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This is the big one here. Minnesota will have (another!) automatic recount due to a close (within 0.5%) vote. Mark Dayton (DFL) appears to have narrowly won as our next Governor. The recount will not even start until all the counties have certified their results so it will be a couple weeks. Then the (re)counting... Gov. Pawlenty has said he'll serve an extended term if need be. (More below...) While close, and while I do not like the idea of Gov. Dayton very much, he was ahead as counted by about 9,000 votes so I really don't foresee that changing. I expect fewer shenanigans for this than for the Coleman-Franken recount.
That the race was that close also indicates that had the Independence Party candidate leaned more to the left than right, that we'd be looking at a Gov. Emmer now.
I am less worried about a Gov. Dayton now because, rather unexpectedly, both houses of the Minnesota legislature switched from majority-DFL to majority-Republican. This will throw a monkey wrench into Dayton's plans for tax increases and the like. (Here's the more...) If the recount drags out long enough, there is the possibility of Pawlenty being in the Governor's office when the new legislature starts. That presents an interesting possibility of getting a few things through that have been quashed in the DFL-led legislature, all before Dayton is in office and able to veto things. I do not know if the possibility will happen or if it will be taken advantage of, but the idea is out there.
While not in my district, one longtime DFL representative will be replaced with a Republican. Since James Oberstar represents a rather traditionally DFL area (the Iron Range) this was another big surprise. On the radio a few mornings ago one of his longtime supporters who had not supported him this time around summed it up with something like, "He had become someone who just wanted to add more government to everything." And that tune wasn't very popular this year.
Very locally, my ward had one person listed on the ballot for city council. There was another candidate, running as a write-in.The result was 514 to 484. I suspect had the write-in been on the ballot outright, the result would have gone the other way. Fortunately, while I think the write-in would have been the better choice, the winner isn't a bad choice.
We're getting a new sheriff. Not my first choice, but we'll see if this guy follows the pattern of the current one - which wasn't an entirely good pattern. I disliked that the new guy seems a bit too "hand picked" as a successor.
The local power plant will be (has been?) sold for $1 to the Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency which will, eventually, pretty much replace it with a plant of greater capacity such that it could, if need be, support the area without outside supply. I recall a few years ago at an open house that it was said the plant could supply the town... but only in the Winter - without air conditioners running and with colder lake water for cooling.
Tell me something.
Tell me (almost) anything.
It can be true.
It can be a lie.
It can be a damned lie.
It can be a statistic.
It can be an anecdote.
It can be an antidote.
It can be a receipt.
It can be a recipe.
It can be a hope.
It can be a dream.
It can be a nightmare.
It can be a vision.
It can be what you had for breakfast.
It can be what you wish you'd had for breakfast.
It can be a cleaner.
It can be clean.
It can be risque.
It can be a joke.
It can be a disaster.
It can be a comedy.
It can be a tragedy.
It can be serious.
It can be silly.
It can be a euphemism.
It can be a quotation.
It can be a mis-attribution.
It can be one thing.
It can be many things.
It can contain multitudes.
So help me, it can even be a wretched sports score.
Or even country music lyrics.
Or even bad poetry.
BUT... it cannot be political or election related!
Thank you.
I got up an hour early to get to the polls nice and early. I got there a bit after I'd planned, about 10 minutes early. The hallway at the Knights of Columbus hall was already fairly crowded, but there was just enough room for a few more folks to wait inside. More were soon waiting in the entryway, and it wasn't much longer that the line ran outside.
At 7:00, things opened and the line shortened quite fast as it was dividing between four wards of two precincts each. Despite my being back in the line, I was the first to get to the place for my precinct and had no problems. When I'd finished, the room was fairly crowded, but there were no more lines in the hall. Also, there was a fair amount of traffic (well, by Fairmont standards) but not jammed up at all. I was out of the parking lot and driving back home by 7:15.
Okkay, time for another post, with a very different subject.
