Obama wins resounding victory for Senate seat
CHICAGO (AP) -- Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and an American mother who shot from obscurity to political stardom in mere months, trounced Republican Alan Keyes yesterday to claim a Senate seat in Illinois. He will be just the third black U.S. senator since Reconstruction.
The resounding victory is the latest chapter in a rags-to-riches story for a man who grew up on the beaches of Hawaii and the streets of Indonesia barely knowing his father but has gone on to become a linchpin of the Democratic Party's future.
He gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention this year, delivering a message of national unity in a stirring speech that made him an overnight political sensation. National news shows and magazines profiled him, and the 43-year-old state senator from Chicago became a top draw for other Democrats' campaigns nationwide.
Obama will replace Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, who declined to run for a second term.
The campaign was one of the strangest races in state history _ a contest between a liberal political superstar and a conservative former ambassador who had never lived in Illinois. And Keyes was far from the GOP's top choice.
Investment banker-turned-teacher Jack Ryan won the Republican primary in March, but dropped out of the race three months later after records were released from his divorce with Star Trek: Voyager and Boston Public actress Jeri Ryan. The documents revealed embarrassing allegations that the candidate took his wife to sex clubs in Paris, New York and New Orleans and tried to get her to perform sex acts with him while others watched.
The GOP searched for a replacement candidate but was turned down by a string of former governors, state senators and even Chicago Bears legend Mike Ditka. Only in August did the Republican Party settle on a replacement candidate, offering the role to Keyes, a conservative Maryland resident and two-time presidential candidate.
Keyes also is black. It was the first U.S. Senate election in history in which two black candidates represented the major parties.
Keyes, 54, focused his campaign on morality and argued that abortion and homosexuality threaten the country. He criticized what he called the "socialism" of Obama's positions.
Keyes quickly demonstrated a willingness to say whatever was on his mind. He said homosexuals, including Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter, are "selfish hedonists." He argued that Jesus would not vote for Obama. And he likened abortion to the evil committed by terrorists.
Before entering politics, Obama was the first black president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review and a civil rights lawyer in Chicago.
The United States has had four black U.S. senators in its history and two since Reconstruction: Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts and Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois.
-- The Associated Press
States decide marriage, marijuana, stem cells
Californians voted yesterday to spend $3 billion on stem-cell research, putting the state on the cutting edge of a field questioned by conservatives and the Bush administration. Arizonans approved a crackdown on illegal immigrants, and 11 states from Georgia to Oregon adopted bans on same-sex marriage.
MARIJUANA
Elsewhere, Montana became the 10th state to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, but Alaskans defeated a more ambitious proposal to decriminalize pot altogether. In Oregon, voters rejected a measure that would have dramatically expanded its existing medical marijuana program.
Federal drug czar John Walters was heartened by the outcome in Alaska.
"This public health victory reaffirms the simple, inescapable fact that no family, no community, no state is better off with more drug use," he said.
In all, 163 measures were on the ballots in 34 states. The adoption of constitutional amendments prohibiting same-sex marriage in every state where the question was on the ballot dealt a major setback to the gay-rights movement.
STEM CELLS
Backers of California's Proposition 71, which will support human embryonic stem cell research, said the measure was needed because the Bush administration has restricted funding to about $25 million a year. The campaign became a battle of Hollywood stars after actor-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger broke Republican ranks to line up in support with late Superman actor Christopher Reeve and Family Ties actor Michael J. Fox.
Actor and director Mel Gibson was among high-profile foes of the measure.
IMMIGRATION
The Arizona immigration initiative -- the first of its kind in the nation -- was touted by supporters as a way to curtail fraud by requiring people to produce proof of immigration status when obtaining certain government services. It would punish state workers who looked the other way, and require proof of citizenship to register to vote.
"People understand at a gut level that we've got a problem with illegal immigration and we've got to address it," said Randy Pullen, a leading supporter of Proposition 200.
Arizona is the busiest illegal entry point on the U.S.-Mexico border, and spends millions annually to provide food stamps, welfare and other social services to illegal immigrants.
MINIMUM WAGE
Floridians and Nevadans voted to raise their states' minimum wage to $6.15 an hour, a dollar higher than the federal minimum wage. The new Nevada wage will apply only to employers who do not offer health insurance.
