Election 2006: The Aftermath (Sort Of)

It's over. Well, not quite, there are still a few contests to be decided, but Election Day is behind us. The Democrats have won the House of Representatives, and they'll likely make Nancy Pelosi the first female Speaker of the House. Control of the Senate remains undecided. While the latter issue is still being sorted out, here are some of the highlights:

In New York, Hillary Clinton was elected to a second term in the Senate. This means she will not be elected President in 2008; sitting senators have never been elected President except for Warren G. Harding in 1920 and John F., Kennedy in 1960. And they both died in office in the third year of each of their terms. More exciting was the victory of rock singer John Hall (!!!) in New York's 19th House District. The former lead singer of Orleans is about to rock the House - and he's still the one! (Yes, he is!)

In Pennsylvania, there was a huge surprise in the Senate race. Rick Santorum defied the odds by losing to Bob Casey by an even larger margin than the polls indicated! Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Despite the war in Iraq being a big issue, serving in Iraq doesn't translate into votes. Ask Tammy Duckworth, the Iraq veteran who lost her Illinois House race. And despite opposition to the Iraq War in Connecticut, Christopher Shays beat back a strong challenge from Diane Farrell for his House seat, while Joe Lieberman was elected to a fourth term on the basis of experience and his curious rapport with Connecticut voters over other issues.

Harold Ford of Tennessee lost his bid to become the first black U.S. senator from the South since Reconstruction, a distinction no black person is likely to attain any time soon - if the dynamics of the Tennessee race are any indication. The good news for Ford is that many U.S. Senate nominees have failed at their first bids for office, only to succeed the next tie around: ask the newly re-elected John Ensign of Nevada or Jon Thune of South Dakota. The bad news is that Ensign and Thune are Republicans, and Democrats are just as unforgiving to their failed Senate nominees as they are to their failed presidential nominees. Remember Jim Cooper of Tennessee and Dave McCurdy of Oklahoma, both Democratic Senate candidates in special elections in 1994? No? Exactly.

And then there are black Republican candidates whose campaigns were supposed to help the GOP with the black vote. . . . Michael Steele for Senate in Maryland. Lynn Swann for governor in Pennsylvania. Kenneth Blackwell for governor in Ohio. Who cares? :-)

Speaking of Ohio, while there's no reason for Ohio Republicans to celebrate their losses, they might as well enjoy the champagne they bought for their victory parties. They paid for it! (Fiscal responsibility, my foot!)

One major black candidate did come out on top: Democrat Deval Patrick, the former Clinton Justice Department official, was elected governor of Massachusetts. He is only the second black governor elected in American history, after Virginia's Doug Wilder, and he's also the first Democrat elected governor of Massachusetts since Michael Dukakis won his final term in 1986. So, Patrick reversed the "Curse of the Duke!" :-D

Rule number one about elections: Don't call an election unless all the votes are in. When I went to bed last night, Democratic Senate nominee Claire McCaskill in Missouri and the stem cell research initiative in that state were going down to defeat. When I got up this morning, McCaskill was the winner and the stem cell initiative passed.

Never mind sex scandals in elections; 2006 may be remembered as a year in which the sex appeal of female candidates were first considered as factors. (In other words, male candidates aren't the only ones who are expected to look like movie stars.) In Florida, putative Republican sex symbol Katherine Harris lost her Senate bid; in Michigan, genuine Democratic sex symbol Jennifer Granholm was re-elected governor.

Vermont returned Republican governor James Douglas to office, Democrat Peter Welch won the state's only House seat, and Socialist Bernie Sanders was elected to the Senate. Where does Vermont fit in the whole political equation? Don't ask me, I'm clueless too.

Still undecided: the Senate races in Virginia and Montana.

(Oh yeah, Britney Spears filed for divorce against her nimrod of a husband yesterday, apparently doing so on Election Day to avoid the publicity - something Madonna would never have done, because she would have wanted her divorce to be at center stage, which is why she probably why she filed divorce from Sean Penn in January 1989 and not November 1988. Britney, you have a lot to learn about self-promotion! And Britney Spears fans - if there are any left - can take down their "Divorce Kevin" Web sites now.)