Gore argues that the efforts in Florida are similar to the ones that caused him to lose the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush. He is correct in this assessment.
Al Gore says that the long lines are “un-American” and a disgrace. He also says that it’s not an accident, but part of a strategy to keep certain people away from the polls.
“It is a strategy and it is a strategy that is a direct descendent of the racist Jim Crow tactics that were used in the wake of the Civil War to prevent black people from voting,” Gore said.
“It is more sophisticated now. It is dressed up in different kinds of language, but it is un-American, it is wrong, it is a disgrace to this country and there ought to be a bipartisan movement to say enough of this,” he said.
Now that Gore has dug up the scary concept of Jim Crow for the purpose of getting black people to vote for his party, let’s hope that he is also willing to use Jim Crow to take on the prison industrial complex. If black voter disenfranchisement is problematic, then felon disenfranchisement is tantamount to a war crime against American citizens.
President Obama has won re-election, which could turn out to be a wonderful thing for the country. I am extremely hopeful that the Democrats who showed up in every black church, community center and barbershop to get us to vote for them will be willing to go to those same locations to coordinate on strategies to end the prison industrial complex. The prison system has destroyed millions of black families across America, and the degree to which Democrats pay attention to this issue will be a direct measure of whether or not they care about us as much as they expected us to care about them.
In the 2016 presidential election, the Dems will no longer have Barack Obama, their politicalMichael Jordan, to get black people out to the polls. Rather than relying on politics of personality, they might actually have to do something to earn our vote.
Al Gore is right about the mess at many of the polls. ROMNEY WAS SHOCKED that he did not win…BECAUSE HE KNEW THERE WAS A PLAN TO PUT HIM IN…LOTS OF FUNDS…LOTS OF LIES…LOTS OF BILLIONAIRES BACKING HIM. There was a planned effort by the GOP to do whatever they could to block votes, lower the number of Blacks and Latinos who vote…and make it more difficult to vote. They did all they could to keep Pres. Obama out of office…but they FAILED. Some of their plans caused the long lines — LONG BALLOTS that take 30 min. to read….filling out affidavits before being allowed to vote…only accepting certain forms of ID…and it goes on and on.
After President Obama’s win last night, right wing pundits mulling over what went wrong have all come to the same conclusions – demographics.
CNBCput it bluntly by agreeing that the Republican party is mostly comprised of angry white men, and there simply aren’t enough of them
Republican senator Lindsey Graham’s remark that there weren’t enough “angry white guys” to bring Republicans to power seemed prophetic in the light of President Barack Obama’s victory 2012.
A decline in the number of white voters and a surge in voters from ethnic minorities and women helped Obama on election night. Ohio, one of the key battleground states, was captured in part through a rise in turnout among African-Americans, who voted overwhelmingly for Obama.
So what does this mean for the Tea Party, a segment of the GOP which traffics in racism and xenophobia? The base of the GOP seems to want its pound of flesh, meaning it expects GOP lawmakers to express hostility toward blacks and Hispanics as sort of a purity litmus test before getting elected. How does the GOP tamp down its base and reach out to minorities?
The difficulty of that task has Democrats all over America smiling right about now.
The GOP has created a monster, and lost control of the reins. What happens from this point on is anyone’s guess.
Dr. Boyce: How to go to College and NOT End Up in Prison – The Darrell Williams Rape Case
Here are some quick tips to men who want to go to college and NOT get convicted or rape:
1) Avoid alcohol if you can or at least minimize your consumption of it: People do things when they’re drunk that they might not do otherwise. It’s quite possible that reduced inhibitions led to Williams or some of his friends feeling that they could touch women without their permission. People are flirting and everyone’s just hanging out, so it’s also quite possible that the women allowed themselves to be touched. When everyone’s been drinking, almost no one has very much credibility in the court of law, because decision-making is horrifically flawed.
