ARIZONA
Incumbent Rep.
Rick Renzi, R, soundly defeated Democratic hopeful Paul
Babbitt in a contest for the U.S. House seat representing
the state’s largest — and predominantly Democratic
— District 1 (HCN, 10/25/04: Dems stumble in Arizona race).
Proposition 200, which passed with
Hispanic support, prevents non-citizens from voting and requires
proof of legal immigration to obtain government services, including
welfare and schooling.
CALIFORNIA
Californians said yes to Proposition 64, which
makes it harder for individuals and state and local attorneys to
sue businesses for unfair practices.
Voters said
no to Proposition 70, which would have allowed
tribal casinos to exceed the current limits on slot machines in
exchange for giving the state 8.8 percent of gambling income.
Anti-biotech forces have to go back to the drawing board
in Butte, San Luis Obispo and Humboldt counties, where
voters rejected bans on genetically modified
crops. Only Marin County adopted a ban (HCN, 10/25/04:
Californians take a stand on GE crops).
COLORADO
Democrat Ken Salazar
defeated Republican Pete Coors for the U.S. Senate.
Salazar will be the first Hispanic senator in over a
quarter-century.
Ken’s brother, Democrat
John Salazar, defeated Republican Greg Walcher for U.S.
House District 3.
Colorado narrowly
passed Amendment 37, the nation’s
first voter-implemented renewable energy policy, which
requires the state’s seven largest utilities to generate 10
percent of their energy supply from clean energy sources by 2015 .
IDAHO
Bush won over 70
percent of the vote in a state whose congressional
delegation in Washington, D.C., is entirely Republican.
Senate GOP incumbent Michael Crapo received over 99
percent of votes; his opponent was write-in Democratic
candidate Scott F. McClure.
Idaho’s state
Legislature has the highest concentration of Republicans
in the country; 80 percent of it is in the hands of the GOP.
MONTANA
Despite the fact that Canyon
Resources Corp. of Golden, Colo., dumped six times more money into
the campaign than the initiative’s opponents, I-147, was
soundly rejected, and a an on open-pit cyanide leach
mining will stand.
Brian Schweitzer
will become Montana’s first Democratic governor
since 1984. And while Republicans maintained control of the state
House, Democrats gained six seats to take control of the Senate.
Conservative Cindy Younkin lost her
bid to replace Jim Nelson on the state Supreme Court (HCN,
10/11/04: State judges get political).
Voters
cemented their right to hunt: Approval of Constitutional
Amendment 41 guarantees Montanans the right to hunt and fish
“forever.”
NEVADA
Senate
incumbent Democrat Harry Reid was re-elected and
will seek the Senate minority leader seat
vacated by defeated South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle.
Bush
won the state despite his administration’s promise to
bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.
NEW MEXICO
Tom Udall was
re-elected as New Mexico’s sole Democrat in the
House, and incumbent Heather Wilson, R, defeated Richard Romero, D.
Bush received more Hispanic votes than in
2000, winning 2 out of 5, while American Indians
supported Kerry 2 to 1.
Oregon
Oregonians approved Measure
37, or the “Wal-Mart Expansion Act,” which means that
state and local governments now have to compensate property owners,
or forgo enforcement, when land-use regulations diminish property
value.
Voters rejected Measure 34, or the “50/50
plan,” which would have required the state to balance
timber production with natural resource conservation in the
Tillamook and Clatsop state forests.
Democrats
picked up three seats to take control of the previously split
Senate, and gained two seats in the Republican-controlled
House.
Last May, only 10 percent of Oregon’s
registered voters were under the age of 25. But by election time,
young people made up 35 percent of the state’s
voters.
UTAH
In the House,
Democrat Jim Matheson defeated Republican John
Swallow in the Republican-dominated 2nd District, which
includes a large part of Salt Lake County.
Republican Jon Huntsman Jr., trade official and
heir to a chemical fortune, convincingly defeated Democrat Scott
Matheson for Utah’s governor’s seat (HCN, 9/27/04).
Salt Lake County Mayor-elect Peter Corroon is
the first Democrat in a decade to lead Utah’s most
populous county.
Voters defeated Initiative
1, which would have allowed a one-twentieth of 1 cent tax
increase to purchase and restore open space, 55 percent to 45
percent (HCN, 10/11/04).
Eight out of 10
Mormons helped Utah deliver President Bush his
largest winning margin in the nation.
WASHINGTON
Sixty-one percent of
voters don’t want electronic slot machines in
non-tribal establishments. Nearly all the money to fight Initiative
892 came from Indian tribes.
Initiative 297, which
prohibits dumping more nuclear waste at Hanford
Nuclear Reservation until the existing waste is cleaned up, passed
with nearly 70 percent of the vote.
Democrats
picked up two seats, and thus the majority, in the state
Senate, and increased their lead by 3 seats in the House.
Voters elected politically conservative Jim Johnson to the
state Supreme Court (HCN, 10/11/04).
As we go
to press, the governor’s race is still
undecided. If elected, Dino Rossi will be
Washington’s first Republican governor since 1980. Rossi
carries 31 of 39 counties, and, with 80,000 ballots left to count,
is ahead of Democrat Christine Gregoire by one-tenth of 1 percent.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Racetrack.
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