Very happy to see Prop 75 be clearly defeated.  But I suspect we'll see something like it pop up around the country.  The battle was won, but the war goes on, and all that.  

Labor also racked up victory in Edison, New Jersey, where Jun Choi was elected mayor on a reform slate.  Choi focused on a variety of issues, including his opposition to a new Wal-Mart store, which garnered the support of several local unions including the Teamsters and UFCW.  In a corrupt local political culture, Choi touted his status as an uncorrupted outsider running in his first election. 

Keep an eye on Jun Choi. He looks like a rising star in New Jersey politics.

Great point here Jo-Ann:

The election showed that when politicians come swinging against unions, the unions can fight back-especially when they personalize their stories.

United "Labor" in California had, besides the money, an infallible issue of great importance that was almost impossible to screw up.

Governor Schwarzenegger learned a hard political lesson. You shouldn't attack teachers, nurses and fire and safety personnel as "special interest groups." You don't treat them as if they are creatures from a different planet.

Each individual citizen of the above groups in California IS a special interest ... but the special interest is that each individual citizen is a working, contributing, taxpaying individual, and in the majority are active voters.

In California's situation the previously populist Arnold Schwarzenegger has now placed himself in a position of being a lame duck governor and must overcome the cloud of shilling for corporate interest groups.

No doubt the Terminator began his bid for re-election last night by bleating that he must work hard "to find common ground." Yup! He now finds himself in the unenviable position of having to run on a platform of proving to the electorate that he can negotiate with the legislature in a non-partisan manner to get the job done for all the special citizens of the state.

Proposition 75 losing 53/46 was of great importance. But what's been overshadowed was where the states electorate easily crossed partisan battle lines with the 63/34 NO to the veiled attempt to "starve the beast" found in Prop 76.

Either the governor deals faithfully to work on funding the programs or it may just be Hasta la vista baby!

Could you provide a little background on Minneapolis?  I heard that there was a D-D contest in St. Paul and that the one who had backed Bush lost.  Also to rain a little on the parade, here in Seattle there was a pretty intense effort to get a labor slate elected to the Seattle Port Commission and we got creamed.  There was also a rallying around Ron Sims for King County Executive (probably the most progressive politician in the state) who was looking bad for a while but pulled it out.  However it's hard to tell how much credit labor can take for that because it came out about three weeks ago that his opponent had beaten up his own mother (!)

Carl