2) Don’t sleep with women you don’t know very well: If a woman wants to sleep with you on the first date or after a night at the club, understand that you are putting your entire life and future in the hands of a complete stranger. Rather than jumping for joy at the chance to have meaningless s*x, you might want to jump out of bed and run for the hills. If you don’t believe me, just ask Kobe Bryant, the married man who decided to sleep with a woman he barely knew with no condom back in 2004. She almost sent him to prison, took all his money, ruined his family and stole everything he’d worked for over his entire life. No s*x is good enough to be worth that kind of risk, and Kobe should never have been there in the first place.
3) No means no, no exceptions: There was a time where men and women could play the cat and mouse game – she plays hard to get and you consistently chip away at the barriers in order to get her to do the thing that you and she both know that she wants to do anyway. Whatever man, that c**p is for the birds. In the age of political correctness, “no” always means “no.” I don’t care if her eyes are saying “yes,” and she’s entirely naked, licking her lips with her legs spread out. If she says “no,” then you need to say “no thanks.” Real women don’t play stupid games that might destroy your life.
I hope that Darrell Williams can recover after this incident. Groping is wrong, we know that. But it’s hard to say that he deserves to go to prison with evidence this sketchy. The key point to keep in mind, however, is that it’s not simply a matter of Williams being sent to prison for a crime he did not commit. Rather, its a matter of us understanding how to avoid these kinds of situations in the first place. College is not a place for drunken parties, court cases, and a pile of broken dreams. It’s a place to get an education and create bright future for yourself. All that other stuff is just a pile of meaningless distractions.
1) Mass incarceration is destroying black families 2)
Black unemployment is nearly double that of white Americans 3) Black youth are dying daily from guns being made readily available in an unregulated black market 4) 40% of all black children are being born into poverty 5) Many of our kids are forced to attend failing schools
If you care about black people, you will speak up on these issues. If you spend the next four years in the drunken celebration of unproductive symbolism, then you'll have to be left behind.
God bless the President of the United States, and God bless Black America.
We gained 3 women in the U.S. Senate - from 17 to 20. All races have not been called in the House yet. The Democrats/Independents went from 53 to 55 seats in a year they were suppose to lose seats. Now let's make sure they continue to hear our voices and put forth legislation that takes us forward!
hmnnnn..... and these are the losers...... I'm just sayin.....
"I want to work together, but I also want everyone to also understand, you cannot push us around. We want to work together." There is a new game in town, GOP, it's called "You can't buy the USA." COOPERATE - Resistance is futile, the people will be back in 2014!!!! . . . . ."And I want the rest of you cowboys to know something, there's a new sheriff in town…and his name
is Reggie Hammonds. You all be cool…right on." Movie: 48 Hours
WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority LeaderHarry Reid (D-Nev.) pledged on Wednesday to change the rules of the Senate so that the minority party has fewer tools to obstruct legislative business.
In his first post-election press conference, the Nevada Democrat said he wouldn't go so far as to eliminate the filibuster, which requires 60 votes for the chamber to enter and exit the amendment and debate process. But in remarks meant to preview a more combative approach during the next session, he warned Republicans that obstructionism as a tactic won't be tolerated -- or as technically feasible.
. . . . .The level of disrespect that radiates off of her (Mary Matlin) is astounding and yet not surprising at all. Could you possibly imagine Van Jones speaking to her in the same manner and not having the right-wing media setting him on fire? ...reminds me of this ole' gal !!
. . . . .and this is my response to her...
.
. . . .The Republican Party can't imagine a world in which they might be wrong. It's why they love to talk about America and taking it back. It's why they have no problem calling those who disagree with their ideology un-American. They believe the rest of us are twisted, idiotic moochers who seek only to destroytheir society -- as if they own the very fabric that is America. They will cry, yell and place blame any and everywhere else they can.
However, America isn't being taken away or destroyed. America is doing what America is supposed to do: reflect the beliefs of its population. And America's population has a lot of pesky people of color, gays and women who all have a say in how things work.