ELECTORAL VOTES
Colorado defeated a measure that would have allocated its electoral votes proportionally, based on the popular vote for president, and would have applied to this year's race between President Bush and John Kerry.
TAXES
Voters in Maine and South Dakota both declined opportunities to lower taxes. South Dakotans defeated a bid to scrap the sales tax on groceries, while a measure to cap property taxes lost in Maine after opponents said it would force layoffs of teachers and firefighters.
In Washington, voters rejected a penny-on-the-dollar sales-tax increase to raise money for education, turning down a well-financed appeal for greater investment in the state's young people.
Voters in Colorado, Oklahoma and Montana approved hikes in tobacco taxes, with most of the new revenue earmarked for health care. In Alaska and Maine, voters defeated proposals to ban the use of bait while hunting bears.
Oklahoma voters approved a state lottery, leaving only nine states without one.
TORT REFORM
A nationwide dispute between doctors and trial lawyers over whether to limit malpractice awards was on the ballot in several states.
In Florida, doctors prevailed with an amendment limiting the percentage of malpractice awards that lawyers can claim. But attorneys won amendments to give the public more information about doctors' mistakes and to take away the licenses of doctors who make several medical errors.
In Wyoming, voters rejected a proposed amendment that would have let lawmakers consider limiting jury awards for pain and suffering, while Nevada voters approved a physician-backed initiative that would impose a $350,000 cap on non-economic damages in malpractice cases.
-- A.P.
State houses shuffled as governors vie for seats
Voters dumped a Democratic governor in Indiana for a Bush administration official and turned out a Republican incumbent in New Hampshire as 11 states elected their top leaders yesterday.
In Montana, Democrats took the governor's office for the first time in 16 years, while Republicans captured the Missouri governorship. In Washington state, a few thousand votes separated the candidates, so a victor likely wouldn't be decided until mail-in ballots are counted -- a process that could take days.
Elsewhere, incumbents won or the party in power kept control of executive mansions in Delaware, North Carolina, North Dakota, Utah, Vermont and West Virginia.
In Indiana, former White House budget chief Mitch Daniels unseated Democratic Gov. Joe Kernan, who was facing his first test at the polls since he took office after former Gov. Frank O'Bannon died last year. In New Hampshire, Democrat John Lynch edged out one-term GOP Gov. Craig Benson.
Probably the most closely watched race -- the Missouri governorship -- went to the GOP, where Republican Matt Blunt defeated Democrat Claire McCaskill by less than three percentage points.
Nationwide, each party gained two governorships and lost two governorships. Only the Republicans could still gain: the unsettled Washington state race was for a Democratic seat.
There, the contest between Republican Dino Rossi and Democrat Christine Gregoire, the state attorney general, teetered back and forth as more votes were tallied. The state's heavy reliance on mail-in ballots was likely to hold up the final tally.
In Delaware, Democratic Gov. Ruth Ann Minner withstood a surprisingly strong challenge from Republican Bill Lee to win a second term.
Montana Democrat Brian Schweitzer, a farmer who unsuccessfully sought a Senate seat in 2000, defeated Republican Secretary of State Bob Brown in the race there for an open seat.
Republican Jon Huntsman Jr. took Utah's open governor's seat, while North Dakota GOP Gov. John Hoeven, Vermont Republican Gov. Jim Douglas and North Carolina Democratic Gov. Mike Easley each won second terms. In West Virginia, Democratic Secretary of State Joe Manchin took an open seat.
Minner won in Delaware despite making what some saw as an insensitive response to a prison inmate's abduction and rape of a counselor. "In prisons, you almost expect this to happen," she said.
The open seats in Missouri, Montana, Utah and Washington state triggered record spending and unprecedented bursts of out-of-state money, and the heat of the presidential race had an effect on at least a couple of races.
New Hampshire's Benson lost his bid for a second term in a state that went for Democrat John Kerry, a reversal of its 2000 vote. In Indiana, a state that went solidly and quickly for Bush, Daniels had the prominent support of the president.
Others contests remained resolutely local, turning on taxes, economic development or transportation issues.
-- A.P.
