MoCo Election Outcomes
You probably want to know how things went in the local Montgomery County elections. There are still a lot of provisional and absentee ballots that haven't been counted, but the county Board of Elections has results so far posted HERE.
Remember, we were about 67 percent for John Kerry in 2004, two to one, we are a Blue county without a doubt. We were even Bluer this time -- according to the Board of Elections web site, we favored Obama-Biden over McCain-Palin by 71.04 to 27.53 percent.
For District 4 House of Representatives, Donna Edwards won easily with 70.76 percent of the vote. The Republican candidate, Roscoe Bartlett, won for District 6 with 51.23 percent of the vote to Jennifer Dougherty's 46.81 -- District 6 includes all of Garrett, Allegany, Washington, Frederick and Carroll Counties, and parts of Montgomery, Baltimore, and Harford Counties. And the congressional seat for District 8 went to Chris Van Hollen, with 73.94 percent of the vote.
In the county Board of Education At Large race, Phil Kauffman roundly beat the CRW's chosen candidate Tommy Le, 67.50 to 32.08 percent. These are not partisan races, you can't tell from the ballot what these people stand for, the difference here tells you that people studied the contests, or at least chose to follow the MCEA's apple ballot.
On the other hand, Laura Berthiaume, who was also an apple ballot candidate, barely edged out Steve Abrams for the District 2 seat, 51.34 percent to 48.27 percent. Abrams is the incumbent, he has name recognition though not always for the best reasons. The fact that Berthiaume just squeaked by here tells you that people were not voting the apple ballot, but had some knowledge of the Board -- enough knowledge to recognize Steve Abrams' name, if not enough to know what he stands for (he was the only Board member to vote against the new sex-ed curriculum, and his presence in the news has not always been favorable).
Chris Barclay was unopposed and got 99.71 percent of the votes, against a handful of write-in candidates. Who would do that? Oh well.
Question 1, the early voting item, passed easily in our county with 79.65 percent of the votes. Question 2, the big slot machine question, passed in our county, with 52.33 versus 47.67 percent of the vote.
Question A, the Repeal of Ineffective Provisions, passed with 63.83 percent of the vote, and the property tax limit known locally as "the Ficker amendment" seems to have barely won with a 50.09 to 49.91 percent majority.
The elections board will start counting the more than 64,000 provisional and absentee ballots today. Question B is ahead by less than 600 votes right now, so it could swing the other way. Most of the other races, even when they were close, were not that close, and probably won't come out differently from the current figures.
Remember, we were about 67 percent for John Kerry in 2004, two to one, we are a Blue county without a doubt. We were even Bluer this time -- according to the Board of Elections web site, we favored Obama-Biden over McCain-Palin by 71.04 to 27.53 percent.
For District 4 House of Representatives, Donna Edwards won easily with 70.76 percent of the vote. The Republican candidate, Roscoe Bartlett, won for District 6 with 51.23 percent of the vote to Jennifer Dougherty's 46.81 -- District 6 includes all of Garrett, Allegany, Washington, Frederick and Carroll Counties, and parts of Montgomery, Baltimore, and Harford Counties. And the congressional seat for District 8 went to Chris Van Hollen, with 73.94 percent of the vote.
In the county Board of Education At Large race, Phil Kauffman roundly beat the CRW's chosen candidate Tommy Le, 67.50 to 32.08 percent. These are not partisan races, you can't tell from the ballot what these people stand for, the difference here tells you that people studied the contests, or at least chose to follow the MCEA's apple ballot.
On the other hand, Laura Berthiaume, who was also an apple ballot candidate, barely edged out Steve Abrams for the District 2 seat, 51.34 percent to 48.27 percent. Abrams is the incumbent, he has name recognition though not always for the best reasons. The fact that Berthiaume just squeaked by here tells you that people were not voting the apple ballot, but had some knowledge of the Board -- enough knowledge to recognize Steve Abrams' name, if not enough to know what he stands for (he was the only Board member to vote against the new sex-ed curriculum, and his presence in the news has not always been favorable).
