You read the headlines, you follow the news. But how many of these juicy post-election tidbits have you heard of, you sexy and savvy political savant, you?  Never fear, the Left Turn election recap is here, so you can breeze through your next cocktail party like the raconteur you truly are!

Let’s start with my personal favorite, New York Congressional District 23, in the northern tip of the state. As I predicted, a Democrat took the seat for the first time since 1872. The change was triggered when the RNC chose a moderate candidate favoring abortion rights and gay marriage, Dede Scozzafava, to run against the now-victorious Democrat Bill Owens. Irritated, the local Conservative Party reacted by nominating its own candidate, Doug Hoffman, which divided right-wing voters. The clincher: Scozzafava unexpectedly withdrew three days before the election, endorsing Owens and, lo and behold, he won! New York has 29 congressional seats, and now only two belong to the GOP. A pity . . . but don’t feel too bad; Republicans have yet to let it sink in.

While we’re in New York, let’s take a quick peek at the mayoral race between Independent Michael Bloomberg and Democrat William Thompson, or as TPM calls it, A major WTF in NYC. LOL. It’s a WTF because Bloomberg’s reelection was considered a sure thing. He’s popular, but more importantly, he has tons of money to campaign with. Bloomberg won, but in a close race: 51-46%, which pundits attribute to his unpopular decision to change term-limit laws. He won his 2005 election by twenty percentage points. Bloomberg is the eighth-richest man in America and spent $90 million in personal funds on the campaign.

The much-scrutinized gubernatorial race in New Jersey went to the GOP, with Republican candidate Chris Christie beating Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine 49-45%. Pundits have been obsessed with this race for some time; Jersey is considered a blue state, but Corzine has been incredibly unpopular with voters. Some of his best numbers were in late October, when polls came back with a disapproval rating of 56 percent. Yes, you read correctly, Corzine’s record high was a disapproval of 56 percent. Insert laughter.  So Christie had a fighting chance, and apparently his fortune cookie contained a tasty win for this year.

Virginia also went Republican. Here’s the thing about Virginia: it hasn’t elected a gubernatorial candidate from the party that held the White House since, oh, 1973. It’s rather infamous that way. Bearing that in mind, Virginia’s outcome was no surprise; Bob McDonnell beat Creigh Deeds 59-41%.

In Maine, voters repealed a spring law legalizing gay marriage, 53-47%. But there’s some good news. Also this spring, Washington State voters approved the “everything but marriage” law, which granted same-sex domestic partners the rights of married couples. Opponents responded with Referendum 71, which asked voters to reconfirm the measure. If they uphold their spring decision, Washingtonians will make history as the first to affirm a statewide measure “dealing with equality for same-sex couples,” according to the Seattle Times. Update: Victory! Referendum 71 has passed 52-48%.

Houston’s mayoral finalists, Annise Parker and Gene Locke, both Democrats, will have a runoff election December 12. If Parker is elected, she will be the city’s first openly-gay mayor. Parker received 30.5% of the votes to Locke’s 25.9%. A runoff is needed to receive 50 percent of the votes.

On to Colorado. Councilmember Jan Martin’s ballot measure 2C was, disappointingly and not surprisingly, shot down by a wide margin. Wider than even I expected: 63-37%. Doug Bruce’s measure 300 won 55-45%. The measure will save citizens 52 cents on utility bills, or 30 minutes on a parking meter.

What, 52 cents? Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou! By the way, measure 300 will also mean another 3 million in city budget cuts. Um, thank you?

Moving on. Manitou Springs elected Democrat Marc Snyder as its Mayor with 50% of the vote, 45% favoring Rick Barry. In Breckenridge, 72 percent of voters opted to legalize possession of up to one ounce of marijuana, although technically the state still considers it illegal, so the new law is largely symbolic. In Denver, over two-thirds of voters decided against a measure to impound vehicles driven without a valid driver’s license.

That concludes the Left Turn election recap, but wait — there’s more! In a beautifully uplifting moment of pure bliss, Dave Schultheis announced Tuesday that he will not run for reelection in Colorado’s Senate District 9, leaving behind moderate candidate Tom McDowell, who many assumed would face Schultheis in a primary.

Schultheis made headlines in February for stating that HIV “stems from sexual promiscuity for the most part” and that HIV-positive babies would serve as a warning against promiscuity: “I think people will be like, ‘Gosh, That’s a terrible thing.’ They’ll say, ‘We don’t want that to happen, so we have to tell our daughters, don’t be promiscuous, because you could have a baby like that.’” Hasta la vista, Schultheis.

New York’s congressional district 23 could make history on Tuesday by electing its first democratic representative since 1872, just after the Civil War.

The historically conservative district was internally divided after Rep. John McHugh was appointed by President Obama as United States Secretary of the Army. McHugh’s promotion forced a special election, but the Republican Party’s pick to replace him didn’t satisfy movement conservatives in the area.

Dede Scozzafava is a moderate Republican, favoring  gay marriage and abortion rights. When she was selected to run against Democrat Bill Owens, the Conservative Party decided to fight back, introducing Doug Hoffman as an alternative third candidate who supports social conservatism. The move was unprecedented, dividing the vote amongst conservatives and all but handing the win to Owens. The decision to sacrifice electoral victory to moral principles reflects a growing schism between moderates and far-right conservatives which we glimpsed in the recent presidential election.

Then on Saturday, everything changed. Scozzafava unexpectedly dropped out of the race, and just as pundits were breathlessly declaring victory for Hoffman, the following morning she endorsed her Democratic rival, Owens:

Since beginning my campaign, I have told you that this election is not about me; it’s about the people of this District.

