Electile Dysfunction

Okay, so the title's not original, nor is it all that classy, but it makes me smile a bit, so that's that.
You see, Tuesday, November 6 was election day. And like all other off-year elections, there wasn't a lot going on. However, in the races of which I am aware, my Dems performed rather well.
Nationally, Mississippi's republican governor was easily re-elected (no big surprise there), but in Kentucky, the Democratic challenger unseated the republican governor. Could this mean anything for Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell? Here's hoping so. Those were probably two of the bigger races that were going on in the country (see, off-year elections are pretty boring).
However, on a local note, here in the Commonwealth of Virginia the entire State Assembly was up for re-election. What does this mean to me? Not a lot, considering I live in the Democratic bastion that is Fairfax County--more specifically "Falls Church" (in parenthesies because of the whole un-incorporated Fairfax County/Falls Church propper rigamorole), where opponents of the repug-type are hard to come by. However, there were key races in the State Senate that needed to be won by the Democrats to wrest control of the chamber from the reps., and they did it. They needed, and won four. There is a fifth that has not been decided yet since there is only a 90-vote difference, and there will likely be a recount. So now, my Dems have the governorship, and one of the houses of the State Assembly here in the Commonwealth--Hooray!
Since I am a native Utahn and was a student of Politcal Science, how could I possibly not mention all of the fun that happened in the Beehive State yesterday. Ralph Becker (D) trounced his opponent, Dave Buhler (r) in the race to become the next mayor of Salt Lake City--see Dave, people don't like you (click here if that doesn't make sense to you). I want to give a shout out to Bianca and Curtis and the other Young Dems who worked hard on the campaign, good job guys.
More importantly in Utah yesterday, the proposal to take money from public schools to give a tax break to parents who have their children in private schools went down in flames. The Voucher proposal was defeated in every county in the state.
I personally have been opposed to this since I heard about the bill that was in the legislature when I was an intern there in 2005. It's never made sense to me that taking money from schools would help them to improve. The bill finally passed the legislature in 2007 but the people of Utah, in their wisdom, did not want it.
My reasons for not liking the vouchers include (but are not limited to) these:
1). Vouchers will ultimately take dollars from public schools.
2). Private schools don't even require licensed teachers.
3). Vouchers are another tax-break for the wealthy.
4). Private schools are not required to accept all students, and as such, vouchers can leave many students behind.
5). (and very importantly) Public funds from vouchers would be going to private, religious institutions. That, is not constitutional, and would likely end up costing the state a lot of money in court costs.
So hooray!! Vouchers in Utah are dead (for now at least--just wait until the nasty pro-voucher people find a way to resurrect the issue). Of course I am not naive enough to believe that there isn't need for change in the public school system. In my humble opinion, however, vouchers are not the answer. Way to go Utah--voting progressivly for a change.