Chris Barclay was unopposed and got 99.71 percent of the votes, against a handful of write-in candidates. Who would do that? Oh well.
Question 1, the early voting item, passed easily in our county with 79.65 percent of the votes. Question 2, the big slot machine question, passed in our county, with 52.33 versus 47.67 percent of the vote.
Question A, the Repeal of Ineffective Provisions, passed with 63.83 percent of the vote, and the property tax limit known locally as "the Ficker amendment" seems to have barely won with a 50.09 to 49.91 percent majority.
The elections board will start counting the more than 64,000 provisional and absentee ballots today. Question B is ahead by less than 600 votes right now, so it could swing the other way. Most of the other races, even when they were close, were not that close, and probably won't come out differently from the current figures.
posted by JimK at 6:52 AM
31 Comments:
"A gay-rights group is demanding an apology from a cartoon character on "The Simpsons" for uttering a homophobic slur on the show's Halloween episode.
Nelson Muntz, the goofball bully on the hit Fox show, set off a firestorm Sunday night by insulting his nerdy classmate Milhouse Van Houten by saying, "That's so gay."
While Nelson's verbal poke at Milhouse was meant to get laughs, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) responded with a rebuke. "Nelson's use of 'that's so gay' in a negative way is not surprising considering that 90% of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth say they hear the term used this way frequently or often at school," the group said in a statement."
We, as a society, have decided to tolerate homosexuality. It doesn't mean we are committed to banishing any negative comment about homosexuality. Most Americans view homosexuality negatively, and while they don't believe it should be banned, they reserve their right to express their opinion of it.
Sorry, but totalitarianism is so gay.
Anonymous, showing his true self, in his last post defends, not expression of opinion, which we all support, but harassment and slurs. He demonstrates that he should not be let out of the house among members of polite society.
For myself, I suspect the battle against the phrase "that's so gay" is, at least for now, a lost cause. Gay people in America are so much an underclass that equating all things we don't like with gay people makes sense to a lot of young people. Apparently to Anonymous, too.
I wonder if those people will find a religious reason for being explicitly disrespectful of queer people, as the Anonymoit is most of the time.
Andrea- not anon
Steve is gone!
Jim, you must be wrong- Anon told us how MC will move to the right- but if we defeated Le and Abrams, we aren't moving to the right. And I still don't get this "President Obama"- don't they mean President Huckabee?
I have ignored Anon for a while -but his current remark reminds me how emotionally and intellectually immature he is. There are commercials directed at this sort of language usuage- the target group appears to be young teen girls and boys. Even using the remark to make a point is immature but I'm not surprised.
There is a difference between, gay and third-grade gay.
Gay is me, I am a dude who dates other dues.
Third-grade gay is "that's so gay", making gay seem like a synonym for "stupid". AnonBigot is obviously third grade gay.
Watch the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpxqXQAiyT0
oops...: I date other dudes, not dues. Dues are what I HAPPILY pay to my teacher's union.
For years, and certainly throughout this campaign, the media contention has been that only the rich have done well since Bush was elected, and that his economic policies did nothing for lower and middle income wage earners.
Yet, a comparison of the 2008 and 2004 exit polls tells quite a different story about what voters made in those years.
In fact, the percentage of poor voters showed a huge decrease since 2004, while the percentage of folks making over $200,000 doubled.
Yes, doubled.
Here are the particulars:
In 2004, 8 percent of the electorate earned $15k or less; that dropped to 6 percent in 2008, a 25 percent decline
In 2004, 15 percent made between $15k-$30K; that dropped to 12 percent in 2008, a 20 percent decline
In 2004, 23 percent made $30k or less; that dropped to 18 percent in 2008, a 22 percent decline
In 2004, 11 percent made $100k-$150k; that rose to 14 percent in 2008, a 27 percent increase
In 2004, 4 percent made $150k-$200k; that rose to 6 percent in 2008, a 50 percent increase
In 2004, 3 percent made $200k or more; that rose to 6 percent in 2008, a 100 percent increase
In 2004, 18 percent made $100k or more; that rose to 26 percent in 2008, a 44 percent increase.
