Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at 
That was the chant tonight in the Rio Casino ballroom in Las Vegas tonight. Barack Obama won a resounding victory nationwide, and especially in Nevada, where I and some friends have been campaigning for several weekends. I'm also encouraged to see Indiana now in Obama's column.
More on that later, after I've had a chance to return to Oakland and process this incredible victory.
Worryingly, California's anti-family proposition, Prop. 8, seems poised to succeed.
Encouragingly, the creationist candidates in Kansas seem largely to have lost. Kathy Martin will keep her seat, reminding people just how nutty creationists can be. There are now 7 pro-science members, and three creationists.
Alas, Nancy Boyda seems to have lost her re-election bid. I'm inclined to blame the vagaries of her district, and her needless aversion to accepting help from the DCCC. Jim Slattery's Senate bid against "Memory Pills" Roberts seems to have failed as well. That's a shame.
On balance, this is a tremendous gain for America. We've got a great new President-elect, a strongly Democratic Senate and House, and new progressive leaders in office at all levels of government. That's a spectacular result, though it'd surely be nice to have vicious bigotry fail at the polls in California.
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Josh,
Sean Tevis also narrowly lost his bid for Kansas state representative. Many sciencebloggers were supporting his pro-science, pro-technology "Running for Office XKCD Style" campaign. As he notes on his blog, however, he performed far better than expected for a Democrat in his district:
http://seantevis.com/weblog/story/election-results/
Posted by: James F | November 5, 2008 9:08 AM
thanks for the updates on kansas. in the midst of such a big national election, sometimes we forget about all the important things that happen at a more local level.
Posted by: megan | November 5, 2008 10:15 AM
Remember that most of the state is rural. A large percentage of the population is Hispanic and Catholic. From what I’ve read so far Prop 8 failed in San Francisco and here in Silicon Valley but passed easily out in the jesusland parts of the state.
Posted by: Salad Is Slaughter | November 5, 2008 10:18 AM
Well NYS just got a little closer to compensating for the possible evil brewing with prop 8.
A note from Pride Agenda:
"In Queens, Democrat Joseph Addabbo beat the incumbent Serphin Maltese, who is the lead sponsor of the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” and a longtime homophobic member of the State Senate. In Suffolk County, Democrat Brian Foley beat 36-year incumbent Caesar Trunzo, who is also a sponsor of DOMA."
So some small victories on the other coast at least. I'm sure California will get back on the right track sooner than later if 8 does pass.
Posted by: Alex | November 5, 2008 2:43 PM
Has anyone written to the Obama camp and requested (seriously) if we can have our science back now?
I know it's usually a ball that we have to go round for, but these years of Republican rule have cost a lot more than just a cheap plastic spheroid.
It's time for America to move on; not to just face up to the ignorant types like Palin, but to really shut them down permanently. Tax these preachers of hate and stupidity out of existence. Make them prove their points or litigate them away as liars and cheats.
The world has moved on - it's time America did too.
(Just because I live in England doesn't mean I'm delighted McCain took a beating. Any problems you face, we face too.)
Posted by: marc draco | November 5, 2008 3:09 PM