” won 45 seats?  The media could use that figure to spin the election a not really a Republican rout because Republican candidates underperformed expectations.

Last week, Jim Geraghty noted how the Washington Post‘s David Broder was preparing to dismiss GOP gains of 5o seats.

I am optimistic about today’s contests, but am trying to temper my optimism, so that I’m not too disappointed if we don’t pick the 70-seats that Geraghty anticipates.  And if we do win that many seats, well, then so much more to celebrate.  Unanticipated pleasures are often far sweeter than anticipated ones.

Let us hope that in the lame-duck session of the Senate, Harry Reid has a strategy to push through repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell (DADT), given that the Ninth Circuit has extended the stay on the lower court ruling:

A federal appeals court on Monday indefinitely extended its freeze on a judge’s order halting enforcement of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, heightening pressure on the Obama administration to persuade the U.S. Senate to repeal the law before a new Congress is sworn in.

A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the U.S. government’s request for a stay while it challenges the trial court’s ruling that the ban on openly gay service members is unconstitutional.

Four years ago this week, Charlie Crist was a rising star in the GOP. He was the only non-incumbent Republican to win election as governor of a large state. Two years later, the various Republican candidates for president flocked to Florida, seeking his endorsement. Some attributed the collapse of Rudy Giullani’s campaign to the Crist’s decision to endorse John McCain, a move which destroyed the former New York Mayor’s Sunshine State strategy.

Tomorrow, he may finish third in a race he entered, expecting to win in a walk.  He has revealed himself a man more interested in his own advancement than in any particular ideas or initiatives.

The other night, Glenn linked a piece from the Miami Herald, nicely summarizing the rapid decline of the once golden boy of Florida politics:

Since that casual May 2009 e-mail announcing your candidacy for U.S. Senate, you’ve ripped apart the Florida GOP, and now it’s dividing Florida Democrats. You’ve gone from national superstar and future presidential contender to someone banished from your lifelong party and fighting for political survival.

(Read the whole thing for a Florida paper’s inside look at the fall of Crist)

Today, Marco Rubio, barely on anyone’s radar screens a year ago, has now become a rising star in the GOP.  And Charlie Crist, well, I hear law firms in St. Petersburg pay former governors well.

Something must be going on if at a Republican headquarters in one of the “bluest” regions of one of the “bluest” states, they run out of workable phones on the eve of the Election. Meanwhile, the most memorable line at a recent rally for Democratic candidates not far from super-liberal West Hollywood was “We’re not exhausted.”

At the same rally, a stalwart Democrat said that if the president weren’t there, she doesn’t know if she “would have braved the crowds.”  Doesn’t sound like there’s much enthusiasm for their ticket.  Republican volunteers across the state have been making calls while Democrats have been relying on paid union phone banks.

This enthusiasm gap could well make the difference in a state where, while Democrats remain ahead, all serious polls show late-deciders breaking toward the GOP.  And it’s not just the Golden State where Republicans are more enthusiastic.  According to the Pew Research Center:

In the final weeks of the campaign, there are no signs that the large engagement gap favoring the Republican Party has narrowed. Republican voters continue to be far more likely than Democrats to say they have given a lot of thought to this year’s election (70% vs. 55%); more Republicans than Democrats say they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting in this year’s congressional election (61% vs. 41%) . . . .

Via Donald Douglas.

Both from polling data across the country as well as from anecdotal evidence provided by Republican activists across the Southland, the GOP is fired up.  We like our candidates and want to change the way things are done in Washington and Sacramento.

Democrats, well, they’re voting Democratic because, well, they’re Democrats.  And they’re not flocking to the phone banks as are we Republicans.  Jim Geraghty sums it up with a quote from one the greatest sequels ever made:

Michael Corleone: I saw a strange thing today. Some rebels were being arrested. One of them pulled the pin on a grenade. He took himself and the captain of the command with him. Now, soldiers are paid to fight; the rebels aren’t.

Hyman Roth: What does that tell you?

Michael Corleone: It means they could win.

From the conclusion of one of her posts today, it certainly sounds like it:

Last night at the World Series game, Bush 41 and 43 were greeted with rousing cheers; Bush 43 threw the first pitch, hard and over the plate. Yes, it was Texas. But “Bush” is no longer an epithet. Just saying.

