First, just to get this out of the way: WOW. Just...wow.
OK, down to business: You all know about our two federal-level victories in MI-07 (Mark Schauer) and MI-09 (Gary Peters). Congrats to both Mark and Gary, do us proud!! As a symbolic bonus, this flips our overall U.S. Congressional delegation to an 8-7 Dem advantage.
You also probably heard that Michigan's highest-profile ballot proposal (Prop 2, allowing Stem Cell Research) PASSED (hooray!), by around 52-48. This isn't just important for those suffering from the illnesses that can now be battled, it also has HUGE potential for our state economy in terms of the medical research field.
Now, here's what you probably haven't heard yet unless you live here:
--Aside from Obama, Peters and Schauer, the single most significant Michigan-specific race was actually for State Supreme Court. Our horrible incumbent Chief Justice Cliff Taylor didn't just lose, he was roundly beaten by Diane Hathaway, who won by something like 9 points.
This is astonishing for a number of reasons:
--It's officially a non-partisan race, so there was no Straight-Ticket Dem advantage for her.
--Taylor has been an incumbent for 11 years.
--Taylor was the Chief Justice, with the added clout and stature that gives
--Taylor outspent her by something like 5 to 1
--Hathaway's campaign got off to a very late start
In addition...
--Proposal 1, allowing medical marijuana, also passed, by an astonishing 63%-37%!
--In MI-11, GOP Thug Thad McCotter won reelection, but only got 51% to his low-profile opponent's Joseph Larkin's 45% (a 3rd-party candidate got 3%). He's ripe for the plucking in 2010 if we focus.
--The Dems picked up either 8 or 9 seats in the State House, increasing our lead to either 66 (or 67) to 43 (or 44).
--Here in Oakland County, Dem Andy Meisner appears to have won as County Treasurer, and Jessica Cooper appears to have won as County Prosecutor, making them the first Democrats to hold county-wide office here in forever!
--Dems (and friends of mine) Sheila Smith and Brett Nicholson came within less than 1% of winning the County Clerk and Drain Commissioner seats respectively. There's still a few votes to count, so it may be conceivable that one or both of them pull it off, but it's looking like both will be near-misses at the moment. Still astonishing, especially considering that incumbent GOP County Clerk Ruth Johnson was Dick DeVos's running mate for Lt. Governor just 2 years ago!
--For Oakland County Executive, Brenda Lawrence failed to unseat local GOP institution L. Brooks Patterson, but she scared the hell out of him, causing him to blow a mountain of money (he outspent her by something like 10 to 1). Every dollar he spent is a dollar less for his warchest next time around, anyway :)
Plenty of other local and state races, but these are the ones I've been following the closest.
All in all, a pretty damned good night for us all!