Problematic, I know.
http://www.theroot.com
This is a Y-Tube ---
Wolf Blitzer interview of Van Jones And Ms. Matlin (she is James Carville's wife !!!..... pretty stinky I'd say!!! Something akin to a gracious winner and a sore loser!!!
Thursday, November 8, 2012
soi·ree
[ swaa ráy ]
evening party: a party or gathering held in the evening, especially in
somebody's home
New word of the day...taken from a rich man's party notes in previous post....hahahahahah
Now I did know SUAVE..... when I see it..... !!!
It's just my post-election Elation... Celebration.... can't help myself!!!
..........high-profile companies haven’t been afraid to jump into the partisan fray.
In mid-October, oil and gas giant Chevrondonated $2.5 million to a super PAC close
to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, called the Congressional Leadership Fund, which has
aired a bevy of ads attacking Democratic House candidates.
Oxbow Carbon, the energy company owned by billionaire William Kock, the
lesser-known brother of conservative industrialists David and Charles Koch, and
Contran Corp., the business of Republican super donor Harold Simmons of Texas,
have both steered significant sums to the coffers of super PACs.
Oxbow Carbon has donated $4.25 million to GOP super PACs, making it the No. 2
corporate donor to super PACs, while Contran, No. 3, has donated more than $3
million to Republican-aligned groups.
Another top corporate donor is a retirement community in central Florida
known as The Villages — a Republican stronghold where Paul Ryan held his first campaign rally the
day after GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney named him as his running
mate.
Developer H. Gary Morse created The Villages more than 50 years ago, and this
election cycle, more than a dozen companies connected to Morse and The Villages
have collectively steered $1.6 million to GOP super PACs. That’s in addition to
the $450,000 that Morse and his wife, Renee, have donated from their personal
funds.
Notably, Morse is also the Florida co-chairman of the Romney campaign, and
during the Republican National Convention, Morse’s Cayman Island-flagged yacht,
named “Cracker Bay,” was the site of a soiree for some of Romney’s top donors
and fundraisers.
Other high-profile corporate donors include:
The Apollo Group, a for-profit education company, which gave $75,000 to the
pro-Romney Restore Our Future and another $5,000 to JAN PAC, the super PAC of Arizona’s
Republican Gov. Jan Brewer;
Convenience store giant 7-Eleven, which donated $25,000 to Hoosiers for Jobs, a super PAC that
supported Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., during his failed
primary campaign;
Hamburger chain White Castle, which gave $25,000 to the Congressional
Leadership Fund;
Defense contractor B/E Aerospace, which gave $50,000 to Restore Our
Future;
Payday lender QC Holdings, which gave $25,000 to Restore Our Future;
and
Weaver Holdings, the parent company of the Indiana-popcorn company known for
its brands “Pop Weaver” and “Trail’s End,” sold by Boy Scouts across the
country, which has donated $2.4 million to American Crossroads, the super PAC founded
by GOP strategists Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie
FreedomWorks produced numerous advertisements, including one that blasts
Duckworth as a crony of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was impeached
and sentenced to 14 years in federal prison following a corruption scandal.
FreedomWorks’ super PAC has spent more than $19 million on political
advertising, including $1.7 million on Oct. 29 opposing Tammy Duckworth, yippee... she won!!! a
Democrat running for Congress in Illinois against
Tea Party favorite Joe Walsh, a first-term incumbent.
..... is a double amputee and Iraq War veteran. She headed Illinois’
Department of Veteran Affairs and later served in President Barack Obama’s U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs.
FreedomWorks’ new ad features grainy footage of Duckworth and audio of her
saying, “Gov. Blagojevich has charged me with the mission of taking care of my
buddies, and that is what I’m doing.” But it leaves out the fact that when she
said “buddies,” she was referring to other veterans and members of the
military.
