No question November 7th was a tidal wave in national politics and for progressives, a good day indeed. Actually, it was a good day for America. We have hopefully seen the fall of arrogant,corrupt, right-wing extremist leadership in this country and the future can only be seen, at least at this moment, as bright.
California’s election night was a mixed bag. As the rest of the country is trending blue, we found ourselves with an election that was so controlled by millions of dollars—from Schwarzenegger to several of the key propositions, that we can’t help but believe we MUST take the money out of the process to get California back to the work and the will of the people.
In a nutshell, then:
THE GOOD NEWS:
Speak Out California helped educate our state’s voters-especially about the down-ticket races that got far less media attention the the Governor’s race or the ballot initiatives. It’s important that the hotly contested races on which Speak Out California focused—Lt. Governor, Secretary of State and Controller resulted in victories for John Garamendi, Debra Bowen and John Chiang.
THE BAD:
Money still talks way too much in California elections—look at the numbers—big business invested heavily in Schwarzenneger and thwarting progressive policies that would lead to better health care, energy independence and clean elections. Superior funding resulted in victories of profit over the public good.
THE UGLY:
We need to better coordinate our efforts to insure we keep California Blue and Progressive. Too many of our voters were fooled by the power of money over principle. Too many of the key constitutional races were far closer than they should have been. California must lead the nation—and as Bill Clinton said, “Embrace the Future”
We must do better…….