Add it all up, and the electorate, when viewed strictly from an income perspective, did awfully well the past four years.
Think the election results might have been different this year if the electorate was aware of this data?
I wonder what anonymoids numbers mean when you control for inflation.
78.5% of statistics are made up.
rrjr
It is worth noting that Phil Kauffman answered the Equality Montgomery questionnaire during the contested primary earlier this year, and showed that he is fully supportive of the issues which motivated the creation of Teachthefacts.org. In responding to the Gazette questionnaire this fall, Phil reiterated his support for the MCPS policies on education regarding sexual orientation.
In contrast, Tommy Le took the position that the curriculum should be eliminated.
Of course, there were other issues facing the voters, and many likely were not aware of their respective positions on the curriculum issue. But the results here are yet another indication of the views of the people of Montgomery County. Particularly since Tommy Le lost overwhelmingly in his race against Shirley Brandman (a strong supporter of the new curriculum) in 2006.
"78.5% of statistics are made up"
especially when the media tries to create a story
the pro-growth policies of the Reagan improved the lives of all Americans
I am in no way a Steve Abrams fan and did not vote for him. However, we really can't say Steve is gone until after all the absentee votes are counted. One of his campaign workers posted that on another website. Hopefully, he is gone.
Andrea- not anon
Hey, I have a lot of hope- so I hope Steve is gone.
the pro-growth policies of the Reagan improved the lives of all Americans
That is absolutely not true. Reagan made the rich richer and the poor poorer, just like other GOP administrations. Getting poorer does not improve poor people's lives.
As I reported on an earlier thread, the New York Times published a piece by Alan S. Blinder, who is a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve.
That piece included these facts:
...Data for the period from 1948 to 2007, during which Republicans occupied the White House for 34 years and Democrats for 26, show average annual growth of real gross national product of 1.64 percent per capita under Republican presidents versus 2.78 percent under Democrats.
...It is well known that income inequality in the United States has been on the rise for about 30 years now — an unsettling development that has finally touched the public consciousness. But Professor Bartels unearths a stunning statistical regularity: Over the entire 60-year period, income inequality trended substantially upward under Republican presidents but slightly downward under Democrats, thus accounting for the widening income gaps over all. And the bad news for America’s poor is that Republicans have won five of the seven elections going back to 1980.
Thank goodness power is back in Deomcratic hands so the GDP will grow and income inequity will lessen.
the race between abrams and berthauime was close and a comes before b.
the race between kauffman and lee is not close and k comes before l...
what percentage of votes can be attributed to people who don't know anything about the candidates and are just voting for the first listed ?
thoughts ?
It varies. I recall a study which showed that in downballot races, alphabetic listing can be as much as 5%.
"That is absolutely not true. Reagan made the rich richer and the poor poorer, just like other GOP administrations."
There are no end to studies, CBTS. The problem with most that come to the conclusion you must admit you want to hear is that they don't count governmental benefits or tax breaks. Reagan took millions of low income people off tax rolls all together and expanded earned income credit. W Bush gave a new governmental entitlement for prescriptions and his No Child Left Behind program has shrunk the academic gap between whites and poor minorities, giving an intangible benefit of a brighter future. Clinton ended welfare as it then existed.
You need to read more broadly.
"the race between kauffman and lee is not close and k comes before l..."
Le sounds foreign so there may be some bias involved. There's lots of bias in MC.
AnonBigot is not only anti-GLBT but also racist, as seen in his "Le" comment.
Obviously a true representative of CRC-CRG.
"but the county Board of Elections has results so far posted HERE."
That wouldn’t be the same...no, never mind.
"Chris Barclay was unopposed and got 99.71 percent of the votes, against a handful of write-in candidates. Who would do that?"
I did. I wrote-in Peter Spriggs.
It's funny to look back at a few years ago when the MC school board passed a sex ed curriculum that violated students' constitutional rights, the infamous Fishback Revisions.
