Arizona will now have a majority of Democratic Representatives in the House, as Rick Renzi is replaced by Ann Kirkpatrick in District 1 in a close race. The other close race is District 5, where Harry Mitchell has defeated David Schweikert. This means the Arizona delegation will be Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl (both Republicans), and Representatives Ann Kirkpatrick (D-District 1), Trent Franks (R-District 2), John Shadegg (R-District 3), Ed Pastor (D-District 4), Harry Mitchell (D-District 5), Jeff Flake (R-District 6), Raul Grijalva (D-District 7), Gabrielle Giffords (D-District 8).
Bad news: Andrew Thomas was re-elected as Maricopa County Attorney, and Joe Arpaio was re-elected as Maricopa County Sheriff. And Arizona went for John McCain as president, though he has graciously conceded to Barack Obama.
Some bad results on the propositions: Prop. 102 is passing, amending the Arizona constitution to ban same-sex marriage, Prop. 101 on medical choice is failing. But there's also good news: the payday loan industry-backed Prop. 200 is failing (that would add barriers to entry to new payday loan companies, as well as prevent the current payday loan legislation from sunsetting), and Prop. 100's ban on additional home transfer taxes is passing.
UPDATE (November 5, 2008): Prop. 101 is still too close to call, with "no" votes leading by 2,195 votes (867,924 no, 865,729 yes). There should be a conclusive result tomorrow.
UPDATE (November 6, 2008): Still counting on Prop. 101--it's now a 2,944-vote lead for no, 887,821 to 884,877.
UPDATE (November 12, 2008): Prop. 101 has been defeated, 961,567 no votes to 950,440 yes votes.
Maybe 102 needs to be challenged in court to see if it is constitutional.
ReplyDeleteIt should be, and it isn't constitutional (under the U.S. Constitution) for the same reason anti-miscegenation laws are unconstitutional as per Loving v. Virginia.
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ReplyDeleteIf Joe Arpaio being reelected is bad... and people hate him so much... Why is it, no matter how many people run against him, not matter how much the AZ Repub writes negative about him, no matter what he does, maricopa, as a majority *always* re elects him?
ReplyDeleteBecause Maricopa County has a Republican majority that loves him for being "tough on crime" and illegal immigration, and apparently doesn't care about his abuses and the cost to taxpayers of the successful civil lawsuits against him.
ReplyDeleteThe demographics are slowly changing--I think this was his closest race to date.