Wrap-up; Hempstead County on Wednesday

I'll be in court in the morning in Hempstead County, so I'm going to wrap it up early tonight and will be away from the site until Wednesday afternoon. A few observations:

(1) Congratulations are in order for the Arkansas GOP. They took three seats from us (HDs 29, 42, and 49), and a fourth is on the line tomorrow morning when the absentee ballots are counted in the race in House District 38. John Edwards leads that one by 71 votes for now. I was majority leader when we picked up three seats in the last session, so now I know how it feels to be on both sides. It's surprising that we lost seats in a mid-term election year for a very popular governor, and in an election cycle when Democrats did very well across the nation. Some candidates claimed that they were being drug down by the top of the national ticket. Could be, and it didn't help that many of our tightest races were in counties where we expected high turnouts for McCain. Still, the GOP deserves credit for fielding good candidates (and lots of women, more of which are needed in the legislature).

(2) Speaking of women in the legislature, we'll have 24 in the House in the upcoming session, a record.

(3) We've invited Rep.-elect Richard Carroll (Green-NLR) to caucus with us for the next session. He's historically a Democrat, so we'd welcome him into the party as well.

(4) I'm surprised at the outcome of many of the ballot issues, particularly the passage of annual sessions. It's hard to juggle a law practice and serve as a legislator with biennial sessions, so I'm really going to have to lean on my partners now that we'll convene annually -- talk about a redistribution of wealth. Not complaining, though. Being able to control agency budgets on an annual basis has its benefits.

(5) Credit goes to Bill Halter for running a well-organized and well-financed campaign for the lottery. The United Methodists (I am one, so I've been lobbied since the campaign started) have already sent out an e-mail urging legislators to reject the lottery. There will be lots of details in the enabling legislation for the lottery -- whether scratch-offs are allowed, whether the state will participate in Powerball or other type of lottery, etc, etc. There'll be no doubt that the legislation will contain an affirmation that excludes all casino gambling or other "games of chance." I'm sure Halter is already working on draft legislation.

(6) In the races for circuit judge around the state, winners include Robert Herzfeld, Shawn Womack, and Melinda Gilbert defeated Cathi Compton.

Here's a map showing the presidential vote by county:

Presidential vote by county
Blue: Obama/Biden    Red: McCain/Palin

And here's how Tuesday's vote in the presidential election compares to elections past:

This was the first winner Arkansas missed since 1968, when we cast our electoral votes for George Wallace. It's the first election that Logan and Van Buren counties missed in over 50 years.