Racetrack
ARIZONA
Incumbent Rep. Rick Renzi, R, soundly defeated Democratic hopeful Paul Babbitt in a contest for the U.S. House seat representing the state’s largest — and predominantly Democratic — District 1 (HCN, 10/25/04: Dems stumble in Arizona race).Proposition 200, which passed with Hispanic support, prevents non-citizens from voting and requires proof of legal immigration to obtain government services, including welfare and schooling.
CALIFORNIA
Californians said yes to Proposition 64, which makes it harder for individuals and state and local attorneys to sue businesses for unfair practices.Voters said no to Proposition 70, which would have allowed tribal casinos to exceed the current limits on slot machines in exchange for giving the state 8.8 percent of gambling income.
Anti-biotech forces have to go back to the drawing board in Butte, San Luis Obispo and Humboldt counties, where voters rejected bans on genetically modified crops. Only Marin County adopted a ban (HCN, 10/25/04: Californians take a stand on GE crops).
COLORADO
Democrat Ken Salazar defeated Republican Pete Coors for the U.S. Senate. Salazar will be the first Hispanic senator in over a quarter-century.Ken’s brother, Democrat John Salazar, defeated Republican Greg Walcher for U.S. House District 3.
Colorado narrowly passed Amendment 37, the nation’s first voter-implemented renewable energy policy, which requires the state’s seven largest utilities to generate 10 percent of their energy supply from clean energy sources by 2015 .
IDAHO
Bush won over 70 percent of the vote in a state whose congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., is entirely Republican.Senate GOP incumbent Michael Crapo received over 99 percent of votes; his opponent was write-in Democratic candidate Scott F. McClure.
Idaho’s state Legislature has the highest concentration of Republicans in the country; 80 percent of it is in the hands of the GOP.
MONTANA
Despite the fact that Canyon Resources Corp. of Golden, Colo., dumped six times more money into the campaign than the initiative’s opponents, I-147, was soundly rejected, and a an on open-pit cyanide leach mining will stand.Brian Schweitzer will become Montana’s first Democratic governor since 1984. And while Republicans maintained control of the state House, Democrats gained six seats to take control of the Senate.
Conservative Cindy Younkin lost her bid to replace Jim Nelson on the state Supreme Court (HCN, 10/11/04: State judges get political).
Voters cemented their right to hunt: Approval of Constitutional Amendment 41 guarantees Montanans the right to hunt and fish "forever."
NEVADA
Senate incumbent Democrat Harry Reid was re-elected and will seek the Senate minority leader seat vacated by defeated South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle.Bush won the state despite his administration’s promise to bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.
NEW MEXICO
Tom Udall was re-elected as New Mexico’s sole Democrat in the House, and incumbent Heather Wilson, R, defeated Richard Romero, D.Bush received more Hispanic votes than in 2000, winning 2 out of 5, while American Indians supported Kerry 2 to 1.
Oregon
Oregonians approved Measure 37, or the "Wal-Mart Expansion Act," which means that state and local governments now have to compensate property owners, or forgo enforcement, when land-use regulations diminish property value.Voters rejected Measure 34, or the "50/50 plan," which would have required the state to balance timber production with natural resource conservation in the Tillamook and Clatsop state forests.
Democrats picked up three seats to take control of the previously split Senate, and gained two seats in the Republican-controlled House.
Last May, only 10 percent of Oregon’s registered voters were under the age of 25. But by election time, young people made up 35 percent of the state’s voters.
UTAH
In the House, Democrat Jim Matheson defeated Republican John Swallow in the Republican-dominated 2nd District, which includes a large part of Salt Lake County.Republican Jon Huntsman Jr., trade official and heir to a chemical fortune, convincingly defeated Democrat Scott Matheson for Utah’s governor’s seat (HCN, 9/27/04).
Salt Lake County Mayor-elect Peter Corroon is the first Democrat in a decade to lead Utah’s most populous county.
Voters defeated Initiative 1, which would have allowed a one-twentieth of 1 cent tax increase to purchase and restore open space, 55 percent to 45 percent (HCN, 10/11/04).
Eight out of 10 Mormons helped Utah deliver President Bush his largest winning margin in the nation.
WASHINGTON
Sixty-one percent of voters don’t want electronic slot machines in non-tribal establishments. Nearly all the money to fight Initiative 892 came from Indian tribes.Initiative 297, which prohibits dumping more nuclear waste at Hanford Nuclear Reservation until the existing waste is cleaned up, passed with nearly 70 percent of the vote.
Democrats picked up two seats, and thus the majority, in the state Senate, and increased their lead by 3 seats in the House.
Voters elected politically conservative Jim Johnson to the state Supreme Court (HCN, 10/11/04).
As we go to press, the governor’s race is still undecided. If elected, Dino Rossi will be Washington’s first Republican governor since 1980. Rossi carries 31 of 39 counties, and, with 80,000 ballots left to count, is ahead of Democrat Christine Gregoire by one-tenth of 1 percent.
