Top Ten Post-Election Stories for Arizonans

By Ray Stern Many of us can’t get our heads around what happened last Tuesday, though for differing reasons. The same things that caused some to cheer made others feel like jumping off the San Juan Lookout, and vice-versa. But no matter how your candidate or pet proposition fared, you’ll...

By Ray Stern

November 10, 2008

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By Ray Stern

Many of us can’t get our heads around what happened last Tuesday, though for differing reasons. The same things that caused some to cheer made others feel like jumping off the San Juan Lookout, and vice-versa. But no matter how your candidate or pet proposition fared, you’ll want to check out these election post-mortems to better understand what happened:

10. Local columnist Rob Robb shows that Arpaio’s win wasn’t so impressive.

9. Conservative political blogger Greg Patterson explains why for Arizona, at least, it was a Republican year.

Ann Kirkpatrick, newly elected U.S. Congresswoman from Arizona

8. The Republic's Kathleen Ingley, on the other hand, focuses on the big change in the Arizona Congressional delegation, which has a Democratic majority for the first time since the 1960s.

7. Immigration remained in the shadows nationally as a top issue, but not here in Arizona.

6. Former Democratic Congressman Sam Coppersmith says low turnout in Arizona yielded “anomalous” results.

5. Perhaps a bit optimistic, this article points out that rights for gays are still growing despite same-sex marriage bans in Arizona and California.

4. Republic writer Dan Nowicki predicts John McCain’s loss, like Goldwater’s in 1964, could affect McCain’s Senate re-election bid in 2010.

3. Reuter’s examines the reasons behind McCain’s loss.

2. The New York Times looks at which way independents leaned and how votes didn’t jump generational gaps.

1. If you’ve got the time, check out the New Yorker magazine’s in-depth piece about the success of Obama’s “Battle Plans.”

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.