People Reject Nuts

Yesterday's elections show that the 2004 "mandate" has expired, the political capital has been spent, and people are coming back to their senses.

Common Sense Wins in Dover
In Dover, Pennsylvania, the Republican-dominated school board was trying to force Biology teachers to teach creationism as an alternative to evolution. The York Dispatch shows the following totals for board candidates, with all precincts counted -- lists are ranked by number of votes:

6-year terms
B Reinking         Dem.  2754 
H Mc Ilvaine, Jr.  Dem.  2677 
B Rehm             Dem.  2625 
T Emig             Dem.  2716 
A Bonsell          Rep.  2469 
J Cashman          Rep.  2526 
S Leber            Rep.  2584 
E Rowand           Rep.  2547

2-Year Term 
L Gurreri          Dem.  2623 
P Dapp             Dem.  2670 
J Mc Ilvaine       Dem.  2658 
E Riddle           Rep.  2545 
R Short            Rep.  2544 
S Harkins          Rep.  2466 
 
2-Year Unexp 
P Herman           Dem.  2542 
D Napierskie       Rep.  2516 

In every category, the candidates with a "Rep." next to their name were the incumbents. And in every case, they were voted out of office. Note that the incoming candidates also plan to promote the teaching of "intelligent design," but in a comparative religions course, where it belongs -- not in Biology.

Maine Voters Respect Gay Rights
This year, the state of Maine amended their Human Rights Act by making it illegal to discriminate in employment, housing, credit, public accommodations and education based on sexual orientation. There was a challenge to the new law, and they had a referendum. Let the AP tell you about it:

Maine voters decided Tuesday to keep the state´s gay rights law on the books, making Maine the last New England state to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation.

With tallies from 72 percent of the state´s precincts, votes supporting the gay rights law were ahead 56 percent to 44 percent over those seeking to overturn the law that was approved by the Legislature earlier this year.

The vote "reaffirms the basic values that are intrinsic in Maine," said Gov. John Baldacci, who signed the law earlier this year before it was put on hold by the pending referendum. "Mainers don´t like discrimination ... if it happens to one person it happens to all of us." Maine voters keep gay rights law on the books

This is the third time this has been voted on. The first two times, people didn't accept it. This time, something's changed. Hard to say what.

The difference this time was a change in attitudes, "a strong and consistent message" and involvement of young people in the campaign, said Ted O´Meara of Maine Won´t Discriminate.

"Sometimes these struggles take time," said O´Meara.

Now, this next paragraph of the same news story has the key, I think, to our own situation in Montgomery County, where a radical minority objects to teaching about sexual variation in the public schools:

The issue, which was put to a statewide vote for the third time since 1998, pitted a coalition of mainstream religious and business groups and politicians against a network of Christian church groups that viewed gay rights as an assault on traditional marriage.

I think that's going to be what needs to happen here. The mainstream churches need to stand up to the nutty ones.

Other votes
Of course Democratic candidates won gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey. You knew that already. Says the AP, commenting on the Virginia race:

Democratic Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine won a solid victory in GOP-leaning Virginia, beating Republican Jerry Kilgore by more than 5 percentage points. Democrats crowed that Bush's election-eve rally for the former state attorney general only spurred more Kaine supporters to the polls. Democrats Win Elections in N.J. and Va.

In St. Paul, Minnesota, the incumbent Democratic candidate for mayor, Randy Kelly, was beaten badly, getting 31 percent of the vote to his opponent's 69 percent. As the Minneapolis Star-Tribune puts it:

The St. Paul race was overshadowed by partisan fury over Kelly's decision to endorse President Bush for reelection in 2004. A number of polls showed Kelly fighting a backlash in the largely DFL town over the endorsement. A Star Tribune Minnesota Poll showed that nearly two-thirds of likely voters said Kelly's decision to campaign for Bush influenced their choice of candidate.

The margin of victory seemed likely to mark the worst defeat for any mayoral contender in two decades in St. Paul and ended a 16-year drought among DFL-endorsed candidates there. Coleman and Rybak coast to victory

In California, according to the same AP story:

In California, Schwarzenegger failed in his push to rein in the Democrat-controlled Assembly. All four of his ballot measures flopped: Capping spending, removing legislators' redistricting powers, making teachers work five years instead of two to pass probation, and restricting political spending by public employee unions.

On the other hand, Texas voted to adopt that constitutional ban on marriage.