2025 Off Year US Elections

They can be, sometimes, an indicator of things to come.

June 25, 2025

New York City Mayoral Race

Progressive Zohran Mamdani beat Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic Primary.  

Mamdani, who immigrated with his parents as a child from Uganda to the US, is a self declared democratic socialist.  He's a Shi'a Muslim. All of these things are setting off the populist far right.

Curtis Sliwa, founder of Guardian Angels, won the Republican primary for New York City mayor, but was unopposed.  He stands no chancing of winning the general election.

September 22, 2025

Texas

Texas has an election this year, and it includes a bunch of ballot propositions, which are:

• Proposition 1 (SJR 59): Texas State Technical College funding
• Proposition 2 (SJR 18): Capital gains tax ban
• Proposition 3 (SJR 5): Bail reform
• Proposition 4 (HJR 7): Water infrastructure funding
• Proposition 5 (HJR 99): Tax exemption on animal feed
• Proposition 6 (HJR 4): Securities tax ban
• Proposition 7 (HJR 133): Tax exemption for veterans’ spouses
• Proposition 8 (HJR 2): Inheritance tax ban
• Proposition 9 (HJR 1): Inventory and equipment tax exemption
• Proposition 10 (SJR 84): Tax exemption for homes destroyed by fire
• Proposition 11 (SJR 85): School tax exemption for the elderly or disabled homeowners
• Proposition 12 (SJR 27): Changing the State Judicial Conduct Commission
• Proposition 13 (SJR 2): Increased school tax exemption for homeowners
• Proposition 14 (SJR 3): Funding for dementia research and prevention
• Proposition 15 (SJR 34): Codifying parental rights
• Proposition 16 (SJR 37): Clarifying citizenship requirement for voters
• Proposition 17 (HJR 34): Property tax exemption for border security infrastructure

November 4, 2025

The kiss of death:

And so the demented New York octogenarian made it clear to thousands that they were going to vote for New York Democratic Socialist Mamdani.

New York has actually had a prior Democratic Socialist Mayor, David Dinkins, who served from 1990 to 1993.  Trump made minor contributions to the Dinkin's election campaign and reelection campaign, the latter of which failed.  The current mayor of Cheektowaga, New York, Brian Nowak, is a Democratic Socialist.

Trump made another post last night:

Early indications are that this election is going to be an utter disaster for the Republican Party, setting up a potential disaster next year, and causing those who wish to evade disaster to potentially start moving away from MAGA now.

Prop 50 will be on California's ballot, which may end up countering the anti Democratic moves of the Texas legislature.

Cont:

New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani won the race for Mayor of New York City, becoming the first Muslim to occupy that position, and the first Democratic Socialist since Dinkens to occupy it.

It's a generational change with Mamdani defeating two elderly opponents.

It's an important mayoral seat, but nobody who has occupied it has ever been President, and for the most part, its occupants do not rise further in politics.

Democrat Abigail Spanberger took the Virginia Governor's race, causing it to go from Republican to Democratic control.  She's the first female governor of Virginia.  Democrat Mikie Sherill took the Governor's race in New Jersey.

Democrats are going to take Texas' 18th Congressional District, Houston, but they already held that.

Proposition 50 passed in California.

The Democrats won everywhere they were running.  It's a dope slap in the face for Donald Trump.

November 5, 2025

So Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up.

Zohran Mamdani.

Cont:

A race we weren't following was that for Virginian AG. T he race was won by Jay Jones.  Jones made headline news because some absolutely horrible things he said about another member of Virginia's legislature came to light.  They were awful.

Jones beat the Republican incumbent  Miyares, which suggest a pretty significant move away from the GOP in Virginia.  Jones is a practicing African American Catholic, which is interesting in various ways.

Notable in the races last night Hispanics began to pull away from the GOP.  Catholics had been attracted to the Republican Party for various reasons that I've noted here on numerous occasions, the principal one being that they're social conservatives as a rule.  The interesting thing here is that the GOP, which only recently attracted them, has treated them much like the Democratic Party treated ethnic minorities, which is to say to ignore them and more particularly, to offend them.  Merely being Hispanic is putting people in the target zone for ICE and the GOP has broken out into outright open feuds of race recently, with some figures in the pundit class being openly racist.  

