...I should let you know that our levy failed by 229 votes. :(

I feel bad for our community, which would have benefited greatly by new, improved schools, and for our kids. It puts us as board members in a challenging position as we decide how to go forward from here with buildngs that are aging and that will cost more to maintain than the cost of new buildings to build would have been.

But, I understand change can be difficult, and our levy was a thing to swallow. It's not a great economy, either.

On the other hand, my election nights seem to follow a weird pattern. While locally it was a not-very-happy night for me, Democrats won governorships in Virginia and New Jersey. Virginia is especially sweet because George Bush went to campaign for the Republican governor, and is now being credited in part for electing a Democrat.

As an AP reporter put it, "Iraq, Katrina, CIA leak, Harriet Miers. Things couldn't possibly get any worse for President Bush.

"Wait, they just did."

Actually, it's interesting, because at the election night party I was with, I talked with a Republican who has some inside-the-Beltway connections. I asked him if he was comfortable going into 2006, and he said yes. He said the big indication was going to be how things went last night in New Jersey and Virginia.

Wonder if he's as comfortable now.

And these off-year elections can be bellwethers. There are a lot of people who think the first sign of Clinton's 1992 victory was when Bush 41's former AG, Dick Thornburgh, lost his race for governor of Pennsylvania in 1991.

Always interesting...