I am so proud to be a Minnesotan today. Two years ago, this state voted in a wave of Republicans with the Tea Party takeover in 2010. Both houses of Minnesota's legislature went Republican for the first time in a ridiculous number of years.
Once they took office, they realized that they wouldn't be able to push Voter ID through with a Democratic governor. They also realized that they might be able to put a wedge issue out there and passed a constitutional ban on gay marriage. The biggest joke there was that there is already a law in Minnesota defining marriage as one man and one woman, and the State Supreme Court has upheld that law.
But NO! Minnesota Republicans were emboldened! Pass both of those and let's turn this state redder and redder, they said.
Well, the people of Minnesota spoke last night. "Screw you" was the appropriate moniker that we shouted, from the rooftops, to St. Paul last night.
First, the marriage ban goes down:
With 98 percent of precincts reporting, the amendment had the support of only 48 percent of voters. Support for the ballot measure trailed the combined "no" votes and blank ballots by more than 100,000 votes, an amount that seem insurmountable with so few votes left to be counted.
Then, Voter ID went
down
A Republican effort to tighten the state's election system by requiring photo IDs and standardizing eligibility requirements was rejected by Minnesota voters Tuesday.
The proposed photo ID constitutional amendment, a concept that was favored by 80 percent in polls last year, had the support of only 46 percent of voters, with 98 percent of precincts reporting early Wednesday.
And the trifecta happened. Minnesota kicked the GOP right outta St. Paul.
Smell ya later:
Election Day 2012 brought an end to the GOP's brief hold on the Legislature as incumbent after incumbent lost -- many of them the same Republican freshmen who swept the party into control just two years before. The last time Minnesota had a DFL governor and DFL control of both houses was in 1990, the last year of DFL Gov. Rudy Perpich.
A great day for Minnesota, and a great day for the United States!!