A new group formed in response with the purpose of recalling the school board. Another group formed called TTF howling to the heavens about how horrid it is to even consider removing the marvelous board who passed this unconstitutional travesty.
The group on the side of students' rights eventually split and formed a new group that favored simply persuading the board of their error, rathering than removing. The horrid howling nonetheless continued at TTF.
Now, all but one of those board members is gone, having either seen the writing on the wall and quitting or being tossed out by the voters. The two most recently elected this week have both campaigned on the position that the board serves the citizens not the school superintendent.
No kiddin'.
We could have all saved ourselves a lot of wasted time by recalling those board members back then.
Here's a statement by the bitterly departing Sharon Cox, "We worked for outcomes the board identified as important. I hope the new board doesn't lose sight of those goals as they grapple with various parent groups and worry about stakeholder satisfaction."
That about says it all.
Take your place in the dustbin of history, lady.
Wyatt,
Your intellectual dishonesty and willful ignorance never cease to amaze me.
Welcome to center-left America. You'll be spending the remainder of your life in your self-imposed wilderness.
the election didn't change the views of Americans
it was partly a protest vote against an incompetent administration
and partly an endorsement of a historic choice
it won't happen again
this remains a center-right country
if the new regime overplays its hand, it won't last
we have Congressional elections every two years
the "blame Bush for all your troubles" game will only be good for about a year
Amidst the sad news about Proposition 8 and other temporary setbacks, a small glimmer of light shines from Oregon:
http://blog.oregonlive.com/multimedia/2008/11/post_9.html
As Stu Rasmussen becomes the country’s first (openly) transgender mayor.
Enjoy.
Cynthia
good news from California:
exit polls show 70% of blacks voted against Proposition 8
thanks, Barack!
"Amidst the sad news about Proposition 8 and other temporary setbacks"
millions of new pro-family advocates have joined the ranks of thise who vote regularly
there's nothing temporary about it
Anon posted:
“millions of new pro-family advocates have joined the ranks of thise who vote regularly”
I find it ironic that groups calling themselves “pro-family” work so hard to keep loving parents apart from their children. There are tens of thousands of gay families in this country that have to navigate through numerous hurdles put in place by a heterosexually dominant society.
Most parents are allowed to visit their children in a hospital if they are sick or in an accident. The non-biological parent of a child will likely be refused. Non-biological parents often can’t even pick up their own sick child from school. Millions of dollars in tax breaks afforded to heterosexual couples help raise their families are categorically denied from gay families. How is this “pro-family?” It is only a matter of time before you start seeing gay families on TV. How are you going to claim you’re “pro-family” when you’re trying to destroy theirs?
Anon also said:
“there's nothing temporary about it”
Keep praying Anon. We’re not giving up or going away that easily. You can vote against us, have protests, and even support false advertising to get your point across. You can call us all the names you like; one of your favorite seems to be “sexual deviants.” I guess you need that to make you feel superior. Or perhaps you need to prove to God how much more righteous you are on judgment day. Perhaps if you keep yelling about the “sexual deviants” enough, He will overlook your sins.
I have made my peace with God. Snide commentary from Anonymi only serve to annoy me, it doesn’t diminish me one iota. I’ve already been through a small corner of hell right here on earth. I have survived things no human should be made to suffer through, and many of my friends have suffered far, far worse. The self-righteous ranting of a sock-puppet army of anonymous “moral police” is nothing compared to what I or numerous other members of the GLBT community have already endured. We simply will not acquiesce.
Spin all you like, but eventually we will see a greater equality.
By the way, if you’re not the Anon that refers to half the people here as “sexual deviants,” I don’t care. If YOU can’t be bothered enough to distinguish yourself from other “Anons,” I see no reason why I should.
Have a nice day,
Cynthia
Anon:
In case you missed it, Phil Kauffman, who is publicly supportive of the approach MCPS is taking regarding the health curriculum and sexual orientation, resoundingly defeated Tommy Le, who said he wanted to eliminate discussion of sexual orientation in the curriculum. And it appears that Laura Berthiaume, who also publicly supported the approach MCPS is taking regarding the health curriculum and sexual orientation, defeated incumbent Steve Abrams, who was not a member of the Board in November 2004 when the Board unanimously voted to proceed with the original revisions and who, after voting to accept the second draft revisions for piloting in January 2007, was the only Board member to vote against the final revisions.
