Messages

What a night! The midterm election had enough drama and unpredictability to keep people up past 11:30 tracking results. (Between 11:20 and 11:40, I must have hit the F5 button 50 times to refresh the Butte County election site on my browser.)

We still don’t know all the winners. Butte County residents submitted 11,000 absentee ballots in the June primary, and County Clerk Candace Grubbs anticipated needing a full day just to determine how many came in this time around. Only then could the tallying begin. Grubbs’ office has 28 days to complete the count, so we might not learn the makeup of the Chico City Council and county Board of Supervisors until after Thanksgiving.

Still, even if some results shift slightly, voters sent some interesting messages Nov. 7 …

Live by the slate, die by the slate. Dan Herbert, Mark Sorensen and Michael Dailey pooled their efforts for City Council campaigning. Sorensen still has a chance to overtake Tom Nickell for the third seat—only 40 votes separate them. But it’s clear Herbert isn’t returning, and he swept Dailey along with him, though not in the way the Chamber of Commerce and the Hooker Oak Alliance hoped.

Take your gavel, Mayor Holcombe. The takeover of the council by progressive candidates two years ago apparently is no fluke. Scott Gruendl got re-elected by a comfortable margin, and newcomer Mary Flynn posted the highest vote total Tuesday. Even if Nickell misses out, the progressives will keep their majority.

Expect Andy Holcombe to succeed Gruendl as mayor—and expect more focused meetings when they’re led by an attorney who understands precedent and procedure. And expect Gruendl to be a bit more forceful when he sheds the constraints of mayordom.

Don’t underestimate Maureen Kirk. Since this election promised to lure more Republicans to the polls, Kirk’s advantage in the three-candidate primary seemed tenuous for the supervisor run-off. If voting trends hold, she’ll keep the edge she forged in the precincts and will take her seat in Oroville.

Big money matters. The three propositions most strenuously opposed by corporations and big unions all went down to defeat. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Prop. 86 (the tobacco tax) had its drawbacks, so it may have fallen on its own demerits. But the merits of Prop. 87 (clean energy) and Prop. 89 (clean elections) got obscured by fierce ads funded by heavy-hitting special interests.

“A new direction”—except here. Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives and, pending final counts, may well take back the Senate, too. That wave of change didn’t sweep the North State, however. Congressman Wally Herger won re-election with typical ease, and even serious ethics concerns didn’t keep John Doolittle from retaining his seat.

Readers criticized my cynicism when I questioned the impact my likeminded compatriots could have on district elections here. If the Iraq War couldn’t bring down Herger and a lobbying scandal couldn’t sink Doolittle, what will bring about change?

Not every message is encouraging …