Election Night Hang-Over

I don’t know if it was because I was up too late watching the election night results, or because I had too much wine, but I woke up with a terrible hangover today. Actually, I didn’t sleep well at all last night, tossing and turning, never really getting into a deep sleep. I must have woken up like ten times to pee. It sucked.

What also sucks is that my girl, Cathy Cox, lost to “The Big Guy” Mark Taylor in the Democratic Gubernatorial Primary last night. While I really didn’t care too much about the other primaries, with exception of Lt. Governor (give ‘em Hecht”), I had a personal stake in this election as I have been an early Cathy supporter and volunteered time to her campaign. I really liked Cathy’s platform and believed she would be, hands down, the best candidate to take on incumbent Sonny Perdue.

I volunteered a Saturday a few months back, and met up with many other Cathy supporters at the state capitol building here in Atlanta for a commercial shoot. I was asked to wear a nice suit because I was going to be playing a “young professional.” Instead, they made me into an “evil lobbyist.” I had a good time and was going to be used prominently in two or more ads. Unfortunately, I’ll never see those ads as they were shot to be used against Sonny in the main campaign leading up to the election in November, not during the primary race.

I’ve never been this attached to an election before. Sure, I felt like ass the day after Bush was reelected, but it wasn’t personal. The connection with this election was different. I was actually part of it, I had worked with others toward a goal, and I stuffed envelopes for crying out loud!

I don’t know why Cathy lost, as I thought her message resonated well with voters, and opinions of her were high. Maybe it was the plethora of negative ads that Mark Taylor ran. They weren’t “John McCain has an illegitimate black child” bad, but they weren’t good either. Cathy defended herself well, but evidently not well enough. Maybe I’ll get an e-mail later today, the final of the Cathy for Governor mailing list, giving a few theories (supposedly she wants to run again in four years, and she’ll likely get the chance as I don’t see anyone, even her, beating Sonny this year) but until then I’ll just sort of mope around work.

I’ve got a terrible head ache today and really do feel like crap. If this doesn’t improve I might go home half way through the day. Who knows?

On the flip side it looks like everyone’s favorite congressional crazy lady Cynthia McKinney will face a run off election against Hank Johnson. I can’t say I’m surprised, even with the cult like following Cynthia has. She’s been less than stellar as of late, and her strategy of laying low during the primary race seems to have worked. I don’t know much about her opponent Hank Johnson, other than that he is from her district originally, meaning he grew up there, and is a lawyer. We’ll see how many people turn out for the run-off, which I feel will favor Cynthia since her constituency is significantly more energetic and determined than Johnson’s.

In additional news, thank you Jesus, Ralph Reed was defeated in his primary race for Lt. Governor by State Senator Casey Cagle. Reed, founder of the Christian coalition, former roommate and groomsmen of Jack Abramoff, and all around political hack, just looked too snarky to get the Republican nod here. Cagle seems to be a stand up guy, with a good record, and while I don’t see eye to eye on his politics there could be far worse in the office of Lt. Governor. Reed, in typical arrogant “I’m better than you commoner!” fashion refused any comments or post race interviews, so who knows what he’s thinking. I’m sure he thinks Casey is going to hell.

-Steve