Tammy Duckworth on Wednesday became first Thai-American woman elected to US
Congress after beating freshman Republican US Rep Joe Walsh in Illinois' 8th
congressional district.
With 41 percent of the votes counted, Duckworth led
Walsh 56.3 percent to 43.7 percent. The race was initially called by NBC. AP has
also called the race for Duckworth.
Ladda or Tammy, 44, born to Thai
mother and American father, has an exceptional life. She almost lost her life
during an attack in Iraq in 2004. She has served as commander of a Blackhawk
Helicopter Company
Something about this picture (and Bill O'Rielley) just really reminds me of what I often imagine was in my GREAT - GRANDFATHER --- James A Anderson of South Carolina (b abt 1830 d. 1910 ? )
Karl Rove was the political genius of the
George W. Bush era -- the architect of the last Republican president's two
electoral victories. But this week, he may have had the worst election night of
anybody in American politics.
Not only did Rove insist on Fox News that
Ohio was still winnable for Republican challenger Mitt Romney after all the TV
networks had called it for President Barack Obama -- causing anchor Megyn Kelly
to march down to the Fox "decision desk" mavens, who assured her on air that
they were "99.9 percent" confident in their call -- but his trailblazing
"independent" super PAC operation was virtually shut out on election night.
American Crossroads spent heavily, not
just on Romney, but on attack ads on behalf of GOP Senate candidates in eight
states -- thanks to mega contributions from conservative donors like metals
magnate Harold Simmons ($19.5 million), Texas homebuilder Bob Perry ($7.5
million) and Omni hotel chief Robert Rowling ($5 million.)
The super donors didn't get much for their
money. Six of the eight GOP Senate candidates that American Crossroads spent
money to try to elect – Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin, George Allen in Virginia,
Josh Mandel in Ohio, Richard Mourdock in Indiana, Denny Rehberg in Montana and
Todd Akin in Missouri – lost their races, along with Romney. The group did, on
the other hand, help to elect Deb Fischer in Nebraska and Dean Heller in
Nevada.
(The Sunlight Foundation calculation of
"return on investment" was based on the percentage of money it spent on
individual races-- and since Crossroads spent the most on the races it lost on,
the group earned its low 1 percent "return on investment" or ROI.
Some in his own party also were
unimpressed by the performance of Rove's Crossroads operation. Donald Trump
posted a message on Twitter saying: “Congrats to @KarlRove on blowing $400
million cycle. Every race @CrossroadsGPS ran ads in, the Republicans lost. What
a waste of money.”
The American Crossroads debacle was only
the most dramatic example of the limits of big money in this election, according
to the Sunlight Foundation report. About $1.3 billion was spent by outside
groups overall -- about two-thirds on the Republican side -- and for the most
part their returns were equally low. The Chamber of Commerce, for example, spent
$31 million-and had a 5 percent return, according to the Sunlight study. The
conservative American Future Fund spent
$23.9 million and also realized a 5 percent return. The National Rifle
Association spent $11 million, and got shut out.
"It may mean people really don't like big
money in politics," says Kathy Kiely, the Sunlight Foundation analyst who
co-authored the study. "Maybe they prefer it be spent on something else."
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
With votes counted in 75 percent of the nation's precincts, Obama held
a narrow advantage in the popular vote, leading by about 25,000 out of more than
99 million cast (USA).
But the president's laserlike focus on the battleground states allowed
him to run up a 303-206 margin in the competition for electoral votes, where the
White House is won or lost. It took 270 to win. Obama captured
Ohio, 18 electoral votes
Wisconsin, 10 electoral votes
Iowa, 6 electoral votes
New Hampshire,
Colorado 9 electoral votes
Nevada 6 electoral votes
Pennsylvania . .20 electoral votes . . .
seven of the nine
states ....#8 Virginia with 13 electoral votes and #9 Florida with 29 electoral votes.....where the rivals and their allies poured nearly $1 billion into dueling
television commercials.
