Prop 23 gets clogged, prop 19 is nipped in the bud
By Matt Rupel
On Tuesday, citizens around the United States cast their votes in the midterm elections.
Locally, Californians decided against legalizing marijuana, stopped Proposition 23 from passing and elected a Democrat, Jerry Brown, as governor.
Republicans swept the House of Representatives and the Senate majority remained in the hands of Democrats.
Student reactions to the elections were mixed. Santa Clara students, with generally liberal leanings, were mostly happy about the gubernatorial election result as well as the sound defeat of Proposition 23, the ballot initiative to suspend California's limit on corporate pollution until unemployment falls.
Many however expressed disappointment that Proposition 19, the legalization of marijuana, failed to pass.
"People who want to smoke weed are going to smoke weed," said Junior Michael Busch, "they aren't going to stop because it's illegal."
Not all students shared these views.
Some students had more conservative views on the controversial issues and had hoped that Republicans might have gained more power in California.
Freshman Naomi Evans, a California native, was glad that Proposition 19 didn't pass.
"I actually voted and I read the pros and cons and saw that Mothers Against Drunk Driving was against it," Evans said, "and I think that legalizing marijuana might have lead to a lot more accidents."
Nationally, the Democrats suffered severe blows in Congress.
The GOP gained 64 seats in the House, surpassing the 39 they needed to gain control of the chamber. According to various major news networks on Tuesday night, the election was one of the largest landslide victories for Republicans in generations.
The Democrats did manage to hold the senate, however, with Republicans only gaining six of the necessary ten seats they need to command the other legislative chamber.
With Congress facing a severe split along party lines, the legislative and executive branches are likely to go head-to-head on several issues. It remains to be seen how much the government will be able to accomplish with such strong divisions along party lines.
According to an article from the Associated Press published early Wednesday morning after the elections, it's unlikely that the politicians from these two opposing sides will be able to come to swift compromise and produce effective policy changes.
Voters can expect long stalls on changes to the Bush Tax Cuts and the health-care overhaul, as the split Congress is likely to oppose most legislation proposed by the opposing parties.
"It's going to set up a lot of stand-stills," said Freshman Russell Williams, "but that's just the way democracy works."
While the Republicans swept government offices nationwide, California remained overwhelmingly Democratic. Candidates from the leftist party won all but one of the state's constitutional seats.
This can largely be attributed to the fact that California is a "blue" state. According to a September publication by the Public Policy Institute of California, 44.5 percent of the 17 million registered voters in California identify as Democrats while only 30.8 percent identify as Republicans.
Despite California's tendency to vote Democratically, this was one of the mostly hotly contested races for governorship in the history of the state. According to the Los Angeles Times, it was also the most expensive race for the governorship in Californian history- Whitman alone spent $160 million on her campaign, $141.5 million of that coming out of her pocket. Luckily for Whitman, she still has more.
Whitman's spending may not have translated to a Republican victory, but the national elections proved that public opinion is shifting away from the party in power. It seems that Democrats have two years to contend with the Republican controlled House, while proving to American voters why they should stay in power.
Contact Matt Rupel at mrupel@scu.edu or (408) 554-4546.