Didn't ya hear?

Well, nothing big to vote on in the Bay Area, although my drive through downtown Fairfax today suggested that a great many middle-aged people are ardent supporters of local candidates and measures.

National Rundown, in case you missed it, or, you know, had a life...

Virginia Governor: Republican Bob McDonnell defeated the very, very lame Democratic candidate Craig Deeds, who ran a lackluster, moderate, non-Obama-embracing campaign, suppressing Dem voter turnout.

New Jersey Governor: In a race that went down to the wire, Democratic governor John Corzine was ousted by the GOP candidate, the amusingly-named Chris Christie. Neither candidate ran a particularly positive campaign, and it didn't help that in the current economic climate, the Democrats were supporting a governor who used to run the maligned Goldman-Sachs.

New York Mayor: Michael Bloomberg, now an independent, was supposed to cruise to a third term at City Hall (you know, where Carrie married Big), but the results were shockingly close, with little-known Democratic candidate Bill Thompson losing by only 4%. How little-known? Thompson's current job is city comptroller. Just a step above dog-catcher. The Dems should've run Brad Lidge, lol.

Maine Proposition 1: Aka the equivalent of California's Proposition 8... passed with 52% of the vote, thereby re-banning same-sex marriage in Maine. The results were nearly identical to those of last year's election here in Cali. A sad development, but the comforting thought is that this will be the final generation for which the forces of homophobia can muster anything near a majority of the voting public. 2012 will be a big year for righting wrongs on the front of marriage equality.

House of Representatives, California District #10: Ellen Tauscher was the Democratic Rep for this district, but left to take a job in the State Department. In her place, Lt Governor John Garamendi won convincingly, holding a somewhat swing-ish district for the Democrats without much of a fight required.

House of Representatives, New York District #23: This race garnered a lot of national attention. Here's the story:

-It was a three way race in a longtime-conservative district, previously represented by Republican Congressman John McHugh, who vacated the seat to become President Obama's Secretary of the Army. Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava faced off against underdog Democratic candidate Bill Owens. But then, along came hardcore conservative candidate Doug Hoffman, who ran on the Conservative Party ticket.

-Hoffman gained attention from the anti-Obama teabagger crowd, notably the two intellectual pillars of the modern Republican Party: Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. Both of them threw their support behind Hoffman, labeling Scozzafava an unacceptably-moderate RINO (republican in name only).

-The teabagger crowd's support for Hoffman drained some support from Scozzafava, to the point that the latter dropped out of the campaign, an event that was certainly a goal of the Hoffman supporters on the far right, who wanted to "purify" the GOP and purge moderates.

-This was a huge scalp to claim for the righties; FoxNews was thrilled, so much that they spent 36 hours after Scozzafava's departure claiming that she'd thrown her support behind Hoffman, when she never did. In fact, she ended up endorsing Owens, the Democratic candidate, going as far as to record a robo-call for him.

-Cut to today's election... and Owens claims a 4% victory over Hoffman. How'd that work out for ya, Glenn/Sarah? The Democrats added a House seat they hadn't owned in many, many years, and Speaker Pelosi can add another vote in favor of the public option to her whip count.

Still, the teeth-gnashing mouth-breathers who make up the GOP's far-right base will be energized; their next mission is to defeat the re-election campaign of Obama-friendly GOP governor Charlie Crist in Florida. They have a far-right candidate, Marco Rubio, running in the primary campaign against the comically-tan Crist. Stay tuned for early next year...

Aaaaaand I'm spent. Goodnight, NaBloPoMo!