2009 Election Results

The 2009 elections were generally good for conservatives.

In Virginia, Republican Bob McDonnell won by 18 point over Creigh Deeds, who Barack Obama campaigned for. Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling and Attorney General-elect Ken Cuccinelli won by similar margins. Cuccinelli in particular is a very staunch conservative. Republicans picked up several seats in the Virginia House of Delegates.

In New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie won 49-44 over incumbent democrat Jon Corzine, who Obama campaigned heavily for. Christie is the most conservative candidate elected governor of New Jersey in many decades.

In Maine, voters rejected 'gay marriage' 53-47 after the legislature passed a bill purporting to create such a thing. In Texas, voters overwhelmingly passed a measure protecting property rights from eminent domain abuse. In Pennsylvania, a Republican was elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, giving the GOP the majority.

There was a tough loss in the special election in New York's 23rd district, where democrat Bill Owens won 49-46 over Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman. Yet the fact that a conservative third party challenger got 46% of the vote after driving a liberal Republican out of the race is still unprecedented.

Elsewhere in New York, liberal independent mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg was reelected by a surprisingly narrow margin after spending at least $112 million of his own money. Republicans picked up a couple seats on the city council in northern Queens. A Republican defeated the democrat incumbent Westchester County executive.

In California, a democrat won the special election for a democrat-held seat by a closer-than-usual margin.

In Michigan, Dave Bing was reelected Mayor of Detroit. A majority of the dysfunctional city council will be new, though there are reasons to be pessimistic about the new council.
New Detroit City Council Members Have Financial Problems, Debt, Tax Evasion Record

In the special election for the 19th state senate district covering Calhoun and most of Jackson counties, former state rep. Mike Nofs overwhelmingly defeated state rep. Marty Griffin 61-34. It's surprising that the democrats didn't try harder for this seat.

In Kalamazoo, the results were about as good for the left as they could have hoped.

The discrimination ordinance was passed 62-38. See this post for details and analysis:
Discrimination Ordinance Passes

The Metro Transit ordinance passed overwhelmingly, to nobody's surprise.

The incumbent city commissioners were all reelected in the same order as they achieved in 2007. This includes criminal Stephanie Moore. The seventh spot was won by 'gay rights' advocate Terry Kuseske. The runner-up was Don Cooney ally Mike Kilbourne.

In Portage, the incumbents were reelected, and Patricia Randall was elected to the partial term.

In Battle Creek, Republican Elizabeth Fulton was elected to the city council.