Arizona is teh Gay

Although CNN is still refraining from calling it, Arizona is poised to become the first state to defeat an anti-gay so-called "protect marriage" amendment. This is a big dot deal. We were at the Tucson "No on 107" party tonight and the numbers look good. We're about 30,000 votes ahead with 97% of precincts reporting. Most of the remaining votes will come from Pima County (Tucson's county), which has so far overwhelmingly voted against the amendment. So far Maricopa County (Phoenix's county) also has slightly more votes against the amendment, which was not entirely expected.

EDIT: With 98.5% of precints reporting, including all of Maricopa, it now appears to be a statistical impossibility that 107 was not rejected. Arizona, you make me happy.

Blue Period

Holy crap, they're calling Missouri for the Demos. We may just pull this one out, folks.

19 initiatives

Besides 107 it was a pretty mixed bag.

Anything related to immigration issues was a loser, overwhelmingly. Totally reactionary:
Illegal immigrants are to be denied bail
Illegal immigrants can't bring civil suits
Illegal immigrants are to be denied certain public services
English is to be the official language

And it looks like while the developer backed state trust land measure was overwhelmingly rejected, the other one also looks to be going down as well. Also, the sneaky supposed "eminent domain" measure passed.

On the plus side:
The Smoke Free Arizona measure passed, while the one backed by the tobacco companies failed
Higher minimum wage
Funding for children's education
Humane treatment of farm animals

In slightly more neutral territory:
Looks like a measure to limit property tax increases will pass
A measure allowing more municipal debt for safety (police, etc) passed
A measure creating a lottery reward system for voting was surprisingly overwhelmingly rejected
As was a measure requiring vote by mail
First and second meth offenses are now eligible to be jailed rather than required to be placed on probation
A legislative pay raise was rejected