Ohio decisively rejected the evil Republican anti-worker anti-union law on Tuesday night, repealing Republican Governor John Kasich’s signature legislation in a referendum that could reverberate into 2012. Indeed, more on Ohio and 2012 in a minute. 63% of voters opted to restore bargaining rights for the state’s 350,000 unionized public employees. The margin of victory was even larger than the rout projected by several recent polls.
Mississippi rejected an anti-choice, anti-woman and anti-birth control constitutional amendment known as the “Personhood amendment,” which would have imposed the stiffest restrictions on abortion of any state. The amendment sought to define life as beginning at the point of fertilization, banned all abortions — including those to pregnancies caused by rape or incest — as well the morning-after pill. 57% of voters opposed the initiative.
Democrats also captured five of six statewide races in conservative Kentucky, including the battle for the governor’s mansion, where Democratic incumbent Steve Beshear coasted to a second term. In Arizona, Russell Pearce, the architect of the state’s fascist SB 1070, the anti-brown people law, became the first sitting senator to be recalled in the state’s history.
Maine voters approved a ballot initiative that restored same-day voter registration in Maine after the state’s teabagger fat Governor sought to take voting rights away since he took office. A Democrat won a special election for the state legislature in Iowa. A teabagger state legislator was recalled in Michigan.
Virginia seems to be the only negative spot, where Republicans took control of the State House and possibly the State Senate.
Meanwhile, as I alluded to earlier, good news regarding Ohio from the PPP poll done over the weekend:
Obama led all of his Republican opponents in the state by margins ranging from 9-17 points. After a very tough year for Democrats in Ohio in 2010, things are looking up.
Obama led Mitt Romney 50-41 on our poll. He was up 11 points on Herman Cain at 50-39, 13 on Newt Gingrich at 51-38, 14 on Ron Paul at 50-36, 14 on Michele Bachmann at 51-37 and a whooping 17 points on Rick Perry at 53-36. […]
The biggest thing Obama has going for him right now is an extremely unified Democratic base. Obama gets 88-92% of his party’s vote against the six Republican candidates. What makes that particularly notable is that his approval rating with Democratic voters is actually only 73%. But these numbers suggest that when election time comes around the party base will get around Obama whether they’re totally thrilled with him or not, and that’s a very good sign for his reelection prospects.