Wednesday, November 5, 2008

The election: Ruiz bites dust

We at Dissent are very pleased that Senator Barack Obama is the President-elect.

In our local board election, unsurprisingly, incumbents prevailed, although Caroline Inmon came within shouting distance of Dave "Quisling" Lang's seat. Meanwhile, the odious Armando Ruiz appears to have lost his seat on the Coast Community College District board:

SOCCCD TRUSTEE RACES:

AREA 1 (Irvine, etc.):
Dave Lang 52.6%
Caroline Inmon 47.4%
AREA 3 (Laguna Beach, etc.):
Bill Jay 62.5%
Arlene Greer 37.5%
AREA 6 (Lake Forest, etc.):
Tom Fuentes 57.1%
Bob Bliss 42.9%
AREA 7
John Williams 60.0%
Carl Christensen 26.8%
Mo Entezampour 13.1%
Coast Community College District:
Area 3
:
LORRAINE PRINSKY 43.7%
ARMANDO R. RUIZ 36.7%
DON "COACH DOC" APODACA 19.7%
Proposition 8:

Unfortunately, Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriage in California, appears to have passed. On the bright side, however, the Times reports:

Prop. 8: Opposition to gay marriage in L.A. appears to be shrinking, according to Times analysis
Although Proposition 8 won in Los Angeles County, a Times database analysis of voting patterns found some interesting changes since 2000, when voters approved another ballot measure against gay marriage.

In 2000, about 713,000 voters in L.A. County opposed Proposition 22, which banned same-sex marriage. About 1 million voters backed it, but about 6.4% of voters decided not to make a choice on the ballot measure. (2000 was a considered a low-voter-turnout election).

Support for a ban on gay marriage appears to have tightened significantly in L.A. County in the last eight years, according to The Times' database analysis. Proposition 8 won 1.31 million votes, while 1.29 million voters cast "no" votes. As of right now, only 1.8% of those who voted for president decided to leave the Prop. 8 ballot blank.
Presidential race in OC:
JOHN MCCAIN / SARAH PALIN (REP) 50.8%
BARACK OBAMA / JOE BIDEN (DEM) 47.4%


Unhappy Republicans in OC (Irvine Hyatt)


MEANWHILE, Happy Democrats:

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's a messed up state that allows a change to it's constitution to be enacted by a simple majority.
Just sayin'

Anonymous said...

Thanks Roy for posting this. Trust me, as far as the Presidential and House races goes, I couldn't be happier if I tried. I really believed that Barack Obama would win, but I didn't suspect that it would pretty much be by a land slide. IMO it was beautiful, a different change in American History. As Barack Obama said in his campaign, "Yes we can!" And of course, he and we voters made it a reality so it's been changed to "Yes we did!" Now we just have to see what the final results will be in Al Franken's race in Minnesota.

2nd, as far as the video of both Orange County politico's parties go, I was a little bit disappointed b/c I know just about everybody who is anybody and I didn't recognize anybody in that room of the OC Democratic Party. The guy who did the video must have gotten there late. You'd think that they'd have at least spoken with a higher up like the party's Chair Frank Barbaro, but no luck. Of course, there were other parties going on throughout the county. I didn't watch the video for the local Republican Party yet. I figure I just have to remember how we Democrats felt back in 1994 when the Republicans wiped most of us out in both the Congress & the Senate & put in a bunch of young right-wingers.

3rd, as far as Proposition 8 goes, yes it saddens me that even though homophobia seems to be depleting in California, it wasn't enough to help gays & lesbians this time around. Supposedly there are lawyers out there right now drafting law suits to get the proposition over turned. You know, if the homophobes can take away someone else's right to marry then whose to say they wouldn't try to do it in other areas, like what happened in Georgia in the 1960s when an innerracial couple was not allowed to marry & in fact had to leave the state to keep from getting arrested when they did. You know, just don't get me started on my rant about Prop 8's outcome. On a brighter note at least Prop 4 didn't pass about the parental consent for female minors to have an abortion w/o parental consent.

4th, regarding Armando Ruiz's loss, I am very pleased with this. It was a well fought race that Ruiz seemed to think he had all sewn up b/c he's an Incumbent. So much for his double dipping now. This was a nice victory.

