First, the bad: the judicial retention vote, voting out the three Iowa justices who fulfilled their duty under the Constitution only to have one-issue voters strike them down. I'm hopeful this is a short-term result and that things will calm down and with education, people will understand the importance of an independent judiciary that is not bought-and-paid-for through electoral politics. I just hope the vote doesn't cause other judges and justices to think first of their own career and less about what the law means in Iowa.
The Good? That both Meg Whitman and Linda McMahon spent millions of dollars of their own money trying to buy the voters of their state without success.
And, that while many Democrats lost, many of the loses were by narrow margins so that it was not so much of a blowout as pre-election polls seemed to project.
The future? We need some creative thinkers to come up with a method to hold free and fair elections and respect free speech rights under the lst Amendment while limiting the effect of money in politics AND to have full disclosure of any and all persons who contribute any funds to electoral races. No more outside state or district money without a clear description of where it's coming from.
