San Joaquin Homes Community Blog

Election Highlights

The 2008 election, the longest and most expensive presidential campaign season in U.S. history, is now behind us. This year’s election was historic on many levels and is one that will not soon be forgotten.

Voter turnout was the largest since 1920, with voter registration numbers up 7.3 percent since the last presidential election in 2004 more than 130 million votes cast. Democrats will control the White House and both houses of Congress, but the majorities the Democrats hold are not as big as some had predicted. The No. 1 issue on voters’ minds was the economy, coupled with the public’s desire for change and the Democrats’ huge financial and organizational advantage, so it is no surprise that Democrats had a good night. A record $5.3 billion was spent on campaigns across the country.

President
It was a historic night for President-elect Barack Obama; his financial and organizational advantages over Sen. John McCain paid off as he was able to far exceed the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency; in fact, he received 364. Obama accomplished victories in the battleground states of Ohio, Florida and Virginia, and was able to increase the percentage of young and African American voters. Obama raised a record $650 million over the past year and half – an unprecedented figure. He carried the popular vote by about 7 percent, at a margin of 53 percent to 46 percent.

U.S. Senate
In the Senate, Democrats did not achieve the magic number of 60 needed to defeat a filibuster, but they did make significant gains. Republicans retained their open seats in Idaho and Nebraska, but lost their open seats in Colorado, New Mexico and Virginia. Couple those victories with upsets in Alaska, Oregon, North Carolina and New Hampshire, and there will be at least seven new Democratic Senators headed to Washington in January. Democrats held the seat in Louisiana as did Republicans in Kentucky and Mississippi. But not all the Senate races were determined on Election Day. Waiting continues for final results from Georgia and Minnesota – both seats currently held by Republicans. A run-off is planned in Georgia on Dec. 2, because of a state mandate, and there is a recount moving forward in Minnesota.

U.S. House of Representatives
As expected, Democrats will maintain control of the House in the 111th Congress and while it was not a good night for Republicans, it could have been much worse. With six races still not called, Democrats have netted a 19 seat gain, which could increase depending on the outcome of the final few races.

It will definitely not be “business as usual” in Washington Jan. 20 when President-elect Obama and the 111th Congress are sworn-in. The multifamily housing industry will need to be more unified than ever before to ensure our elected officials not only hear our voices on the issues important to NAA, but work together with our real estate partners and other like-minded businesses to pass effective and responsible legislation that is important to our organization, our associates and our members.

Norbert Huston @ www.SanJoaquinHomes.info is a proud member of the National Apartment Association (The following article was published on 11-26-08)