Romney won only North Carolina among the battleground
states. Four years ago, Obama had carried the state.
Unemployment stood at 7.9 percent on election day, higher than when he took
office. And despite signs of progress, the economy is still struggling after the
worst recession in history.
Democrats held their narrow majority in the Senate on Tuesday, with 53 seats,
grabbing GOP seats in Massachusetts and Indiana and turning aside Republican
challenges in Virginia and Ohio. Republicans regained control of the House --
232 seats to the Democrats' 191 seats -- ensuring that Congress will be divided
at the start of President Barack Obama's second term in office. Democrat Elizabeth Warren won in Massachusetts over Republican Sen. Scott
Brown, who stunned the political world in January 2010 when he won Sen. Edward
M. Kennedy's seat. Democrat Joe Donnelly won Indiana's Senate seat in a
close-fought battle with tea-party backed state treasurer Richard Mourdock.
Mourdock had been considered the favorite after knocking out six-term Sen.
Richard Lugar in the GOP primary in May. But he damaged his chances when he said
in a debate that pregnancy resulting from rape is "something God intended." In Ohio, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown survived an onslaught of outside
spending, some $30 million, to defeat state treasurer Josh Mandel. In
Pennsylvania, Democratic Sen. Bob Casey survived a late scare from businessman
Tom Smith, who invested more than $17 million of his own money in the race. Texas sent Tea Party-backed Ted Cruz to the Senate as the Republican won the
seat held by retiring GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Cruz will become the third
Hispanic in the Senate, joining Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Marco Rubio,
R-Fla. In Florida, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson triumphed in his bid for a third
term, holding off a challenge from Republican Rep. Connie Mack. Republican
groups had spent heavily against Nelson early in the race, but the moderate
Democrat was a prolific fundraiser with wide appeal among Democrats and some
Republicans in the Panhandle. In West Virginia, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin won a full term even though his
state went heavily for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
Obama will push for higher taxes on the wealthy as a way to shrink a choking
federal debt and to steer money toward the programs he wants. He will try to
land a massive financial deficit-cutting deal with Congress in the coming months
and then move on to an immigration overhaul, tax reform and other bipartisan
dreams.
He will not have to worry that his health care law will be repealed, or that
his Wall Street reforms will be gutted, or that his name will be consigned to
the list of one-term presidents who got fired before they could finish their
work. Voters stuck with him because they trusted him more to solve the struggles
of their lifetime. America may not be filled with hope anymore, but it told Mitt Romney to keep
his change. And voters sure didn't shake up the rest of Washington, either.
They put back all the political players who have made the capital
dysfunctional to the point of nearly sending the United States of America into
default.
"Progress will come in fits and starts," the president cautioned in his
victory speech. "The recognition that we have common hopes and dreams won't end
all the gridlock ... or substitute for the painstaking work of building
consensus. But that common bond is where we must begin."
The president likely will be dealing again with a Republican-run House of
Representatives, whose leader, Speaker John Boehner, declared on election night
that his party has orders from voters, too: no higher taxes.
Obama will still have his firewall in the Senate, with Democrats hanging onto
their narrow majority. But they don't have enough to keep Republicans from
bottling up any major legislation with delaying tactics.
So the burden falls on the president to find compromise, not just demand it
from the other side. Obama won the electoral vote comfortably, but the popular vote showed the
nation he leads — split right in half.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell welcomed Obama with both arms
folded.
"The voters have not endorsed the failures or excesses of the president's
first term," McConnell said. "They have simply given him more time to finish the
job they asked him to do together" with a balanced Congress.
The vanquished Republican, Romney, tried to set the tone on the way off the
national stage.
"At a time like this, we can't risk partisan bickering," Romney said after a
campaign filled with it. "Our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the
people's work."