Wednesday morning is looking more and more like Christmas morning, with Halloween candy inside, wrapped up nicely with the US Constitution…..

From CNN (via Instapundit):

“The number of Americans who say things are going badly in the country, at 75 percent, is higher than it has been on the eve of any midterm election since the question was first asked in the mid-1970s, according to a new national poll. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday also indicates that the economy remains, by far, the top issue on the minds of Americans. Fifty-two percent of people questioned say the economy’s the most important issue facing the country. . . . ‘Even in 1994, when the Republicans last took control, and in 2006, when control flipped back to the Democrats, roughly half the public was satisfied with the state of the nation,’ adds Holland.” Are you better off than you were two years ago? Apparently, most people [75%] say no. . . .”

No wonder all of the rats were jumping off the Obama ship the past few months.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Tomorrow’s elections will, by no means, determine, the Republican presidential nomination for 2012, but the results could strengthen the hand of certain candidates.  Let me run down the various candidates — and show how election results tomorrow could help them.

Jeb Bush:  If Democrat Alex Sink edges businessman Rick Scott, Jeb will not look as strong as he might even as his protege Marco Rubio cruises to electoral victory.  Mitigating that loss would be GOP pick-ups of all four currently Democratic U.S. House (from Florida) seats deemed vulnerable this cycle as well as the one Republican seat on the edge.

Mitch Daniels: Since everyone knows Dan Coats will be coasting to victory — in what should be the first currently Democratic Senate seat to flip tomorrow, the big races to watch will be then Democratic seats in the U.S. House up for grabs in the Hoosier State and the Indiana House, currently narrowly Democratic.

Sarah Palin: If Joe Miller wins comfortably here, some will credit her last-minute rally on behalf of the GOP nominee as turning the tide after a series of stories harmful to his campaign.  She would also be helped by a Christine O’Donnell win in Delaware.

Tim Pawlenty:  While polls shows Democrat Mark Dayton up in the gubernatorial contest, it is a 3-way contest and Republican Tom Emmer could pull this off.  If he does, it helps Pawlenty.

Mitt Romney:  He has sort of distanced himself from him home state.  Scott Brown’s victory surely helped him, but that won’t matter much.  Not sure any of the MA races going GOP will have much bearing on his anticipated bid for the 2012 nomination.

John Thune: Six years ago, his race was the most talked about in the nation.  Now, he’s cruising to reelection.  If his coattails help Kristi Noem oust Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, he’ll be in a stronger position.

Newt Gingrich:  If Carl Paladino wins in New York, then anything can happen.

FYI:

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, GOProud, the only national organization representing gay conservatives and their allies, released their complete list of House and Senate endorsements, as well as Senate recommendations. “We urge our members and allies to vote to bring conservative leadership to Washington, D.C.,” said Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director of GOProud. “The men and women that GOProud is endorsing and recommending will help bring common-sense conservative solutions to the challenges facing gay Americans and the country as a whole.”

“There can be no freedom for gay and lesbian individuals and our families without economic freedom,” said Christopher R. Barron, Chairman of the GOProud Board. “Under the leadership of liberals in Washington, gay Americans – like all Americans – have suffered. While the Democrats talk a good game when it comes to gay issues, their record speaks for itself. On jobs and the economy, on taxes, on retirement security, and on healthcare the Democrats reign in Washington has been an absolute disaster for gay people. If you are a gay person, or if you know someone who is gay or lesbian, I implore you to vote out Democrats tomorrow.”

In support of its endorsed candidates, GOProud has been airing a 30 second ad entitled “The Real Democrats of Washington, D.C.” (the ad can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzyBYaFhjfk). “GOProud is incredibly proud of the work we have done on behalf of our endorsed candidates,” continued LaSalvia.

The full list of GOProud endorsees:

For U.S. Senate – Carly Fiorina (R-CA) and Mark Kirk (R-IL)

For U.S. House – Sean Bielat (R-MA4), Richard Hanna (R-NY24), Mary Bono Mack (R-CA45), Charles Djou (R-HI1), and Dr. Joe Heck (R-NV3).

In addition to its list of endorsed candidates, today, GOProud unveiled its list of recommended candidates for the U.S. Senate. This list, while by no means exhaustive, represents races where GOProud is strongly encouraging its members and allies to support these men and women.

