Election Results

Hawaii Results

1) Linda Lingle got re-elected as governor of Hawaii. However, the Democrats kept control of the state legislature, as well as Hawaii's entire US congressional delegation. So it means that Hawaii is still mostly Democrat, though a moderate Republican can win if the Democrat candidate is really weak.

National Results

Democrats took over Congress. That means several things!

1) The US will probably withdraw from Iraq before the 2008 elections.

2) Remember when Rush Limbaugh was mocking Micheal J Fox's ads for several Democrat candidates? Fox was supporting the Democrat candidates who supported federally funding stem cell research! Limbaugh said Fox's Parkinson's symptoms shown in the video was fake! Those comments from Limbaugh got a lot of controversy.

One of the candidates supported by Micheal J Fox was Claire Caskill who was running for Missouri's seat in the US Senate! She won, and she said Limbaugh's comment s indirectly helped Fox's cause and her candidacy.

3) Some Republican candidates made anti-immigration ads in hope it will make Democrats be on the defensive for their pro-immigration views.

One of those candidates was Vernon Robinson, a Republican from North Carolina. He calls himself the "black Jesse Helms". His ads portrayed Mexican immigrants as criminals, illegal aliens, flag burners and said they'll take American jobs. Robinson was encouraging people to be afraid of immigration!

Those ads didn't work! He lost!

Some Republicans haven't learned the lesson of the 1990's. Republicans in California were promoting anti-immigration laws in the early 1990's. Many Latinos who didn't vote before, woke up and started voting. They helped the Democrats win in California in the late 1990s. Then-Texas governor George W. Bush took notice, and thought that the Republicans need to be more pro-immigration. Bush won the Presidency TWICE without hating on immigrants.

Meanwhile, the Republican senator from Virginia, George Allen was mocking the Democrat campaign volunteer who happened to be of Indian descent as a "macaca", and told him "Welcome to America". Ironically, that Indian guy was born in Virginia. It was Allen who migrated from California to Virginia!

The Democrat running for the same position, James Webb, was falling behind until Allen mocked the Indian guy. Then Webb gained momentum because of Allen's comments! Webb ended up winning the Senate seat in what was once a mostly Republican state!

Racism doesn't help you win elections anymore. It didn't even help those 2 Republicans running in the former Confederate states!

The Latino and Asian population in America is growing. And they're no longer just confined to the coastal areas or the Southwest. Some whites and blacks still fear them coming! But as time goes by, more people get used to the larger presence of Latinos and Asians. Politicians can no longer mock them with impunity.

4) Some of the Democrats who won were culturally conservative on issues like abortion and gay marriage. Many of them were from the usually Republican Southeast and Rocky Mountain areas. So the liberal Democrats will have to acknowledge that!

However, some of the newly elected Democrat representatives were also left-wing liberals. So the conservatives pundits should acknowledge that too!

For more info, check out this article by John Nichols

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=139093