The off-year election seems to have been a generally good day for centrist Democrats, which means it was a good day for Americans; centrist Democrats are far closer to representing the rank and file American voter than the Religious Right that dominates Republican discourse.

Here in New York City, Bloomberg easily won re-election. I voted for him, although I voted for him on the Independence Party line, not the Republican line. He isn’t really a Republican though; he’s as close to Independent as you can get, and outside of his priggish attitude toward smoking (you HAVE to be able to smoke in a bar, fercrissakes!), his social politics are mainstream Democratic. He is socially awkward. He has no charisma, and public speaking is not his forte. But he won me over shortly after taking office, when Republican Party leaders criticized him for giving out some high-level appointments to Democrats. His response: oops, it never occurred to him to ask what party they belonged to.

As for Freddie Ferrer, the Democrat candidate, if the basis of your campaign is that you speak for the minority, you can be pretty sure you will get a minority of the votes. So long Freddie.

Across the river in Jersey, Dem zillionaire Jon Corzine beat Rep zillionaire Douglas Forrester in the race for Governor. It was a nasty campaign, and frankly both these guys give me the creeps. Interestingly, Forrester fought to distance himself from the president; the Asbury Park Press quoted him as saying at one campaign event, "I think that the president and I have parted company on some important public policy questions."

And speaking of distancing yourself from Bush, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore tried to stay as far away from him as possible in Virginia, canceling a joint appearance in Norfolk days before the election. In the end he gave in and had Bush in for an endorsement, but it didn’t help.

Both New Jersey and Virginia already had Democratic governors, so neither is a takeaway. But Jersey has had Rep governors in the recent past, including Tom Keane and Chrissy Todd Whitman; and Virginia is a red state stronghold.

Out in California, all four special ballot initiatives backed by the Governator were defeated by the voters. On the subject of California, while Gray Davis might have been a disaster, why would anyone think that a formerly steroid-juiced, 80s action film star with no political experience would somehow have the answers to the state’s intractable problems? Let's see if he still has the attention span for the job now that his key initiatives have all been defeated and he has to go back to Sacremento with his tail between is legs and get all concilliatory with the Democrats.

In perhaps the most heartening development of the night, reason spoke loudly in Dover, Pennsylvania. This was where the school board was working to get “Intelligent Design” into the curriculum (Intelligent Design, or ID, is the belief that “I’m too stupid to understand biology, so there must be a God.”) Local voters replaced all eight creationist Republican school board members with Democrats. Praise the lord and hallelujah!

Now, let's see if the Democrats have the brains and the stones to stay centrist, and to build a party platform and message strategy and set of positioning statements that can usurp the Republican hold on the middle 40% of the electorate that swings elections. The Republicans are being pushed out of the mainstream and into the red zone of the lunatic fringe far right; we have a president who thinks it makes sense to run supreme court nominations by James Dobson. If the Democrats can make a strong move to stake out the middle ground-- left of center sure, but centrist-- then we may see a very fast and dramatic shift in American politics.

Of course, it has to be a strong move. If anyone could mess up this golden opportunity, its Democrats.

Labels: The politics