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Also in Election 2008
Daring to Dream of a Black President
Voters on the Verge: Watch GRITtv's Special Election Day Coverage
Laura Flanders
Ten Things to Watch (Besides the Presidential Battle) This Election Day
Joshua Holland
Election Day: Palin's Panic and the Right-Wing's Big Freak-out
Here it is kids. Election day. How bad a case of election day fever do you have?
Here at AlterNet we can't wait to see how this one plays out, and we obviously aren't the only ones. Across the nation people are coming out in record numbers to vote, ensuring that Election day 2008 will be one for the books. With so much to keep an eye on out there we have multiple articles that we will be updating throughout the day, bringing you breaking coverage of the Presidential race, conservatives' reactions, and hot news and juicy rumors. If you want to keep up with Senate races, House races, and important state ballot measures though, you're in the right place. To find out whose going to be on Capitol Hill and which ballot measures get passed, bookmark this page and be sure to check-in throughout the day.
Before the information starts pouring in, we wanted to let you know what people are talking about. Below are some of the races and issues that have a lot of progressives really excited ... or worried. Can Franken beat Coleman? Will Dole and Bachmann's dirty tricks work, or blow up in their faces? Will the religious right get prop. 8 passed? Could California's prop. 5 pass, ushering in a more civilized drug policy? How will conservative economic policies fare in Massachusetts? These are just some of the many questions people are wondering about. It is important to mention though, while these items have caught our attention, it is a only a partial list. We encourage your input, whether you have a ballot measure we missed, a race that's important to you, or anything else you want to say feel free to let us know in the comments below.
Happy election day everyone, now let's get cracking.
David Sirota posted an excellent piece about bellwether races and initiatives to keep an eye on (click the link for his full article):
CALIFORNIA
- Proposition 8: Relegated to seemingly permanent minority status, Golden State conservatives are resorting to a social/cultural message with this anti-gay-marriage initiative. Its success or failure will either embolden or crush these kind of wedge tactics both in California and in similar blue states where conservatives are looking for a foothold.
COLORADO
- The Udall-Schaffer Senate race: This election will tell us if an aggressively pro-environment Democrat can win against a movement conservative in a state once considered off-limits for pro-environment Democrats.
- Amendment 46: Sponsored by the infamous Ward Connerly, this disgusting initiative aims to stoke the old Angry White Man backlash against minorities and women with a measure to essentially ban affirmative action and equal opportunity programs. The latest Denver Post poll suggests this is going to be a close one - if progressives defeat it, they will show that even here in the heart of the Mountain West, we can defeat race/gender-based wedge politics.
- Amendment 47: This is the anti-union right-to-work measure, aimed at destroying Colorado's labor movement. This state has a long history of anti-union politics - if right-to-work is defeated, it will signal that unions are starting to figure out how to fight off the worst anti-union measures in some of the most virulently anti-union states.
[...]
MASSACHUSETTS
- Question 1: Massachusetts voters face a Grover Norquist-type ballot initiative to repeal its income tax. Though the Northeast has been dominated by Democrats in recent years, this initiative represents an attempt by conservatives to start moving their right-wing economic populism into blue-state strongholds. How this fares will suggest how similar initiatives and legislative bills fare in this Democratic region.
[...]
OREGON
- The Smith-Merkley Senate Race: As I wrote in a newspaper column in October, the senate race between incumbent Sen. Gordon Smith (R) and challenger Jeff Merkley (D) provides arguably the starkest economic contrast on key issues like trade and globalization - and in a state where populist Democrats are supposedly unable to run on such issues. Should Merkley win with his anti-NAFTA, anti-Wall-Street-bailout campaign, it will prove that even in a state like Oregon with a significant export economy, Democrats can compete and win with a populist economic message.
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