I spent the morning contemplating the deeper meanings of Tuesday’s election –  just me and a zillion other orange-clad fanatics lined up on the streets of San Francisco. For the San Francisco Giants’ World Series victory parade, people went nuts. The buzz of vuvuzelas, horns, sirens, costumes, cheering, chanting. (Oo-ree-bay! Oo-ree-bay!)  So much fun.

Home again and once more serious, I offer this random download on Tuesday’s results:

– So much for slates.

The resident political camps wanted Santa Rosa voters to embrace slates of candidates. But the voters showed that they prefer to make their own choices, thank you very much.

The City Council winners are one from Column A, Susan Gorin, and two from Column B, Jake Ours and Scott Bartley.

Having run on a slate and having decried her rivals as “the big-box slate,” Gorin told a TV audience on election night:  “Santa Rosans are pretty sophisticated. They reject slate politics.”

So now you tell us.

– Money can’t buy you happiness.

Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for governor, spent $142 million of her own money, and in return, received 3,088,070 votes. As other bloggers have noted, that’s more than $45 a vote – more than $50 a vote if you add the donations from other sources.

Fruit baskets might have been cheaper.

– If you want to win, draw the lines yourself.

If you think California doesn’t need reapportionment reform, consider this: The approval rating for the California legislature barely reaches double digits, but not a single incumbent on the ballot Tuesday was defeated. Not one.

The good news is, district boundaries are scheduled to be re-drawn by a citizens’ commission in time for the 2012 elections.

– In a sea of red, there is still California.

Political landscapes change, and some day, California might be a red state. But if Republicans couldn’t win major statewide races in this election, it may be a long time before they do. While Democrats were being routed in most other states, Democrat Jerry Brown recaptured the governor’s office after a 28-year absence and Democrat Barbara Boxer won six more years in the United States Senate.

– There’s no Republican like Schwarzenegger.

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today was celebrating a victory over Texas oil companies and the defeat of Proposition 23, an initiative to suspend the state’s efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Can you name another Republican politician who worries about climate change and picks fights with oil companies?

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