Election Results...

After reading quickly through the California and San Diego election results, here's some quick reactions:

• Propositions 98 and 99: big disappointment, though I can't say it's a surprise. The developers and cities put on a big, slick, and persuasive advertising campaign that bet on the public not even bothering to read the analysis on the ballot pamphlet – and they won their bet handily.
• San Diego mayor: Sanders wins, no runoff. The best of an unimpressive field won.
• San Diego city attorney: Aguirre and Goldsmith are headed for a runoff, and Goldmith had a very strong showing. My bet would be that many of the challengers not making the runoff will throw their support to Goldsmith; the incumbent (Aguirre) has made a lot of enemies. Peters and Maienschein – two of the city council members closely associated with the city's pension fund disaster – both had very weak showings. This is a welcome gust of sanity from the voters.
• San Diego city council seats: these surprised me in a positive way. One reformer (Carl DeMaio) won outright, three other reformers are headed for runoffs with strong showings. We just might endup up throwing the bums off the council (meaning: the candidates supported by the city employees unions might lose, or at least enough of them so that the unions lose their strangehold on the council). Good.
• Duncan D. Hunter wins the Republican nomination to succeed his dad. Excellent.