Victory

What  a huge day for progressive power! Yesterday, voters in nearly every region of  the country turned out and resoundingly defeated right-wing attacks on:

• Workers’  Rights (Ohio);
• Choice  (Mississippi);
• Voting  Rights (Maine);
• Marriage  Equality (Iowa);
• Immigrant  Civil Rights AND Government By the People (Arizona);
• Public  Education (North Carolina);
• AND  MORE.

In the  nationally-watched races and ballot initiatives across America, progressives  won across the board. These hard-fought victories are not just wins for people in these states. The  results have important ramifications moving forward into the 2012 elections,  with this flexing of political muscle providing a good source of hope that  maybe 2012 can be our 2010.

Let’s  remember that most of the Republican presidential candidates came down on the  losing side of virtually every one of these issues, showing how out of touch  they and their party are with Americans’ values. Frontrunner Mitt Romney, whom many consider to be the presumptive  nominee, after his usual hemming and hawing, came out strongly against workers’  rights in Ohio and said he would support the shockingly extreme “personhood” amendment in Mississippi that would  have given fertilized eggs the rights of human beings. Even the overwhelmingly Republican — and culturally conservative —  electorate of deep red state Mississippi rejected that radical position by a  whopping 58%-42%. An astute political observer might accurately say that  Mitt Romney was in fact yesterday’s, and thus Election 2011’s, biggest loser.

Ohio — workers’ rights and defending  the middle class WIN

In  Ohio, voters stood up their neighbors — their nurses, teachers, policemen and  firefighters — and successfully repealed the right-wing governor’s  Wisconsin-style attack on the fundamental collective bargaining rights of  public employees — the law known as SB 5. Tallies are showing that over 60% of voters voted “No” on Issue  2, to repeal SB 5, with only six counties in the entire state showing majorities in favor of keeping the law. In  all those counties, Republican Governor John Kasich won with more than 60% of  the vote in 2010.

We  worked hard, with PFAW activists in Ohio playing a critical role in the effort.  Our allies in Ohio, especially our friends at We Are Ohio, led an inspiring and  effective campaign. This victory will have a lasting impact in Ohio and national politics, as it staved off  an attack that could have been crippling to progressives in a critical swing  state.

The  attacks on working people in Ohio, Wisconsin and other states are part of a  right-wing effort to break the back of organized labor, which is a major source  of progressive power and one of the only political counterweights to the  corporate special interests that fund the Right. Like laws that disenfranchise  voters in communities that traditionally vote more progressive, these new  policies are a naked partisan power grab by Republican politicians, and at the  same time serve as a big gift, basically a policy  kickback, to their corporate contributors like the Koch brothers.

We  will work hard to help replicate nationally for 2012 the Ohio organizing model  that mobilized a middle-class revolt against right-wing extremism in that  state.

Mississippi — reproductive rights WIN

As  I mentioned above, voters in Mississippi, a state in which Democrats didn’t  even bother to run a candidate in several statewide races, overwhelmingly  rejected a state constitutional amendment that would have defined a  fertilized egg as a person. That dreadful law would have effectively turned ALL  abortions, without exception for rape, incest of the health of the mother, into  murder under state law. It would have done the same with many popular forms of  birth control and the processes involved in fertility treatment, even creating  legal suspicion around miscarriages.

A  similar “personhood” amendment had twice been rejected by voters in Colorado by  similarly large margins, but polling leading up to Election Day in Mississippi  showed a toss up. It’s important to note that while many anti-choice  conservatives expressed reservations about the far-reaching extremity of the  amendment, just about every Religious Right group and Republican supported it …  and it lost by 16 points … IN MISSISSIPPI.

Maine — voting rights WIN

Maine  voters yesterday voted to  preserve their same-day voter registration policy after the right-wing  legislature passed a law to repeal it.

In  another example of the Right doing everything it can to make ballot access more  difficult for some voters, after Republicans took control of the governorship  and the legislature in 2010, one of the first things on the chopping block was  Maine’s same-day voter registration law.

Voters  have been able to register at their polling place on Election Day in Maine  since 1973 — if there is anything ingrained in the voting culture of Maine  it’s same-day registration. Same-day voter registration is the reason Maine has  one of the highest voter turnouts in the country (states with same-day  registration average 6% higher turnout than states without it). It’s good for  democracy … but apparently that’s bad for the Right.

Republicans  had used the bogus straw man argument about “widespread voter fraud” — even  though it’s never been a reported problem in Maine. They amazingly trotted out  the argument that people who wait until Election Day to register are not  “engaged” enough in the process, even though same-day registrants are simply  abiding by the law of nearly 40 years, and showing up on Election Day is the  ultimate demonstration of “engagement.”

