Mid-morning Wednesday, Sen. John Kerry called President George W. Bush to concede Ohio and the election for president of the United States. Kerry won Wisconsin but could not win without Ohio. There do not appear to be enough uncounted votes in Ohio to overcome his gap in votes behind Bush.
Pictured New Illinois Sen. Barack Obama with his wife Michelle and their children at their election victory party Tuesday night. Photos by Suzanne KrausThe more things change, the more they stay the same. The U.S. presidential race was as close as predicted, but Democratic challenger John Kerry was grasping for electoral votes against incumbent George W. Bush early Wednesday morning as Windy City Times went to press.
The key states of Florida and Ohio played critical roles. Illinois went solidly Democrat—including for Senate candidate Barack Obama.
As of 2:30 a.m., Bush had 254 of the needed 270 votes while Kerry, capturing Michigan in the late hours, had 242. If Bush wins the contested Ohio delegates, he would have enough to win. Kerry needs 28 votes—from some combination of Ohio, 20, Iowa, 7, Wisconsin, 10, and New Mexico, 5, . Bush does not need Ohio if he wins Iowa and Wisconsin. By very slight margins, Kerry was leading in Wisconsin, Bush in Iowa and New Mexico.
Despite a huge surge in new voters and a record turnout across the nation, Bush re-captured most of the states he won in 2000. With net electoral college gains in some of those states, and lower electoral vote numbers in key Kerry states which had been won by Al Gore, Bush was able to swing a large block of electoral votes.
Addressing a Boston crowd at 1:30 a.m. Central Time, Kerry's runningmate John Edwards told supporters that they made a promise to the American people that in this election, 'every vote would count and every vote would be counted. Tonight we are keeping our word and we will fight for every vote. You deserve no less.' The Kerry/Edwards campaign told supporters they waited four years for this, they could wait one more day.
With 98% of Ohio precincts reporting, Kerry trailed Bush by about 130,000 votes out of more than 5 million.
There may be about 130,000 remaining provisional votes to be counted, Republicans say, which would mean Bush would have an easy victory. According to CNN, Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell said that by law, provisional and absentee ballots won't be counted until 11 days after the election.
But Bush may declare victory if the provisional ballot number is proved to be less than the margin of his lead.
If there is an electoral tie, the election would be determined by the U.S. House, with each state getting one vote, CNN reported. The Senate would choose the vice president—each senator gets one vote. With Republicans controlling both arenas, this outcome would favor Bush/Cheney.
With an estimated 120 million voters hitting the polls, causing lines sometimes four hours long, many precincts had to stay open late. And with tight races, the nation could see a re-run of 2000 with court challenges in some states. Particularly troublesome is the counting of provisional and absentee ballots.
Anti-gay marriage ballot measures were another dark spot for gay-rights groups—all 11 have passed.
The social issues like gay marriage may have trumped the war in Iraq, jobs and the economy, helping bring out conservative voters for Bush in key battleground states, especially Ohio.
Ralph Nader's independent campaign did get more than 200,000 votes nationwide, but it's not clear yet if his votes cut into Kerry's margin in the closer races.
Obama all the way
In Illinois, U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama trounced his Republican challenger Alan Keyes with about 70% of the vote—and some say Kerry's own victory margin in Illinois may have been a bit of reverse coattails. But while Obama's victory was not a surprise, longtime Illinois U.S. Rep. Phillip Crane's tight loss to Democrat Melissa Bean was an upset for the powerful incumbent. Bean is seen as progressive on gay issues.
Obama's Senate victory at first helped Democrats in their bid to re-gain control of the Senate, but in the end Republicans are expected to pick up seats in both the Senate and House, giving Bush a further mandate for his second term. Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle was in an extremely close race to keep his South Dakota post—at 3 a.m. NPR declared his defeat.
Bush is likely to be in a position to select at least one, and possibly two or three, U.S. Supreme Court justices, especially given Chief Justice William Rehnquist's recent cancer diagnosis, and Republican control of the Senate will help Bush push through conservative candidates.
Some positive victories for gay rights in the U.S. Senate were Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Christopher Todd, D-Conn., Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, Evan Bayh, D-Ind., Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., Charles Schumer, D-NY, Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Russ Feingold, D-W.
For U.S. House, openly lesbian Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin kept her post with an estimated 58% of the vote. Openly gay Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank will also keep his House seat. Republican Peter Coors of the Coors beer family appears to have lost his bid for a Colorado Senate seat.
'I am personally extraordinarily unhappy that, in Oklahoma, Tom Coburn has been projected as the winner of the U.S. Senate race,' wrote New York activist Doug Ireland, closely watching the polls all day, on his internet blog. 'It's not that his Democratic opponent [ Brad Carson who tried to run to Coburn's right ] was any good; it's that Coburn, during his years in the [ U.S. ] House, was the No. 1 Enemy of the AIDS community. And, just as he was in the House, as a doctor he'll become a leading party spokesman and policy-shaper on health matters. Coburn's war on the Centers for Disease Control to bring it into line with the American Taliban's anti-condom crusade was very effective. In the Senate, he'll have even more clout to pursue it.'
