Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! I’m in a much better mood than I was after the tea party ruined the 2010 midterms. After the recent 2012 election, I will be represented by Democrats from the President all the way down to the state legislature. (The local city council and mayor and school board are nonpartisan offices, but I’m pretty sure our mayor is a Republican, so that’s a tiny fruit fly in the otherwise joyous ointment). Under the squiggly orange Kos dealy I’ll tell you about the people who will be representing me next year:
I should mention that I live in Moorhead, Minnesota, which is right across the river from Fargo, North Dakota (yes, like the movie, and yes, a lot of people here really talk like they did in the movie). I live in Moorhead’s perineum between Concordia College and Minnesota State University Moorhead, near the Prairie Home Cemetery (which, incidentally, inspired Garrison Keillor to name his radio show Prairie Home Companion). My parents are buried in that cemetery. I wave at them and say hi when I’m walking to the public library or the Ace Hardware Store.
Here are my elected officials…
My President is a Democrat
Barack Obama (and his right-hand man, Joe Biden). So that makes me happy. You probably already heard about this so I won't say anything more.
My U.S. Senators are Democrats
I’m quite proud to say Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken are my Senators. Other states look at Minnesota and sigh, “Wow, I wish I had two great Senators like that.” My girlfriend’s mother thinks Amy Klobuchar might be the first woman elected President. I’ve told her that Minnesotans don’t do very well in Presidential elections (Harold Stassen, Eugene McCarthy, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Tim Pawlenty), but she wants to live long enough to see Amy Klobuchar elected.
Amy Klobuchar was re-elected (no surprise) against some guy who teaches economics at some high school, so he fancies himself an expert on deficits and fiscal stability. He advocated auditing the Fed, possibly abolishing the Fed, and using shiny yellow pieces of metal as the basis for our economy because inflation is bad for the middle class and the gold standard would solve our problems. Also his high school kids are paying into a bankrupt system of social security and medicare (he was really worried about the kids). I think the Republicans had a contest, Who Is Crazy Enough To Run Against Klobuchar? And Kurt Bills said, “Me. Me. Me. Pick Me! I’m crazy enough!” Senator Klobuchar won with 65% of the vote. The high school economics teacher got 30%. The Independence Party candidate got 1% or 2% (you might remember that the Independence Party was associated with Ross Perot in the 1990s and actually elected a Governor of Minnesota named Jesse Ventura, former TV wrestling star and movie actor).
Speaking of Senators, I’m ecstatic that our neighbors to the east in Wisconsin elected Tammy Baldwin (Democrat), and our neighbors to the west in North Dakota elected Heidi Heitkamp. By the way, Nate Silver (genius poll aggregrator) called all 50 states correctly for the electoral votes. And he got 31 of 33 Senate races correct, but he missed North Dakota. Silver predicted that Berg would win in ND. Rick Berg was the Republican candidate (currently the at-large congressperson from ND and 13th-richest member of Congress because he’s a low-down slumlord). Plus, on the other side of ND, Jon Tester (Democrat) won his Senate race (I think that was the other race that Silver missed).
Meteor Blades wrote a very interesting diary about Heidi Heitkamp’s victory in ND: American Indian voters and Indian organizers gave N.D. Senate edge to Democrat Heidi Heitkamp. Heidi won by about 3000 votes. And in the Native American/Indian counties (where the reservations are), she won by about 4000+. Rick Berg (the Republican) was an asshole. He ignored the Indian vote. It’s all about Get Out The Vote.
My U.S. Representative is a Democrat
Collin Peterson was re-elected again. He’s the most senior/longest-serving member of the Minnesota congressional delegation (he was first elected in 1990). I have very mixed feelings about him. Yes, he’s a Democrat, but he’s against abortion, against marriage equality, against gun control, and so on. He’s one of the seven founding members of the Blue Dog Democrats. In 2010 he was endorsed by the National Right To Life Committee and the NRA. But he’s somewhat liberal on economic issues. At least he’s a Democrat. He keeps getting re-elected (for 22 years) so he must be doing something right.
What do we say on Daily Kos? “More and Better Democrats” (And we got a better Democrat in Connecticut with Joe Lieberman’s retirement). More is good. Better is even better.
My MN State Senator is a Democrat
Until this year, my state Senator was Keith Langseth (a Democrat in office since 1980). He retired this year, so it was an open seat.
In my district (after the census redistricting), Kent Eken (Democrat and fourth generation farmer) defeated Phil Hansen (Republican), a former NFL player with the Buffalo Bills who played in three Super Bowls. You might know that the Bills have lost all four Super Bowls they’ve been in. However, you might also know that the Minnesota Vikings have also been in four Super Bowls and they lost all four games, so losing a Super Bowl isn’t such a bad thing in Minnesota.
There’s something people call “Minnesota Nice.” Some examples: I know I got to the stop sign first, but you can go ahead because you seem to be in a hurry. Or – I don’t need that last piece of cake or pizza, why don’t you take it? Or – well, ya, we worked the hard to get to Super Bowl, but you guys seem to really care about winning. I think the nice factor is why Minnesotans don’t win Presidential elections or Super Bowls. Minnesotans are just too nice. We hold the door open and say, "No, you go ahead."
My MN State Representative is A Democrat
Ben Lien (Democrat) won the election in my district. The previous rep was Morrie Lanning (Republican) who didn’t run for re-election. He was the mayor of Moorhead from 1980 to 2001, then he got elected to the MN House from 2002 to 2011, then he announced his retirement after he worked out the deal for a new NFL stadium. Lanning was a fairly moderate Republican, but I’m glad we replaced him with a Democrat.
Now the state of MN has Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and a Democratic Governor. We can raise taxes a bit on rich people and balance the budget. And send money to school districts. And implement the state system of Obamacare.
Plus the voters defeated the one-man-one-woman Constitutional Amendment and the Voter-ID Constitutional Amendment.
I’m very happy about the election.
Plus, the gay guy won in Fargo, ND
He was running for the ND House of Representatives. Here’s a DKos Diary: ND-HD44: First openly gay candidate for ND House. He won.
Here’s the ND SOS link: Election Results. In ND, you vote for two representatives, and the top two vote getters are elected. Joshua Boschee was the gay guy. He got the most votes. Some Republican came in second (and won, too). Good for him. He might be the first openly gay person in the ND House of Representatives in a very Republican state.
The local news did a story about Boschee. The voters (and his Republican opponents) didn’t think it was a big deal. But every time I logged into Daily Kos, I’d get a banner ad that said “Oh my god! Boschee is going to promote the gay agenda! Gay marriage! Drugs and sex and rocknroll!” I checked out the internet ad. It was sponsored by some homophobe evangelical jerk in Virginia. The gay guy won. The guy with the second most votes was a Republican, so the district will have a Dem and a Rep.
And that’s the end of my report from Moorhead.