Thoughts on Election Day

I woke up this morning still exhausted from yesterday. (My day started at 4:30 AM and I fell in bed around 11:30 PM.) Since I was away from the computer all day, I’ve spent a little time catching up on what the blogsphere and MSM had to say about yesterday’s results.

First of all, congratulations to the winners, especially Thelma Drake (R-VA02) and Jim Webb. I hope that you will represent all of us well.

My heartfelt condolences to the losers, especially Phil Kellam. I know how you feel today. I appreciate that all of you stepped up to the plate and ran, many of you against some extremely tough odds.

On the national scene, Democrats control the House. Senate control remains a possibly as I write this. I am hoping that they will act as they said they would over the next two years, moving us toward a withdrawal from Iraq, a higher minimum wage and reining in spending.

I am proud that Norfolk was among the localities where the NO vote won. I’d like to think I had a small part in this victory.

Although I was supposed to be a runner for the Commonwealth Coalition yesterday, much of my time was spent covering Rosemont, Norfolk’s largest precinct. For whatever reason, this precinct was not covered by anyone – no D’s, no R’s. (I talked to a Republican friend of mine who visited the Rosemont precinct a couple of times, getting vote totals. Both he and a couple of Democrats who came thru said the same thing: the “$1.08 in ’08” folks from the Norfolk Tea Party II shrunk the pool of pollworkers for the parties tremendously.) Seeing this, I stayed there and covered the poll for Ds. I was joined by another D in the morning. I had to leave him alone for a while in order to deliver lunches around Norfolk to our Vote NO pollworkers. (Bearing Drift’s coverage of Election Day includes a couple of calls to me.) I got back to Rosemont at 1:15 PM and relieved the other D poll worker. By this time, a vote yes guy was there.

I had tremendous success with converting yes voters to NO voters, regardless of the presence of the yes supporter. (He was spewing lies about the amendment, saying that if it failed, gays would be allowed to marry. Of course, I corrected him.) Most of the yes folks that I converted had never seen the entire amendment and were relying completely on what they had heard, including one pastor and his wife with whom I spoke. Late afternoon, Delegate Kenny Alexander (D-89th) joined me. As an elected official opposed to the amendment, he was able to convince some voters that I could not. I appreciated his support. Others came and helped out with the precinct, joining me in handing out ballots and advising people to vote NO.

The rain started around dusk, but since the people were still coming, we soldiered on. Finally at 6:30, it was pouring. A small group of people had stayed there, mainly to help me out, but the rain became too much for us. We all left.

Finally tally at Rosemont: NO – 786, yes – 446

I headed over to the celebration of the Commonwealth Coalition. We gathered upstairs at the New Belmont in Ghent. Honestly, I was too tired to pay much attention to any of the election results, preferring instead to enjoy the company of some folks that I hadn’t seen in a while. After a couple of hours there, during which time we were joined by Delegate Alexander, I headed over to the Kellam celebration.

The mood at the celebration was somber. Not only were folks upset at the Kellam loss, but they were upset with the passage of the amendment. Shortly after I arrived, I was directed to a small room where Kellam’s advisors, family and close supporters were gathered. Kellam came in and thanked everyone for their support, then we proceeded onstage for his concession speech. (Ironically, I ended up standing behind Tom Moss and beside Sharon McDonald!)

I left just after the speech and headed home. After about 10 minutes of TV, I fell into bed.

To say I am disappointed with the outcome of the amendment vote would be an understatement. Of all that I have read so far about this vote, the editorial of the Staunton News Leader sums up my thoughts the best:

But there is one remaining Last Frontier of Hatred: It involves homosexual men and lesbian women.

Virginians affirmed that Last Frontier of Hatred on Tuesday when they voted Ballot Issue No. 1 into law. Virginia proved it is ready for another round of hatred such as that it unleashed on black citizens when it affirmed “Massive Resistance” to keep little black boys and girls out of Virginia’s lily-white perfect public schools.

So be it. We will deal with this as we have dealt with all the rest of our sins: Breaking away from the Union, race hatred, Massive Resistance.

But we will be a smaller and more narrow-minded place because of it.

If you’re OK with that, we’re not. The majority of you voted for it. Now go to bed and say your prayers. And pray you are right and Christian and not just hateful and wrong.