Election Recovery
So I voted yesterday. The results, while disappointing, were better than 2 years ago. My office works on conservation/environmental issues and with the changes in the state legislature, we will have friendlier committees to work with. Trust me, at least in the House, the policy committee couldn't have been worse.
On the local front, the city council races were a disaster. The city council spent $800,000 renovating their chambers last year--and this was outside of city budget. They also passed a requirement that all candidates for city council pass a background/credit check (the state supreme court found that to be egregious and told them that practice was illegal). They want to control all of the solid waste control and won't revisit the incinerator (a great idea--burning garbage to provide steam-generated power to local businesses) which is losing more and more money each year. So most of the incumbents were re-elected. In addition, a new at-large member has declared that she wants to see condos included in part of the riverfront development plan--the plan that most residents support does not have them but the council keeps revisiting that issue. Grrrrr....
mare_in_flames might get a kick out of the following little tidbit.,,, MCCL, a pro-life/defense of marriage group, spent $200,000 to knock out the state senate majority leader who happens to be pro-life, but sympathetic to gays. The result was that he was defeated last night. But because all their efforts were focused on him, the state senate lost 8 pro-life incumbents and the house lost 18. The net result is that both bodies are now resoundingly pro-choice! Hah!
On the local front, the city council races were a disaster. The city council spent $800,000 renovating their chambers last year--and this was outside of city budget. They also passed a requirement that all candidates for city council pass a background/credit check (the state supreme court found that to be egregious and told them that practice was illegal). They want to control all of the solid waste control and won't revisit the incinerator (a great idea--burning garbage to provide steam-generated power to local businesses) which is losing more and more money each year. So most of the incumbents were re-elected. In addition, a new at-large member has declared that she wants to see condos included in part of the riverfront development plan--the plan that most residents support does not have them but the council keeps revisiting that issue. Grrrrr....
mare_in_flames might get a kick out of the following little tidbit.,,, MCCL, a pro-life/defense of marriage group, spent $200,000 to knock out the state senate majority leader who happens to be pro-life, but sympathetic to gays. The result was that he was defeated last night. But because all their efforts were focused on him, the state senate lost 8 pro-life incumbents and the house lost 18. The net result is that both bodies are now resoundingly pro-choice! Hah!