Election 2010: What does it mean?
Submitted by Kirk Caraway on Wed, 11/03/2010 - 9:30am
I turned off the TV late last night, unable to withstand another minute of talking head after talking head trying to come up with a narrative for this election.
For some reason, it seems they think that their audience is comprised of 6-year-olds who can't comprehend anything that isn't force-fed to them in tiny, single-concept bites.
Was it the NObama election? Was the the fiery phoenix of the Tea Party? Was it creeping socialism, or simple arrogance? What about government spending? Or was it just time to throw the bums out?
For every narrative they tried to spin there seemed to be a direct contradiction. The best overall reason is that the economy for most of the country stinks, and whoever is in power is going to suffer the wrath of the voters. This year, that party was the Democrats. If things aren't better in two years, it may be the GOP's turn.
But what does our local election results mean? Kenny Furlong was elected to a third term, so one could surmise that the people of Carson City are reasonably happy with their law enforcement.
John McKenna won over Day Williams for the Ward 3 Supervisor seat, though I'm not sure there was much of a policy difference between them. Voters know McKenna from his years on the school board, so I'm guessing they didn't look at this race as a "throw the bums out" contest.
For Ward 1, the most visible difference between winner Karen Abowd and her opponent Rob Joiner was the Nugget Project. But even here, I'm not sure that was the only factor. Abowd raised the most money, but is that the only reason? After all, it seems that Barbara Meyers managed to win a spot on the school board without really campaigning at all.
But the race that is really intriguing was Assembly District 40. Between the funds directly raised by Democrat Robin Williamson and the money that flowed in from the state party and other sources, she outspent Republican Pete Livermore by about 3-1. And lost. (More on this race later)
There was this theme running through many of the nationwide races last night, that money can't always buy an election. U.S. Senate races in Connecticut, West Virginia and California featured wealthy candidates who poured their own money into races and lost.
Then you have Meg Whitman who sank $142 million of her eBay fortune and spent over $160 million overall in her race for Governor of California. But she lost big to Jerry Brown, who was able to raise $50 million.
Have we finally reached the point where you can't buy an election? Or, maybe it's like that saying, money can't buy you love, but it can buy you a very nice house in that neighborhood.
All I know is I'm glad I can turn on the TV once again and not have to endure another Angle/Reid attack ad, at least for the next year. I think I'll actually be glad to see Viagra commercials again.
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