The  Maine Republican Party even ran a full page newspaper ad just before the  election trying to portray the ballot initiative to “repeal the repeal” and  save same-day registration as some sort of gay  activist plot. The ad implied that Equality Maine’s support of the  referendum was somehow insidious and revealing of some problem with the  long-standing, pro-democracy law. In reality, LGBT rights groups did have stake  in the results of yesterday’s same-day voter registration ballot initiative  because if Mainers would not join together to defeat such a radical right-wing  usurpation of voters’ rights, then the Equality movement in that state  concluded there would be little hope in waging another campaign to enact same-sex  marriage equality by referendum. So, yesterday’s victory for voting rights  effectively leaves the door open for a future victory for marriage equality as  well.

Iowa — marriage equality WIN

While  the victory in Maine opens the possibility of a future win for marriage  equality in that state, in Iowa, the state’s existing marriage equality law won  a major victory with the election of the Democrat running in a special election  for state Senate. Party control of the Senate hinged  on this race and if the Republican had won, the legislature would surely  move to undo marriage equality for same-sex couples in Iowa.

The  Senate seat in question became open when Republican Governor Terry Branstad  appointed incumbent Democratic Senator Swati Dandekar to a high paying post on  the Iowa Utilities Board. Republicans knew full well that the bare majority  Democrats held in the Senate would then be up for grabs, and with it, the fate  of marriage equality. Congratulations to Democratic Senator Elect Liz Mathis,  the voters who elected her and all the people of Iowa whose rights will  continue to be protected by a state marriage law that holds true to our core  constitutional values of Fairness and Equality.

Arizona — immigrant rights and  democracy WIN

Voters  in Arizona really made an impressive show of strength yesterday when they voted  to RECALL Republican State Senator Russell Pearce, the architect of Arizona’s infamous  draconian “show me your papers” immigration bill, SB 1070. Arizonans did  themselves and the country a great service in rejected the lawmaker who  pioneered the shameful racial profiling bill.

This  is not just a victory for fair and humane immigration policy. The often untold  story of SB 1070 is that it was engineered by the right-wing American Legislative  Exchange Council (ALEC), a policy group funded by corporate special interests  that essentially rights many of the laws pushed every year by right-wing state  legislators across the country. SB 1070 was on its face an ugly, racist  backlash against undocumented immigrants, but it was also a handout to the  powerful private prison industry, which stood to benefit financially by mass  roundups of undocumented immigrants who would, of course, be held in prisons.

The  successful recall of the right-wing, anti-immigrant icon Russell Pearce was a  win for fairness, for civil liberties and for the dignified treatment of  America’s immigrant communities. But it was also a triumph over corrupt  corporate influence in government and a victory for Government By the People.

Wake County, North Carolina — public  education and racial equality WIN

Last  month, voters in Wake County, North Carolina decisively defeated four conservative  school board candidates responsible for scrapping the district’s lauded  diversity policies. Yesterday, the final runoff election was decided by Wake  County voters who handed victory, and majority control of the school board, to  the Democrats.

The  ousted board members had been backed by the Koch-funded Tea Party group  Americans For Prosperity (AFP). This past summer, People For the American Way  and PFAW’s African American Ministers in Action (AAMIA) program joined with  Brave New Foundation to cosponsor the release of their “Koch Brothers  Exposed” video that told the story of AFP’s involvement in the school board  election and the board’s effort to resegregate schools. I’m proud that we were  able to help shine a light on the Right’s unconscionable attack on public  education, racial equality and civil rights.

More Notable Results

The citizens of Missoula, Montana passed a resolution in support of amending the Constitution to end corporate  personhood and undo the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision in Citizen’s United v. FEC. The referendum  was initiated by a City Councilwoman Cynthia Wolken, an active member of our  affiliate PFAW Foundation’s Young Elected Official (YEO) Network.

In Kentucky, Democrats won four out of  five statewide races with incumbent Democratic governor Steve Beshear winning  in a landslide over his Republican challenger.

In New Jersey, after two years on the  losing side of confrontations with Gov. Chris Christie, Democrats seemed to  turn the tide, fighting off well-funded Republican challenges and gaining  one seat in the state Legislature.

And  in Virginia, the GOP was expected to  take majority control of the state Senate — which they only needed two seats to  do  but might have fallen just short. With a paper-thin margin of 86  votes in one race handing preliminary victory to the Republican, there will  surely be a recall and Democrats are at least publicly optimistic.

There  were more progressive victories in local races around the country, and some  losses. For the most part, however, the losses were either very minor or very  expected. Where the eyes of the nation was focused, and where progressives put  energy and resources, we won across the board. This morning, as we look ahead  to 2012, the Right should be very nervous.

Thank  you for your ongoing support — it makes all the difference, every time … and  2012 will be no exception.

Sincerely,

Michael Keegan, President