Illinois congressional races saw mostly easy victories for incumbents, including progressive Chicago candidates and conservative suburban and downstate reps.
In contested races, the victors were: Bobby Rush, D-1st, ; Jesse Jackson, Jr., D-2nd; Daniel Lipinski, the son handpicked by his retiring incumbent father, D-3rd; Luis Gutierrez, D-4th; Rahm Emanuel, D-5th; Henry Hyde, R-6th, in a close race over challenger Christine Cegelis; Danny Davis, D-7th; Jan Schakowsky, D-9th; Mark Kirk, R-10th; Jerry Weller, R-11th, in a hard-fought race versus Tari Renner; Jerry Costello, R-12th; Judy Biggert, R-13th; Dennis Hastert, R-14th; Tim Johnson, R-15th; Donald Manzullo, R-16th; Lane Evans, D-17th; Ray LaHood, R-18th; and John Shimkus, R-19th.
Marriage Setbacks
Eleven states were voting on same-sex marriage bans, and as of late Tuesday night, reports show the anti-gays won all 11— Oregon had the closest margin.
Those states banning gay marriage: Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and Utah.
In eight of the 11 contests, the measures also seek to ban other, more limited forms of partner recognition, including civil unions and domestic partnerships.
The margins of defeat ranged from 86% to 14% in Mississippi to 54% to 46% in Oregon. 'The results underscore why we have a Bill of Rights—because it is always wrong to put basic rights up to a popular vote. In fact, even today, 213 years after the Bill of Rights was ratified, it is doubtful Americans could win our freedoms of speech, press and religion at the ballot box,' said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
Lambda Legal, Alston and Bird and the ACLU of Georgia issued a joint announcement Tuesday saying they will file a lawsuit on behalf of concerned voters 'at the earliest moment possible' to strike down the anti-gay amendment to the Georgia Constitution.
Plaintiffs represented by the groups had sued to keep the question off of the ballot because the amendment illegally contained more than one subject and the ballot question itself was misleading. Last week, the Georgia Supreme Court issued a ruling saying that the amendment's legality could not be fully considered until after the election.
On a national exit poll, reportedly 27% said they supported gay marriage, 37% supported civil unions, and only 35% supported no recognition of same-sex relationships.
Lesbian judge wins
Sheryl Pethers won her uncontested election race for the 8th Judicial Subcircuit in Cook County, facing no Republican opponent after a heated primary battle, including two gay male opponents.
While most judicial retention candidates were far above the 60% 'yes' votes needed to remain employed, the drive to oust anti-gay Susan McDunn as a Circuit Court Judge came close—but as of late Tuesday she did have 65.6% 'yes' votes. The campaign to remove her because of her judicial bias clearly had an impact, but the barrier of getting people to care about races for retention, far down on the ballot, is nearly impossible to win.
None of the retention judges appears to have lost—with McDunn coming closest.
Illinois races
There were few serious challenges to state House and Senate candidates, with openly gay Rep. Larry McKeon facing no Republican opponent.
In the tight 17th House District, Republican Elizabeth Coulson won a squeaker over her Democratic opponent—and it was Coulson who had a lot of progressive groups backing her. Republican Rosemary Mulligan was easily re-elected in the suburban 65th District.
Chicago issues
Various social issues were on the ballot in some Chicago wards, including successful votes against the Patriot Act and the War on Iraq.
Circuit bar, a gay club on Halsted, was able to remove a 'vote dry' measure from the ballot just weeks before the election, having enough petition signatures disqualified to dodge having their precinct vote on a ban of alcohol sales.
Cook County
There were no surprises in Cook County races, with incumbent Democrats sweeping to victory. Dorothy Brown won for Circuit Court Clerk; Gene Moore won for Recorder of Deeds; Richard Devine for State's Attorney.
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioners voted in were: Democrats Barbara McGowan, Gloria Alitto Majewski, and Patricia Young.
Other Notes
Some exit polls show that Bush did not lose many LGB votes compared to 2000—he had about 25% in the race against Al Gore, and may have gotten around 20% against Kerry. Did Kerry's mixed messages on gay marriage keep some gays on the fence?
In Massachusetts the LGBT Caucus of the American Political Science Association reported that 'Early reports are that almost all, and perhaps all pro-LGBT incumbents have won their state legislative races. As for the challengers: two pro-LGBT candidates appear to have won, including Carl Sciortino, who knocked off a major player in the state legislature.'
California voters also approved a stem-cell research measure, funded by $3 billion in bonds.
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