It is in this spirit that I am writing to let you know I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same.

It’s not in the cards for me to be your representative, but I strongly believe Bill is the only candidate who can build upon John McHugh’s lasting legacy in the U.S. Congress….In Bill Owens, I see a sense of duty and integrity that will guide him beyond political partisanship. He will be an independent voice devoted to doing what is right for New York. Bill understands this district and its people, and when he represents us in Congress he will put our interests first.

Scozzafava’s resignation was followed by Newt Gingrich roundly condemning the conservative party’s hostile opposition to the RNC’s choice:

“I think we are going to get into a very difficult environment around the country if suddenly conservative leaders decide they are going to anoint people without regard to local primaries and local choices.”

Sarah Palin has endorsed Conservative candidate Hoffman, and Joe Biden recently campaigned on behalf of Owens.

A few surprises came out of last year’s November election, not the least of which was Colorado’s unprecedented support for Democratic candidates. Democrats won a number of seats considered to be reliably Republican, including a win by Betsy Markey in the fourth Congressional district, which includes Greeley, Fort Collins, Loveland and Longmont. Markey’s election marks the first time a Democrat has held the seat since 1973.

The district has since been targeted by both parties as a key battleground for 2010, but Rep. Markey already has an enormous fundraising advantage.  According to the Fort Collins Coloradoan, she’s raised $978,000, compared to her opponent, State Rep. Cory Gardner, with $394,000. Although the election is over a year away, attack ads are already airing against Markey, who defeated incumbent Marilyn Musgrave 57-43 last year.

Musgrave made Rolling Stone’s list of  “The Ten Worst Congressmen” in 2006, where she was listed as “The Christian Soldier.”

Colorado’s scholarship and loan forgiveness program for higher education, CollegeInvest, was recently audited, and the results are making headlines across the state. The audit reveals a shocking mismanagement of funds, including failure to fully distribute aid and “questionable” administrative expenses.

The audit found that the program “failed to give out 330 of the 565 (58 percent) Service Scholarships and Opportunity Scholarships that had been advertised and budgeted and therefore failed to fund $860,000 out of $1.8 million available.”

The group also disbursed only $91,000, or 0.1 %, of available scholarship and trust funds, as opposed to the 3.8 million, or 5%, outlined in its investment policy. Only 76 students received the funds.

Since 2006, the audit found that “CollegeInvest has spent almost $10 in
administrative costs for every $1 that has been disbursed in scholarships,” or 873,000 in expenses to $91,000 disbursed. Of the expenses reviewed from 2008 and 2009, 18% were “questionable.”

The audit points out that “much of the responsibility for administering the program falls on colleges’ financial aid offices. As a result, financial aid counselors reported that the program is burdensome for them to administer.” It also discusses “hidden costs” in the program.

View the full audit here.

Since Jerry Heimlicher announced his resignation from City Council, a slew of applications have poured into the Council inbox. The application deadline was today at 5:00 pm.

One last-minute submission came from former District 3 candidate Dave Gardner, who lost his bid for City Council in a 57-43 vote to Heimlicher, the incumbent, this spring. A local environmentalist and anti-growth spokesperson, Gardner is often at odds with the Council zeitgeist. In his application letter, Gardner writes,

The heart of our disagreements has been our approach to growth. Votes and remarks indicate the majority on this Council believes continued expansion of the city is desirable and beneficial - so much so that you’re willing to subsidize growth at the expense of essential city services. . . .

You seem to believe bigger is better. I believe getting bigger increases the size of our problems and creates new ones.

Another would-be councilmember is Sean Paige, the former opinion page editor of The Gazette.  Paige helped run a successful campaign against 1A, a proposed mill levy extension, in April. A majority on Council are still smarting from the spring defeat.

Ryan Acker, the Executive Director of the Colorado Springs Pride Center, has also applied. Acker is well-versed in local politics, a progressive activist and a team-player. It would be great if Council could explode its reputation for social conservatism and prove capable of surprising us by selecting Acker, but while Colorado Springs may be ready for progressive local representation, much of our current Council is not. 

It’s easy to picture Janet Suthers, the former Cheyenne Mountain School Board president, Co-Director of the Colorado Springs Leadership Institute, and wife of Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, winning the Council popularity contest. Suthers’ name appears as an endorser on Heimlicher’s old campaign website, where she’s listed under the generic category of ”Community and Business Leader” and described as a “community activist.”

Nearly as important as her prestigious resumé is Suthers’ endorsement of 2C, the controversial ballot measure which would gradually raise property taxes over the next five years. The Council claims that a 2C endorsement is not a deal-breaker, but one could easily bet against a dissenter being chosen. If the nomination proceeds with anything like business-as-usual, they’ll pick someone from their circle of friends who will play nice with their current agenda.

CONO, the Council of Neighborhoods and Organizations, is hosting its third and final series on the economy. Speakers will include former president and community activist Jan Doran, Gazette publisher Steve Pope and Chamber CEO Dave Csintyan .

When: Tuesday, October 13, 6:30pm-8:30pm

Where: West Intergenerational Center — the old Buena Vista Elementary School –  1628 West Bijou

What: Free community forum on the local economy

62,000 hours of transit service are on the chopping block in 2010. Some 30,000 people rely on this service to get to work, go to the doctor, shop for groceries, and more. Learn about the impact of the cuts and possible alternatives. Free, RSVP for lunch at 471-8181.

When: Thursday, Sept. 24, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Where: First United Methodist Church, 420 N. Nevada Ave.

What: An open forum and panel discussion on the current funding challenges Mountain Metro faces and what can be done about it.