Some surprises on election day

by Ed Felien
published November 10, 08

Although it wasn’t really a surprise. The polls had predicted it. It was still amazing that the U. S. elected Barack Obama President. So, before we get back to business as usual, we should take a moment and remember how thrilled and happy and proud we were when it happened.

It was really no surprise that Minneapolis voters approved higher taxes to support the schools, even though 80 percent of the people voting do not have children in public schools, and even though there has been no serious effort from Superintendent Bill Green to cut some of the administrative bureaucracy. The overriding consideration seemed to be that Minneapolis voters believe our kids are our future.

Minnesota voters approved an increase in the state sales tax from 6.5 percent to 6.875 percent to add funding to the arts and the environment. It is nothing short of wonderful that even in tough times, Minnesotans are serious about preserving their cultural and natural heritage.

The U. S. Senate race ended in a dead heat with Franken and Coleman at 42 percent. Barkley was the spoiler in this race. He got about 15 percent. In exit polls, about half of his voters said they wouldn’t have voted for either Coleman or Franken, and about a quarter said they would’ve voted for Coleman and a quarter said they would’ve voted for Franken if Barkley wasn’t on the ballot. It would’ve helped Franken’s campaign tremendously if Obama would’ve come to the state and put his arms around him and said he needed Al Franken in the Senate.

One way to avoid electing people to office with less than a majority of votes would be to have open primaries with the top two going to the general election. Now, we have party primaries and open general elections. Republicans can run against Republicans and Democrats against Democrats in the primaries. Franken had a bruising primary, and the people who voted against him in the primary probably voted for Barkley in the general. It gave people who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a Republican a second chance to vote against Franken.

Obama carried the state by 10 percent. Those 10 percent were probably the Democrats that voted for Barkley instead of Franken. So, those voters supported Obama because they liked his program, and then they helped elect Coleman to make it difficult for Obama to get his program through Congress. Does that make sense? It seems self-indulgent and self-defeating.

Franken wasn’t perfect, but he was very good, and people who voted for Obama but just couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Franken made the perfect the enemy of the good.

There are a couple of hundred votes separating Franken from Coleman, so that triggers an automatic recount. We won’t know who really won for a few weeks.
People should remember that this senate seat is the seat that Paul Wellstone sat in. As big and all powerful as he seems in memory, it should be remembered he never won by a large margin. He was not afraid to take controversial positions and fight for them at election time. He was behind when he won the first two times, and he was behind when he ran against Coleman just before his death. The two issues that made it difficult for him six years ago were his opposition to the war in Iraq and his support for a single payer health care system. His example should be a never-ending source of courage and inspiration.

There was some surprise locally at the margin of victory in the race between Farheen Hakeem of the Green Party and Jeff Hayden of the DFL for Neva Walker’s vacant legislative seat in 61B. He got 60 percent of the vote versus 30 percent for Hakeem. A few years ago, when she ran against Peter McLaughlin for county commissioner, she polled almost even with the Democrat in most precincts in the legislative district. But this year was not a good year to run against a Democrat with Obama at the head of the ticket. Hakeem understood this and in her last piece of campaign literature she had a picture of herself standing behind an Obama lawn sign. It wasn’t enough.