BTW, in Minnesota the Republicans swept every major office up for election--the US senate seat, the governor, secretary of state and state auditor, gained in the Minnesota House (which they already control) and cut deeply into the Democratic majority in Minnesota Senate. Greens lost major party status, and though Ventura's third party will retain it's major party status, will likely disappear into the third party graveyard by 2004.

And here, the issue wasn't that nobody voted. A majority of registered voters went to the polls.

While that is a pretty damning indictment of the Democratic party here in a largely Democratic state, what it doesn't show is how polarized the vote was. Coleman won with 50%. The country is more polarized than it has ever been in my lifetime, possibly more polarized than it has been since certain eras in the 19th century. I'm sure someone will be telling us soon what we already know--we are a nation at war with ourselves.