Election, 2022

I want it to be over.  I do not like living on the edge.  

That's what I typed 20 minutes ago.  Since then, the Secretary of State's fantastic website has updated itself to 100% of precincts reporting.  It's still not officially declared, but this looks like the results.

The margins in some of the races are very slim - House (9,482); Governor (4,083);  Attorney General (3,732) - with 100% of the precincts reporting.  The numbers are constantly being updated, but the changes are small... 7,  10,  13.  MSNBC has Joy Reid reporting that only 77% of the precincts are in; I'm sorry if you were provided incorrect facts by the mainstream media.  I promise, you can trust me, at least.  

The MAGA candidate for Gabby's seat, Democratic since our arrival in 2006, and his counterpart for Attorney General are the probable winners over two very qualified women, and I'm disappointed.  

My little slice of the world is now going to be represented by someone whose values are antithetical to mine. I will have no voice in the House of Representatives.  A man who answered No one disputes that Joe Biden is living in the White House to repeated questions about the validity of the 2022 election will now have a seat in Congress, representing me, speaking for me, voting for me.

It occurs to me as I'm typing this that this has never been the case, ever, at any time in my life.  I've always had a Representative who shared most of my views on most things.  

I am really quite bereft right now.  I knew that looking at these results would bring me down.

We've had a Republican Attorney General and a Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction  in Arizona so I'm not expecting much change there.  It would have been nice to have a competent human, one who has worked as an actual lawyer in actual courtrooms, as Attorney General.  Alas.  The SPI has been there, done that, to no great acclaim.  If you thought Dobbs turned back the clock, you'll find no disagreement here.

That Katie Hobbs is ahead by just over 4,000 votes is at once gratifying and terrifying.  Kari Lake has been making denial noises for a week or so; I wish the margin were more like Mark Kelly's (83,251).  

The news is not all terrible.  Though barely squeaking by, a W is a W for Katie Hobbs.  

Our elections are safe, at least for the immediate future.  Insurrectionist and Election Denier Mark Finchem lost by 77,569 votes.  But 858,609 Arizonans thought he'd be a fine Secretary of State and that makes me shudder for our democracy.  

My friends, the Hernandez sisters, won elections to the State Legislature in their individual Districts; they will be joined by all those I supported from my District.  At least on the micro level, in Phoenix, I will be represented appropriately.

And Mark Kelly withstood the accusations of promoting nuclear war and causing inflation and poisoning our children with fentanyl by allowing child rapists to carry it across the border (yes, there was all of that and more).  

He will be my Senator for the next 6 years.  That makes me very happy.

This is the will of 44.41% of the eligible voters in my state.... all 1,840,493 of us who cast ballots.  I hope that the 2,303,436 people who could have voted but did not take the time to do so know that they are not allowed to complain about the people in power.  

They had their chance and they blew it.  My candidates may not have prevailed, but I participated. At the end of the day, I have to be satisfied with the result.  

That's how it's supposed to work.. just as Tim Ryan said last night: