Top of the morning

All was hardly gloom and doom for progressives in Tuesday’s election.  Anthony Foxx was elected mayor of Charlotte, the first Democrat to win the job in 22 years and he did it by defeating a protege of Republican Mayor and gubernatorial wannabe Pat McCory.

Democrats gained a seat in Congress and defeated the Republican Right in a special election in upstate New York.

Voters in Maine and Washington rejected versions of the misleadingly named Taxpayer Bill of Rights(TABOR) initiatives that would hamstring state governments by arbitrarily limiting state spending with a simplistic formula.

That’s good news anytime, but especially notable in this era of tea-baggers and Glenn Beck rants.

And while voters in Maine repealed the state’s gay marriage law, Washington voters approved a measure that would expand the rights of gay couples.