For now, Obama can revel in knowing what he pulled off. Obama won despite an economy that sucked away much of the nation's spirit. He
won with the highest unemployment rate — at 7.9 percent — for any incumbent
since the Great Depression of the 1930s. He won even though voters said they
thought Romney would be the better choice to end stalemate in Washington. He won even though a huge majority of voters said they were not better off
than they were four years ago — a huge test of survival for a president. The reason is that voters wanted the president they knew. They believed
convincingly that Obama, not Romney, understood their woes of college costs and
insurance bills and sleepless nights. Exit polls showed that voters viewed Obama
as the voice of the poor and the middle class, and Romney the guy tilting toward
the rich. The suspense was over early because Obama won all over the map of
battleground states, and most crucially in Ohio. That's where he rode his
bailout support for the auto industry to a victory that crushed Romney's
chances.
The voice of the voter came through from 42-year-old Bernadette Hatcher in
Indianapolis, who voted after finishing an overnight shift at a warehouse.
"It's all about what he's doing," she said. "No one can correct everything in
four years. Especially the economy."
Formidable and seasoned by life, Romney had in his pocket corporate success
and a Massachusetts governor's term and the lessons of a first failed
presidential bid.
But he never broke through as the man who would secure people's security and
their dreams. He was close the whole time.
"Americans don't settle. We build, we aspire, we listen to that voice inside
that says 'We can do better," Romney pleaded toward that end. Americans agreed. They just wanted Obama to take them there.
Incumbents get no transition, so Obama will be tested immediately.
A "fiscal cliff" of expiring tax cuts and budget cuts looms on Jan 1.
If they kick in, economists warn the economy will tank, again. Obama, at
least, won the right to fight the fight on his terms.
"If I've won, then I believe that's a mandate for doing it in a balanced
way," he said before the election — that is, fixing the budget problem by
raising taxes on people instead of just cutting spending. Obama is adamant that
he will not agree to extend tax cuts for people making above $200,000 or couples
with incomes above $250,000.
He had not even been declared the winner before Boehner offered a warning
that the House was still in Republican hands.
"With this vote," Boehner said, "the American people have also made clear
that there is no mandate for raising tax rates." Obama, never one to lack from confidence, is ready to take that fight to
Congress.
In his eyes, he just won it, thanks to the voters.
. . . . Then NBC News, at 11:12 p.m. ET, was the first to declare Obama had won by
virtue of winning the battleground state of Ohio. "He remains president of the
United States for a second term," said anchor Brian Williams.
Other networks followed suit, including Fox five minutes later. But Rove, the
former top political aide to President George W. Bush whose on-air presence on
Fox this campaign raised some eyebrows because of his prominent role supporting
Romney, suggested the call was premature.
"We've got to be careful about calling things when we have like 991 votes
separating the candidates and a quarter of the vote left to count ... I'd be
very cautious about intruding in this process," said Rove, a behind-the-scenes
player in the wild 2000 election between Bush and Al Gore that took weeks to
decide. (Gore was on TV Tuesday, too, as anchor of Current TV's election
coverage).
It left Rove's colleagues struggling for words.
"That's awkward," said co-anchor Megyn Kelly. She then went backstage to
interview on camera two men who were part of Fox's team in charge of making
election calls. They had concluded that based on the precincts where votes were
left to be counted, Romney couldn't beat Obama.
Later, Rove tried to make light of the encounter. "This is not a cage match,"
he said. "This is a light intellectual discussion."
As the evening had progressed for Fox and it became clear that Romney, the
clear favorite of most of its audience, would find it hard to win, commentators
like Sarah Palin and Peggy Noonan looked stricken.
"This was the referendum that Mitt Romney wanted on Barack Obama," said
Huffington Post's Howard Fineman on MSNBC. "And guess what? Barack Obama won the
referendum. And that's pretty darned emphatic."
