Election Night

The campaign is over, I can breathe again.

The Election party was such an amazing experience. It was seriously everything I saw on TV, the big hotel room with the stage and the banners representing various voting demographics (my favorite was the Seniors one, of which a pink-jumpsuited Golden Girl was the star). A band played all these inspirational songs, but I can only remember that one that goes, "CELLLLEEEbrate good times COME ON." I made friends with a bunch of Middle Eastern men that kept taking pictures with me saying I was going to be in their newspaper. I can only imagine which one that will be.

Jimmy Fallon (really?) introduced the mayor who gave an inspirational speech littered with his signature poorly accented Spanish that I find endearing. Especially when it is invective towards the harshness of our immigration policy in this country. After the speech, my friends went on to the staff party, I took a long and cold walk to the subway thinking about unemployment and what a whirlwind the campaign was, how much the Sheraton was the Emerald City, understanding Baum's allegory with the Wizard of Oz to politics, etc. CELLLEEEBRATE good times COME ON.

I am most interested in the 23rd Congressional Election District election of Bill Owens. 23 is contiguous with Canada and Vermont, yet remains a Republican and conservative stronghold through most of the US's modern political history. The republican party tripped over itself and Owens won by a little more than 4,000 votes. Despite GOP loss, Michelle Malkin's blog has a touching tribute to Hoffman the GOP who picked up the conservative slack after Dede Scozzafava dropped out due to identity crisis:



My personal interest stems from when I was 14 years old and went to the 23rd district, more specifically Ogdensburg, and stayed with Mormon relatives in their farmhouse for a couple of weeks. There was no water pressure, bats in my room, my first experience with Wal-mart and a glimpse at how unbelievably conservative upstate New York is. All the "kids" I met had narrow minds and huge living room TVs. The highlight of the trip was a county fair, which we rolled up to in a pick-up truck, and a celebration for my visit, which included buying a lot of newspapers, wood, and aerosol cans of hairspray, and lighting shit on fire. SO watching all this development on NY-23rd and I wonder if anyone I met back in the day went are currently bolstering the Conservatives up there. In reality, they are probably watching Predator on those giant TVs.