Until about an hour ago, I had been concentrating on who won and who lost, and trying to make some political “Will of the people” sense about it all. But no really clear picture came through until such time as I focused on the referendums in each locality, and in each state. At that point, the picture became razor sharp.
Taxes.
In every single case where the taxpayers were given a choice, (As an example, the aforementioned Oregon Tobacco tax hike) such referendums lost, and lost huge. Upon looking at the local election in the light of the tax issue, the whole thing became even clearer yet. We go to the ChiTrib: [1]
A newcomer with no political experience who was outspent by more than 10-to-1 ended a months-long uphill climb to win office as mayor of Indiana’s largest city.
Republican Greg Ballard scored a stunning upset Tuesday night, beating two-term Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson by a margin of about 5,000 votes. With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Ballard had 51 percent of the vote compared with 47 percent for Bart Peterson and 2 percent for Libertarian Fred Peterson.
…
Ballard, a 52-year-old retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, capitalized on public discontent over property tax increases, a hike this year in the Marion County income tax and the city’s crime rate.
The local media (Radio, and TV, mostly) were stunned and in mourning for the loss of the Democrat Mayor. Interesting quote from the interview at WISH/8 [2]this morning:
Mayor Bart Peterson raised a lot more money for his campaign, was that ever a concern?
Ballard said, “That’s always a concern because the political experts said it ultimately comes down to money. Six months ago, I had $10,000 in the bank and he had three million so obviously that, that’s not necessarily true. It was a unique year, no doubt about that, but money just doesn’t buy elections anymore. This was, like I said last night, maybe the ultimate grass roots effort.
The issues, again, crime, and the huge tax increases the Democrat administration had placed on the voters.
And the stories keep going like that.
The lesson of course is in the 08 cycle, this is a major theme for the Democrats to use, particularly in light of the Clinton Rangel tax plan [3] we talked about here about a week ago. This is a straight up ‘gimme’ for the Republicans, and they should use it.