After writing about Election Day in the previous post, it's only fair to share the results.

As anyone who has taken a Political Science class knows, Americans like to see the system of checks and balances stay true to form. As a result, in the first midterm election after a Presidential election, the Presidential party will lose seats in both houses of Congress. But the added variable of President Bush's high approval rating pushed this philosophy aside. Republicans had a great night at the polls, widening their lead in the House and regaining control of the Senate. The last race in the mix is Louisiana, where the incumbent failed to get 50% of the vote on a ballot with nine candidates. So a runoff will take place in 3 weeks.

In any case, Republicans have a 51-47 Senate lead with 1 independent with surprising victories in Minnesota, Georgia and Missouri and a tough loss in South Dakota, though a recount is scheduled here. The House currently has 226 Republicans vs. 204 Democrats with a handful of races to be decided.

While Republicans were making gains all across the country, they were unheard of here in California. All statewide offices were swept by Democrats with the highest one of Governor going to Gray Davis by a margin of 5 points. Davis earlier in the day had expected to speak at around 10pm to claim victory, but at that time, Simon was still leading in early returns. By about 11pm, Davis took the lead and widened it to about 4 points, assuring victory. Arnold's Proposition 49 passed but Proposition 52's same-day voter registration failed. Turnout was a record-low 46%, even lower than the 58% prediction by the Secretary of State.

Here in Berkeley, Tom Bates will be the next mayor, replacing incumbent Shirley Dean. Bates will try to use his state assembly experience to unite a fractured city council of half liberals and half extremely liberal. Measure P, limiting heights of buildings, failed, as did Measure O, which would have forced Berkeley coffee houses to sell politically correct coffee (organic or bought in "fair trade").

Back home in San Jose, it was all quiet. Measure F, raising the hotel tax to 14%, and Measure J, my high school district's proposed parcel tax, both received a majority of the votes but did not receive 2/3 of the vote, so both failed.