So, we had an election.

A good one for Democrats, generally. Kos has a nice wrap of of the national gains, from Virginia to Kentucky, Ohio to Mississippi and beyond. Closer to home, there's some gnashing of teeth and rending of garments over a mixed outcome in which the Republicans retained the only partisan race on the local ballot and both the most progressive and the most regressive ballot measures scored victories. Even more locally, it looks like the change needed on my local city council and school board is on its way.

I share the general dismay at Bill Sherman's defeat by Republican Dan Satterberg for King County Prosecuting Attorney. It's what happens, I suppose, when only 25% of King County voters bothered to register an opinion. Shockingly, we weren't the worst. Pierce County came in at 23.5% turnout, and Snohomish County rounded out the dismal performance on the eastern shore of the Sound in a virtual tie with King. That's a lot of folks missing between Everett and Tacoma. Folks we need in order to win.

It wasn't all bad, turnout wise. Out in the hinterlands, the numbers creep up through the 30s, 40s, 50s, up to a peak of 62% in Wahkiahum County. Of course, out in the hinterlands, folks tend to favor those Tim Eyman budget gimmicks and that school levy super majority stuff. Happily, they don't trust insurance companies any more than they do the guvmint, so R-67 was safe, but a 40 or 50% turnout in the Puget Sound region, hardly a lofty goal, would have put a stop to 960 and elected Bill Sherman. Still, the Republican's latest attempt to befuddle the electorate, this time with a nominee with the same last name as Democratic Assessor Scott Noble, was foiled by alert voters and the County Council maintains the status quo with a continuing Democratic majority. (The absence of meaningful challenges in the Council races (sorry, Mr. Pope) no doubt contributed to the low turnout.)

I don't share the dismay of some of my liberal compatriots over the demise of County Proposition 1, the roads and transit proposal. I was genuinely on the fence in the closing days, and ultimately voted against it, despite a barrage of over-sized, multi-folded, full color glossy propaganda filling my mailbox that seemed to provide too much assurance with too little information. Are we back to square one? Maybe that's where we belong.

In the Port Commission races, one of the progressive choices, Gael Tarleton, seems to have secured victory, while the other, Alec Fisken, is on the ropes, hoping for signs of life in the late mail ballots. Locally, the Shoreline School Board gets a shot of new blood with the election of Carl's pal Maren Norton, local high school grad who became student body president at Stanford before law school. Looks like a rising star. The City Council, meanwhile, gets a flock of new faces, which I was hoping for, and who I voted for.

Of course, even in the states that look great from afar, I'm sure local Democrats are suffering over the proverbial ones that got away. Meanwhile, there's a lot of work to do to gin up excitement and turnout for '08. A really terrific Presidential nominee would help. I have a suggestion, of course…