A political patchwork.

• Author: Kurtz, Karl
• Position: TRENDS & TRANSITIONS - 2011 elections

Both political parties could find something to crow about in the results of the 2011 elections.

Democrats celebrated winning three ballot measures they cared intensely about in Maine, Mississippi and Ohio, retaining the governorship in Kentucky, and convincingly maintaining control of the New Jersey General Assembly.

Republicans retained the governorships in Louisiana and Mississippi, won a vote in Ohio on a ballot measure designed to be a referendum on the president's health care plan, and achieved at least a tie, if not victory, in the contests for control of the Mississippi House and the Virginia Senate.

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Measures Yield Mixed Results

The Maine and Ohio ballot measures were popular referenda, petition-driven efforts by citizens to overturn laws recently passed by the legislatures.

In Maine, the law in question did away with the state's 38-year-old practice of allowing qualified citizens to register and vote on Election Day. Instead it required voters to be registered no later than the week before the election. It was championed by Republicans in the Legislature and opposed by Maine Democrats. Citizens voted for repeal by about a 60 percent margin. In Ohio, 61 percent of voters repealed a controversial new law passed by the legislature that weakened the bargaining rights of public employee unions.

In the biggest surprise of the night, Mississippi voters rejected a so-called "personhood" initiative by a 58 percent to 42 percent margin. Rejected by Colorado voters in 2008 and 2010, personhood amendments aim to define "person" as beginning at "the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof." The practical effects of this definition are unclear, and that ambiguity probably contributed to the downfall of Initiative 26 in Mississippi, which was widely expected to pass.

Ballot measure results weren't all one-sided though. While voters in Ohio rejected limits on the bargaining rights of public employee unions, they also endorsed a symbolic rejection of the individual mandate requirement in the federal health care reform law. they also endorsed a symbolic rejection of the individual mandate equirement in the federal health care reform law. Ohio is the fourth state to do so, and at least another four will consider similar questions next year.

Mississippi voters sent a mixed message, too. They rejected the personhood measure, but approved a strict voter ID amendment to the state's constitution...