AZ & western elections show progressive moves

TUCSON -- Arizona and the west are changing politically, for the better. Regular people, like me and my family, will be benefit.

Arizonans re-elected centrist dem Governor Napolitano, increased the minimum wage, cut factory farming animal cruelty, rejected a gay union/marriage ban, and curbed secondhand smoke dangers.

The election of Gabrielle Giffords to the US House is a great moment. I'm especially thrilled she won in rural Cochise County, where I spent half of October helping move voters her way. Gabby will serve well, fighting for fairness for families, and against corruption, global warming, and big corporate dominance of Washington. She will be a star in DC, and most importantly an effective voice for everyone.

Harry Mitchell's win over bad guy JD Hayworth shows that metro Phoenix, the 5th largest city in the US, is moving left. Arizona has gone purple, keeping dems Grijalva and Pastor, and picking up CD8 & 5, to make an evenly split US House delegation.

Too bad Jim Pederson lost, but he ran a solid race and exposed Jon Kyl. Thanks, Jim.

Westward, in Central California, the win of Jerry McNerney over Dick Pombo is huge for conservation! Maybe now we can get some decent environmental bills heard and passed in the House?

Overall, my family and I are pleased with the election results, but we'll all have to keep working to ensure meaningful change from the new congress.

Speaker-elect Pelosi and the House must strongly take on Bush right away in 07. We expect congress in January to quickly and aggressively start challenging all the Bush failures, on Iraq, environment, privacy, etc.

I'm going out into the warm AZ sun now to remove all the campaign signs now littering our neighborhood.