Politics In An Off Year

This is what happens in an off-year election.  There are few state or federal races being contested, but some cities are electing mayors and some states are letting voters decide on referendums (whether it's funding schools or approving same-sex marriage).  Otherwise, to give all the political pundits something to do, the main focus was on the races for Governor in New Jersey and Virginia, and a congressional election in New York state.

It turns out that the Republican candidates won both gubernatorial contests, sending Democrats into fits of worry over whether they should scale back their agenda if they want to be re-elected in the future.  This was also seen as a rebuke of President Barack Obama's policies on the economy and health care, even though his approval ratings are still high, and the White House blames the losses on not campaigning hard enough.

But Republicans are equally capable of shooting themselves in the foot in the name of ideological purity.  In that congressional race in upstate New York, the GOP replaced a moderate local candidate with a conservative who didn't even live in the district, sending in heavy hitters such as Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to campaign for him.  The Democratic challenger ended up winning the seat by a narrow margin.

In Minnesota, R.T. Rybak remains mayor of Minneapolis, and Chris Coleman is still mayor of St. Paul.  Both easily won re-election against token opposition.  But the big story was Instant Runoff Voting (also known as Ranked Choice Voting), which was used for the first time in Minneapolis and approved by voters in St. Paul.

How IRV/RCV is supposed to work (correct me if I'm wrong) is if you voted for your first choice on one ballot, then you could vote for your second choice on another ballot, and so on.  If a runoff is needed, the top two vote-getters who did not pass the 50 percent mark would face off in another election.  Got that?  Supporters say that this makes elections fairer and more candidates would have a chance.  Detractors think too many novelty acts would go on the ballot and make voting more complicated than it needs to be.  Aren't elections long enough already?

Now that Rybak has been re-elected, would he use his win as a stepping stone to the Governor's mansion in 2010, maneuvering his way past a crowded field to earn the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party's nomination?  He's not saying yet, but all the signs are pointing in that direction.

And then there's Governor Pawlenty, who hosted his first PAC fundraiser attended by high rollers, party hangers-on, and a couple of has-been actors brought in for atmosphere.  Then he's scheduled to make a speech in Iowa this weekend, which just happens to be a caucus state.  Hey, Pawlenty might say he's not running for President in 2012, but he sure acts like he is.

To fulfill his ambition, Pawlenty needs work in the name recognition department.  In a USA Today/Gallup Poll, published in Thursday's edition of The Nation's Newspaper, the Governor is ranked fifth among possible GOP presidential candidates, trailing Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Palin, in that order.  Not that it really means anything at this point, but who knows?

So, just because it's an off-year election, that doesn't mean we can't waste precious cyberspace talking about What It All Means.  Right?