5th, as far as the SOCCCD's Trustees races go, yes, it's upsetting that Fuentes got back in, but in actuality Bob Bliss did a lot better that I suspected he would. Hopefully if Fuentes is able to get through his next term we'll get an even bigger bight of the apple & win. I mean, seriously, as far as I'm concerned, you guys did a great job. You know, it was sooo close between Carolyn & Dave. She actually did very well considering she was running against a fairly popular Incumbent. Who knows, perhaps next time around in another 4 years. I know that it royaly sucks (which I know is an understatement) for you all that she didn't win this time around but you all fought the good fight so I hope that you aren't going to give up. After all, there is still a chance that you'll get Don Wagner out in a couple years (doesn't he have 2 more years left until it's his time to run for reelection?). As far as Bill Jay goes, yes I'm thrilled that he won. No clue what happened with Arlene Geer. I mean she didn't seem to even try (which for us is a very good thing) b/c at first she made me a little bit nervous b/c she was recruited by Fuentes b/c of her views & had a shit load of cash.

Anonymous said...

The people spoke and the message is we don't want same-sex marriages, so get over it!

Bohrstein said...

9:52 you dope, that is what they said in 2000; it seems as though some people have changed their minds since then.

So try, try again.

Anonymous said...

November 05, 2008 2:39:00 PM

It was no landslide pal. Only 1.4% more than GWB in 2004. J. Jackso wasn't crying because he was happy for Obama either. It was because he blew his chance in the 80s. That Opra's such a phony, wouldn't give Sarah equal time. What a bunch of bulsh.

How you simply draw the conclusion that all people who supported prop. 8 are homophobes is beyond me.

Same sex couples in CA already get the same rights as everyone else under civil union, so how can you say that just because the state won't let them call it "marriage" and give them a certificate they're being discriminated against? You same sex marriage advocates don't make any sense.

Anonymous said...

Because, 12:24, there are many rights not given to non spouses. Social security, capital gains exclusion, and the right to bring a wrongful death lawsuit are all precluded.

How a few nice people geting married affects the likes of you is a mystery.

rockdad said...

The best sign I saw during the Hollywood protests last night was one carried by a man that said, "Would you prefer I married your daughter?"

Kinda makes you think...

Anonymous said...

Hello Nov. 5 @ 12:24 A.M.!

While no it wasn't a "land slide" in the 1980 Reagan vs. Mondale election sense of the word I'd say that Obama's win in the electoral college by a little over 200 votes is just about as good as you can get, and this many electoral college votes, plus winning the popular vote makes it a land slide. The states that McCain got were of really no consequence b/c they were all little ones with low electoral college vote numbers. At this point it doesn't much matter b/c we have a new President-Elect and that is Barack Obama. Oh, by the way, did I mention that we now control BOTH the House & Senate again? As of today, Obama already has most of his cabinet picked out too.

2nd, as far as the gay marriage goes, yes, it is going to be taken to court by some Constitutional lawyers and who is to say that it won't be over turned. I don't know if you realize it but the vote was really, really close there. Definitely different from 2000. As far as I'm concerned, I don't want the religious right, or people from any other state (such as where a lot of the $$$ came from in Utah in favor of Prop 8 such as Utah) deciding for me or abybody who is "married" and who isn't. You know, I don't know why these people even care if gays & lesbians are married or not. It doesn't effect how their marriage goes. You know none of these same sex couples are a threat to you. End of argument.

Anonymous said...

First post election fraud is now up.

Change.gov

Trouble is, it is NOT a government web site.

Bohrstein said...

What are you getting at 6:28?

I for one am a bit excited about this. A president that actually seems to have a plan. Whether or not it is good is up for debate. And that is exactly what will happen. Obama is not a king, he can't just snap his fingers when he is in office and have something change over night. No sir.

Everyone check it out:
Change.Gov

Anonymous said...

Thank you Bohrstein for posting the web site. I actually found this same web site on Wikipedia when I looked up some other info on Barack Obama. By the way, on a whim I looked up who was the last president to serve in either the House or Senate to become President from Illinois, and ironically it was Abraham Lincoln. Yes, the POTUS who freed the slaves, and now we have our first African American President, also from Illinois. No, Ronnie Reagan didn't count b/c that was not where his political base was.

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...