Super victors deserve kudos

Hail to the winners and woe to the losers of Super Tuesday’s

election.

The winners are many: Proponents of the status quo in city

government, high school students, the virtually assured election to

the state Senate, an incumbent congressman handily beating back a

challenge from a political rival, more money from Sacramento for

local governments and schools, and a new electronic voting booth

being used for the first time with a couple of glitches.

The Huntington Beach Union High School District was given a green

light to update and repair its decaying campuses. It was a victory

for the students, parents, teachers, schools and the district.

Residents overpowered the big bucks backing Measure E, the

initiative that would have split Surf City into five council

districts and reduced the number of the City Council’s members. The

grassroots’ effort took on a plan put forth by former Assemblyman

Scott Baugh and backed by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher -- and won.

While Rohrabacher lost on Measure E, he had a personal

professional victory on March 2.

In December, Rohrabacher might not have been sleeping too easily

when his political foe Robert Dornan pulled papers to run against the

longtime incumbent Republican from Huntington Beach. Dornan had

threatened such moves before, and now, he was making good on that

threat.

But come March, Dornan never really showed up for the fight, and

Rohrabacher crushed the still feisty former congressman by 60%.

Rohrabacher will take on Democrat Jim Brandt in November.

In the race for the 35th State Senate District seat being vacated

by Ross Johnson, Assemblyman John Campbell ran a spirited campaign

against fellow Assemblyman Ken Maddox and Dana Point Mayor Joe

Snyder. It wasn’t really a fair fight.

Campbell’s war chest of $1 million dwarfed Maddox’s, who had about

half that amount. Campbell far overshadowed Maddox and Snyder in name

recognition and garnered one of the biggest prizes of all -- an

endorsement by popular Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Campbell will take on Democrat Rita Siebert next November in what

is most surely going to be another Republican landslide in this GOP

stronghold.

City and school officials were breathing a sigh of relief

Wednesday with the victory of two statewide bond measures,

Propositions 55 and 57. Proposition 55 will ensure additional money

to enhance Newport-Mesa’s Measure A improvement funds and Proposition

57, the $15-billion borrowing plan touted by Gov. Schwarzenegger,

should keep cities from having to make deep cuts to services.

Finally, kudos to the new InkaVote, which replaced the old punch

card ballots.

The only loser to mention, according to the county registrar of

voters, is democracy itself: A woeful 34% of registered voters cast

ballots in this primary election compared to 48% four years ago.

With hanging chads finally a thing of the past, maybe voter

turnout is the next big issue for election officials to tackle --

hopefully in time for November.