A ray of Austin sunshine.

With all the gloom of the national races, I almost forgot about the local Austin races. Thankfully, Austin voters seem to not have their heads up their collective asses. A few bright spots this morning:

1. Kerry handily won Travis County. Not that this matters, but it makes me feel good.

2. Capital Metro's rail referrendum passed, opening the door for light and commuter rail in the city. Yay!

3. One of the local Republicans involved in the Texas redistricting fiasco, Jack Stick, has gone down in defeat. Another, Todd Baxter, is still locked in a hotly contested fight that will only be decided by recounts, provisional, and absentee ballots.

4. A Democrat who fled to Oklahoma during the same redistricting mess, Pete Rose, survived a challenge from an ultra-conservative Republican.

5. Perennial Austin favorite US Representative Lloyd Doggett crushed his Republican opponent in his new district, despite Republican attempts to gerrymander him out of office. Another Texas Democrat, Chet Edwards, survived as well.

6. A slew of Democratic judges in Austin were reelected, and Travis County elected our first African Amercian sheriff. Also, our DA, who is currently prosecuting Tom DeLay, also survives.

So it's not all bad news. I still wish the overall results were different than what they appear to be, but oh well. Like Burt Reynolds in Deliverance, we'll survive this backwoods assault on our dignity.

Fnord.