The full list of GOProud recommendations for U.S. Senate:

Linda McMahon (R-CT), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Dino Rossi (R-WA) and Dr. Tom Coburn (R-OK)

“GOProud looks forward to working with a new conservative controlled House and Senate to pass tax reform, social security reform, healthcare reform and other important reforms that will improve the lives of all Americans – but especially gay and lesbian Americans,” concluded LaSalvia.

Get ready to party like it is 1894.  (Look it up…) 

PS – Where have the liberal trolls been recently?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

When voters in Rep. John Spratt (D-SC) district woke up this morning, this is what they saw on their roads.

This is NOT a sign for challenger Mick Mulvaney, and it was NOT authorized by “The Tea Party” (see small print to bottom right).  This is a smear campaign by United States Congressman Spratt (or his cronies) who has sucked the life out of America for 24 years.  This is a clear violation of Federal Election laws (not that the laws stop Democrats from stealing elections anyway).

This sign is another example of the desperation of House Democrats and the left-wing lackey groups like MoveOn.org who sent troops down to South Carolina to help Spratt avoid defeat.

Disgusting.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

UPDATE:  I’m officially revising my predictions.  Biden is campaigning in VERMONT today.  VERMONT!  That is PATRICK LEAHY, folks.  Why the hell would Biden need to go there?

My new prediction:  65 House seats for GOP and 10 Senate seats.  And I think the House GOP win could be much, much more than 65.

********

Gallup has just released it’s final generic ballot preference survey. Republicans hold a 15 point spread.

45% projected turnout; slightly higher than recent historic trends
55% prefer Republicans, 40% prefer Democrats.

Gallup says if this holds up, the Republicans’ current voting model suggests that a 60 seat pickup is now the floor for the House, not the ceiling.

From Gallup:.

It should be noted, however, that this year’s 15-point gap in favor of the Republican candidates among likely voters is unprecedented in Gallup polling and could result in the largest Republican margin in House voting in several generations. This means that seat projections have moved into uncharted territory, in which past relationships between the national two-party vote and the number of seats won may not be maintained.

Developing…. on Tuesday.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

While doing my cardio on Hallowe’en, I looked up at the TV to see Barbara Boxer campaigning from a union hall, telling us that this race was all about jobs.

Okay, Ma’am, if you want to talk about jobs, why don’t you talk about your record?

Barbara Boxer was elected to the United States Senate during a (mild) recession.  At that time, unemployment in the Golden State stood at 9.8%.  Today, it stands at 12.4%.

She was reelected to her third (& current) term in 2004, but would serve in the minority, with Republicans bolstering their majority that night.  Unemployment in California that November stood at 5.8% .

Two years later, her party regained the majority, with Boxer, then beginning her fifteenth year in the Senate, chairing the Environment and Public Work Committee.   Unemployment in California during the month of the 2006 midterms was 4.7%.

Two years later, when her party increased its majorities in both houses of Congress and won the White House, unemployment in California was 8.3%.

Once her party took power, the president and Democrats, including Boxer, took immediate action to fix the economy and create jobs.  They passed an approximately $800 billion “stimulus.”  Approvingly citing the White House, she said it would “save or create approximately 400,000 jobs in California”.  She hailed the legislation as offering “help and hope.” (Her emphasis.) At that time (February 2009), 16,489,677 Californians held jobs.  Today 15,975,076 do.  That’s a loss of 514,601.*   I thought Boxer said the “stimulus” was going to create – or save — jobs.  Not a lot of savings in a half-million job loss.

Senator, maybe it’s not such a good idea for you to campaign on jobs.

* (more…)

A recently unearthed transcript:

BRIT HUME: Juan, columnist George Will says if the election goes as expected, his advice is be afraid, be very afraid. Should we take his advice?

JUAN WILLIAMS, WEEKLY STANDARD: I am already afraid, very afraid. I mean, it’s not like governance has been going great. I think we’ll, I don’t know whether I should be afraid, but there will be gridlock.

HUME: Michael, Will also says that future historians will probably look back at the 2008 election as a catastrophe for America. You are a historian. You agree with that?

MICHAEL BARONE, U.S. NEWS : No, but they might look on it as kind of a joke. There is sort of a circus aspect to it that people, it’s become comic and a kind of a dark way. You know, Will is a professional doomsayer. So, you have to take that with a grain of salt. But obviously the political system’s a mess.

* (more…)