We were so relieved Obama won re-election Tuesday night. Although I figured the race was in Obama's favor, I worried throughout the evening that this election would turn into a prolonged mess like 2000. When the east coast results finally started to trickle in, I nervously watched Virginia as the experts had predicted Romney had to win it. However, I became frustrated as no one called Virginia.
At 8:00 PM, I flipped between the local TV channels for the local results and the national coverage for the presidential results. Finally, at around 8:15 PM, I was surprised the decisive result came not from Virginia, but Ohio. Although Facebook did crash during the announcement, this year's re-election was much more anti-climactic than 2008's euphoria.
I was a little frustrated that the local results were so hard to find. There seemed to be a technical problem publishing the Oregon results as KGW's website and broadcast scroll showed "0%" or "12345" results. I also had problems finding updated Washington state results regarding the same-sex marriage referendum.
This seemingly long election cycle is thankfully over and now the analysis has been begun. It was entertaining seeing Oregon GOP leader Allen Alley optimistically predicting his party's statewide victory and then a short time later standing in an abandoned ballroom muttering that he just didn't understand how they lost again. Like the national GOP, it seems he really is out of touch with the new realty that Oregon voters.
Don't take away my donkey membership, but I admit that I like Allen Alley and secretly feared he would have been a far better candidate for governor in 2010 than the political-novice celebrity his party desperately chose. I believe democracies require competitive opposition parties and fear that any party can overreach without serious challenge. It would be great if the Oregon GOP sincerely reinvented itself, embraced gay marriage as a genuine family value, accepted reproduction as a personal health matter, and actually discussed what they want state government to do instead of merely reducing taxes and cutting services.
| RACE | ME | RESULTS |
| US PRESIDENT | OBAMA | |
|
| US REP 3RD | BLUME- NEAUR | | BLUMENEAUR RE-ELECTED 220K | GREEN 60K | | |
|
| OR SEC OF STATE | BROWN | |
| OR TREASURER | WHEELER | |
| OR ATTY GEN | ROSEN- BLUM | |
| OR SEN 21ST | ROSEN- BAUM | |
| OR REP 42ND | BAILEY | |
| OR BOLI | AVAKIAN | |
| OR SUPREME POS 3 | COOK | |
| OR APPEALS POS 6 | VOLPERT | |
| PORTLAND MAYOR | HALES | |
| PORTLAND COMMISH POS 1 | FRITZ | |
EMSWCD
DIR 1 | TILL | |
| RACE | ME | RESULTS |
| OR #77 DISASTER PREP | YES | |
OR #78 CONSTITUTION
LANGUAGE | YES | |
| OR #79 TRANSFER TAX BAN | NO | |
| OR #80 LEGALIZE MARIJUANA | YES | |
| OR #81 GILNET BAN | NO | |
| OR #82 CASINO | NO | |
| OR #83 WOOD VILLAGE CASINO | NO | |
| OR #84 LARGE ESTATE TAX BAN | NO | |
| OR #85 CORP KICKER TO K-12 | YES | |
| MULTCO #26-143 LIBRARY DIST | YES | |
| PTLD #26-145 PENSION REFORM | YES | |
| PTLD #26-146 ARTS TAX | NO | |
| PTLD #26-144 $482B SCHOOL BOND | YES | |
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