Idaho: stepping forward...into the past!

[IDemo]

Bucking the nationwide trend last night, Idaho's Republican voters were able to cling to their prized title of "Reddest State" by winning both US House seats, the governorship, and numerous state seats. Jesusland didn't prevail completely in the slightly bluer zone of Ada County, however. Voters here rejected a ballot proposal to allow the City of Boise to place a Ten Commandments monument in a city park. Oh well, I'm sure we haven't seen the last of such efforts from Brandi Swindell (or Bambi, as I call her).

Our new governor, Butch Otter, has a drunk driving arrest, a tight jeans contest win, and a $80,000 fine from the EPA for destroying wetlands habitat on his riverside acreage.

Our new District 1 representative, Bill Sali, was so combative in the Idaho statehouse that he prompted a fellow Republican to claim he would like to pitch him off the upper balcony. And the Republican speaker, Bruce Newcomb, said of Sali:"That idiot is an absolute idiot. He hasn't got an ounce of empathy in his entire body, and you can quote me in the newspaper." Sali caused a walkout earlier this year by claiming erroneously that abortion increased the likelihood of breast cancer, bringing House Minority Leader and cancer survivor Wendy Jacquet to tears. He repeated those claims along with a throng of supporters a week ago on the statehouse steps.

And just to make absolutely sure that the marriage licenses of heterosexual couples do not spontaneously combust due the threat posed by others enjoying the embrace of marriage, Idaho voters swept in HJR2 by a 63 to 37 percent ratio, banning (shudder) gay marriage.

Apologies to Firesign Theater for the headline, and to the nation for last night!

[MuseRider]

1. Oh man

I am so sorry. I know how it feels being from Kansas but being from Kansas I know it can change. Hang in there and keep working.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. *hugs* I give you kudos for being able to stick it out there

[JRob]

3. It's nauseating!!! I've been spiting fire (on this front) all morning...

Actually I said something similar in my post/letters to editors sent today:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=149&topic_id=516&mesg_id=516

I told my sister that the entire country voted for change while Idaho remains in a vaacume...

On a positive note this has truly been a great couple of days Nation wise.

[IDemo]

4. The rest of the nation's return to sanity is what's keeping me going today

[enlightenment]

5. Not the entire country, dearest --

Look at your neighbor to the south. Nevada.

I've been gagging all morning.

[JRob]

11. granted...

[Quantess]

6. That's okay....

Neo-cons will want a place where they can feel accepted. I imagine neo-cons are feeling a little ostracized today, everywhere else across the nation. They might want to move to Idaho. ;-)

[DaveJ]

7. Maybe...

No need to be sorry. We all know what it's like. Maybe Idaho can be used as testing grounds to see which parties the Neocons will accept being convert to, then we can eliminate the Repuke party entirely from government.

[Left Is Write]

13. Of course that makes us liberals in Idaho feel ever so much better.

Sorry, I just can't joke about it. I live here and I feel pretty damned shitty today.

[AnneD]

14. Try being blue

and living in Texas. It is getting a little better but we have to work our asses off.

[Quantess]

16. Sorry. I forgot there are some Democrats in Idaho.

I can see why you would want to live in Idaho, despite the neo-cons. It's beautiful there.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

8. So funny it can't be true

but it is! And that's not funny!

[terrya]

9. The marriage amendment only passed by 63%?

I'm surprised...I thought it would have been at least 70 - 75%.

That was NOT a huge surprise.

[SmileyBoy]

19. The Gay Marriage ban here in North Dakota passed 80-20 in 2004.

I'm surprised that it only passed by 63 percent in Idaho.

I think ND's gay marriage ban may have passed by the widest margin of any state.

[Exiled in America]

10. The 63 / 37% passage of HJR2 is actually a big and positive deal.

When the most conservative state in the union comes in lower than the national average and under the predicted 70+% passage of six months ago - then the people who busted there asses to run an underfunded, understaffed, undersupported campaign, and the supporters who overcame the fact that the LGBT community has been so marginalized and beaten up in this state to take to the streets in Idaho and stand up for change have a LOT to feel really, really proud about.

It's amazingly positive step in a much, much longer battle. That battle was never going to be finished this year. What we needed - was a good start, and we got it.

[Left Is Write]

12. Isn't it wonderful? And isn't it ironic that in this state of "family values..."

those "family values" didn't extend to the passage of Prop 1, which would have increased funding to our schools. Some "family values."

Yes, let's "defend marriage" and "save babies" but to hell with the next generation's education.

[WI_DEM]

15. But weren't some of those races close? that is something to look at

because change doesn't always come overnight.

[IDemo]

17. Sali won by 5%, so that was a close one

But I believe it was Jim Weatherby, BSU political science prof., who said last week that if Idaho Dems couldn't pull out a victory this time, given the national mess and the local candidates, maybe it's time they got another job. If Sali provides an abundance of forehead slappers on the House floor, as expected, maybe we'll have a better chance next time. Or the next. Or the next.

Frank Church, where have you gone?

[eridani]

18. How is it that this state once elected Frank Church?

Can things have changed that much? Why is Idaho so different from Montana? Don't both have similar economies?

[roguevalley]

20. They should hook up with alaska who elected a Murkowski in a dress

with Sarah Palin.