2:08AM EST November 7. 2012 - OKLAHOMA CITY
(AP) - Republicans completed a takeover of Oklahoma's political scene Tuesday,
capturing the state's five congressional seats and handing Mitt Romney seven
electoral votes with a victory over Barack Obama in a contest where the biggest
suspense was whether the president could carry any of the state's 77
counties.
Plumbing company owner Markwayne Mullin, a political neophyte from Westville,
claimed for Republicans a U.S. House seat in eastern Oklahoma given up by
retiring Rep. Dan Boren, a Democrat. Navy pilot Jim Bridenstine won a seat in
Congress from the Tulsa area for the GOP.
With victories by incumbent Reps. Tom Cole, James Lankford and Frank Lucas,
the GOP now controls all of Oklahoma's Washington delegation, all statewide
offices and both chambers of the state Legislature.
"When we were the reddest state in the country four years ago, it certainly
helped a lot of our down-ballot races as well," said Oklahoma Republican Party
Chairman Matt Pinnell, referring to 2008 when Republican nominee John McCain won
every county in the state and captured 66 percent of the vote over Obama. OBAMA WINS: President defeats Romney to earn second
term
Romney's win in the state's general election was no surprise since a
Democratic presidential candidate hasn't won in Oklahoma since Lyndon Johnson in
1964. Obama also performed poorly in the state's presidential primary this past
March and received just 57 percent of the vote among Democrats in Oklahoma over
four little-known candidates.
"Any Republican candidate that's running against Obama I like," said Roy
Moore, a Muskogee stock broker who voted for the GOP nominee.
The president fared poorly in every county again Tuesday - picking up only
115 of the 1,197 votes cast in Cimarron County in the Oklahoma Panhandle - less
than 10 percent, according to unofficial returns. Obama fared best in Cherokee,
Muscogee and Oklahoma counties, where he had 40 percent of the vote or more.
Republicans targeted the 2nd District seat as soon as Boren said last year
that he wouldn't seek another term. Boren had seen his numbers drop in recent
elections; the 26-county district that stretches from Kansas to Texas is
traditionally Democratic, but has grown increasingly conservative.
Kenneth Crabtree, 52, a property manager from Muskogee, said he voted for
Mullin to replace Boren, saying he liked that the GOP nominee was a small
businessman and holds Christian values. He also voted for Romney because of the
nation's recent economic woes.
"I've seen how the last four years have gone. Business is down and people are
out of work," Crabtree said.
But Anita Weibel, 61, a retired Girl Scouts of America executive from
Muskogee, said she voted for Democratic congressional nominee Wallace and for
Obama.
"I'm a lifelong Democrat and I think we need a Democrat to support us in
Congress," she said.
At the state level, Republicans are expected to maintain or build upon their
majorities in the House and Senate. The GOP currently enjoys a 32-16 advantage
in the state Senate, and already has added two seats by virtue of Democrats
failing to field candidates in two districts where Democratic incumbents are
stepping down. Republicans also are competing for three open seats previously
held by Democrats, while defending just two Republican-held open seats.
In the House, where Republicans enjoy a 67-31 advantage with three seats
vacant, there are 34 seats up for grabs in Tuesday's election. Sixteen
Republican incumbents are facing challenges, along with seven Democrats. Eleven
seats are open.
Oklahoma Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax said early turnout has been
heavy statewide and said voter turnout was "on track" to be the largest since
the 2008 presidential election, when about 67 percent of the state's 2.1 million
registered voters went to the polls.
Oklahomans voted to abolish affirmative action programs in state government
and eliminate the intangible property tax businesses pay for such things as
patents, trademarks and brand names.
Jenifer Peacock, 34, a sales trainer from Moore, said she voted to abolish
affirmative action programs in state government because she considers them
outdated.
"It just got me thinking about how antiquated the laws are," she said.
Other state questions approved will limit property tax increases, change the
governor's role in the parole process and restructure the Department of Human
Services. A proposal to let the Oklahoma Water Resources Board issue bonds also
was approved.
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