Some bright spots in 2006 elections

By now you know that the Democratic party won control of the US House and possibly won control of the US Senate as result of the 2006 midterm elections.

There were some bright spots for those of us who support separation of church and state.

Here in Ohio, Deborah Owens Fink, the state school board member who was leader of the movement to force Intelligent Design into Ohio public schools, lost her election for another term. She had only 29% of the votes.

Then of course J. Kenneth Blackwell, who had extreme religious conservative views, lost the Ohio governorship. You can view the exit poll here.

In Indiana, Rep. James Hostettler (R-IN) who introduced the “Public Expression of Religion Act” that was passed as the “Veterans’ Memorials, Boy Scouts, Public Seals, and Other Public Expressions of Religion Protection Act of 2006”, lost his House seat tonight. The law is now in the Senate as S.3696. (see previous post American Legion backs law in attempt to stifle religious dissent)

The open seats of former House members Mark Foley and Tom Delay passed into Democratic hands.

Although same-sex marriage ballot initiatives passed in most all states where it was on the ballot (Arizona being the exception), South Dakota voters rejected a draconian anti-abortion bill that had been signed into law in March. The law had been passed in an effort to challenge Roe v. Wade. The hope being that someone would file a lawsuit and the case would go to the US Supreme Court and its conservative majority.

The only sour note is that some of the Democrats who won on Tuesday are known as religious conservatives, however this way is better than an entire party pandering to the religious right.

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