This in a County in which 71% of the voters cast their ballots for the candidate who is openly supportive of gay rights, as opposed to his principal opponent who chose to embrace the late Jerry Falwell in order to secure the nomination of his party.
In 2004, you and your friends asserted that the curriculum should not be revised because, you said, the election showed national opposition to acceptance of gay people as ok -- ignoring, of course, the fact that an overwhelming percentage of people in Montgomery County voted in favor of the presidential candidate who favored acceptance and embrace of gay people. Now, in 2008, the country is beginning to catch up with Montgomery County. Maybe you should take a deep breath a think about why this is so.
Has it occurred to you that perhaps the mainstream health professional associations are right about sexual orientation and that theologically-based opposition to gay people makes no more sense that other parts of Leviticus that all of us rejected long ago (like killing our disobedient children)?
Now, all but one of those board members is gone, having either seen the writing on the wall and quitting or being tossed out by the voters.
Wrong. Every BOE member who voted for the first MCPS curriculum but is no longer a BOE member, left by choice not by election loss. Some retired, some moved on to other jobs, and Valerie Ervin was elected by a wide margin to a higher office on the Montgomery County Council. The only BOE member who voted against either of the two revisions to the sex ed curriculum is the only BOE member who lost his bid for reelection.
"...change may come slowly to the undying myths bequeathed to us by the Bush decade. “Don’t think for a minute that power concedes,” Obama is fond of saying. Neither does groupthink. We now keep hearing, for instance, that America is “a center-right nation” — apparently because the percentages of Americans who call themselves conservative (34), moderate (44) and liberal (22) remain virtually unchanged from four years ago. But if we’ve learned anything this year, surely it’s that labels are overrated. Those same polls find that more and more self-described conservatives no longer consider themselves Republicans. Americans now say they favor government doing more (51 percent), not less (43) — an 11-point swing since 2004 — and they still overwhelmingly reject the Iraq war. That’s a centrist country tilting center-left, and that’s the majority who voted for Obama.
The post-Bush-Rove Republican Party is in the minority because it has driven away women, the young, suburbanites, black Americans, Latino-Americans, Asian-Americans, educated Americans, gay Americans and, increasingly, working-class Americans. Who’s left? The only states where the G.O.P. increased its percentage of the presidential vote relative to the Democrats were West Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas. Even the North Carolina county where Palin expressed her delight at being in the “real America” went for Obama by more than 18 percentage points.
The actual real America is everywhere. It is the America that has been in shell shock since the aftermath of 9/11, when our government wielded a brutal attack by terrorists as a club to ratchet up our fears, betray our deepest constitutional values and turn Americans against one another in the name of “patriotism.” What we started to remember the morning after Election Day was what we had forgotten over the past eight years, as our abusive relationship with the Bush administration and its press enablers dragged on: That’s not who we are.
So even as we celebrated our first black president, we looked around and rediscovered the nation that had elected him. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” Obama said in February, and indeed millions of such Americans were here all along, waiting for a leader. This was the week that they reclaimed their country."
From
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/opinion/09rich.html?em
Good news. The absentee ballots have been counted and Steve Abrams is officially out.
The real demographics of same-gender marriage is that older votes oppose it by a factor of 2 to 1, while younger voters support lgbt families by the same margin. The inexorable march of time will bring gay marriage to America. The purpose of the anti-gay amendments to state constitutions was to tie later generations to our current older generation's prejudices. The mechanics of amending the constitution in Florida means they did exactly that (and I believe in Virginia too). In California, give it 5 or 10 years and it will be reversed.
rrjr
andrea- not anon
I'm doing a little "Steve Abrams is out" dance. OOH, MOCO going even more DEM!!!
of course he's out
he voted for the Fishback Revisions, that unconstitutional travesty
Post a Comment
<< Home