This gets back for a moment to noting that Jones is a Catholic.  The populist far right is strongly Evangelical, and Evangelicalism has attracted a lot of American Hispanics.  But the nature of the Evangelicalism and MAGA has not been sorted out and now, in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination, the pot is really boiling.  Quite a few on the populist far right have barely hidden contempt for women working, which most Hispanic women have to do by default.  Some MAGA pundits are openly racist with Nick Fuentes now openly going after J. D. Vance, a Catholic married to an Indian, on the basis that he's a "race mixer".

This doesn't explain last night's results overall, but it fits into it.  The price of things, a major factor in Trump's win, is now starting to be a major factor in a retreat from the GOP.  The brutality and lawlessness of the Trump administration is disgusting many people. The outright stupidity of some the things the Trump Administration says is taking a toll.  The Government shutdown is being blamed, rightfully, on the Republican Party.

The 2026 election is a long ways off but so far the Administration and MAGA's reaction to everything is to double down on it.  That probably won't change, but what might is the extent to which Republicans who don't have to go down with the ship begin to abandon it. Some already have.  Marjorie Taylor Green, who was a MAGA fanatic, now is an opponent, for example. Thune is suddenly, as of yesterday, sounding more moderate.

But you can't moderate a demented narcissist surrounded by sycophants.

Related threads:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 106th Edition A series of Zeitgeist predictions about New York City.

Labels: 2025 Off Year U.S. Elections, Donald Trump, Mike Johnson, New York, Politics, Predictions, Republican Party, Social Democracy, Socialism, Zeitgeist, Zohran Mamdani

Wednesday, November 4, 1925. Now or then?

 A headline we'll be likely to see later today again, about New York and New Jersey.

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 3, 1925. Mitchell's Witness Demands Upheld, New Jersey Ballot, and the evolution of word meaning.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, 1925 Election, Billy Mitchell, Cartoons, Court, English Language, Ku Klux Klan, law, Marriage, New Jersey, Prohibition, The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell, The relationship between men and women

Tuesday, November 3, 1925. Mitchell's Witness Demands Upheld, New Jersey Ballot, and the evolution of word meaning.

 Mitchell was having some success with his witness list.

And Cowboys Out Our Way illustrated the evolution of a word in a somewhat ironic way.

Last edition:

Saturday, October 31, 1925. Subpoena for Coolidge?

Labels: 1920s, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1930, 1930s, Art, Automobiles, Billy Mitchell, Calvin Coolidge, Dancing, Elk, Food, Great Syrian Revolt, Halloween, Lodging, restaurants and bars, Ruth Eastman, Wyoming (Mills), Wyoming (Salt Creek)

Friday, January 13, 1775. Governor Franklin urges New Jersey to remain loyal.

Royal Governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, appeared in front of the New Jersey Legislature and urged the body to remain loyal to the Crown.

Governor Franklin was the acknowledged illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin.  It is not clear who his mother was, and he was raised by his father and his father's "common law wife" Deborah Read.  He'd remain loyal to the Crown for the remainder of his life.

Last edition:

Thursday, January 12, 1775. Sliding towards and preparing for war.

Labels: 1640s, 1645, 1770s, 1775, American Colonial Militia, American Revolution, Colonial North America, Georgia, National Guard

Thursday, December 22, 1724. The Greenwich Tea Party

The last of the "tea parties" occurred on this day in Greenwich, Cumberland County, New Jersey.  It involved the usual tea dumping and dressing as Native Americans.

Last edition:

Tuesday, December 13, 1774. Taking Fort William and Mary.

Labels: 1770s, 1774, American Revolution, British Army, Colonial North America, New Hampshire, Paul Revere

Saturday, August 14, 1824. Return of Lafayette.

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette, called by Americans "Layfayette" landed in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, for his "farewell" tour of the United States.  It was the first time he had been in North America in forty years.

He would see all of the then 24 American states and Washington, D.C. over a 13 month, 6,000 mile, journey, traveling with his son, George Washington Lafayette.

Last edition:

Sunday, August 8, 1824. The Humehume Rebellion.

Labels: 1820s, 1824, Hawaii, Honolulu Hawaii, Kauai Hawaii, Kingdom of Hawaii, Monarchy, United States Marine Corps, War of 1812

Saturday, March 1, 1924. The Nixon Nitration Works Disaster.

The Nixon Nitration Works disaster occured in which an explosion of ammonium nitrate killed at least 18 people, destroyed several miles of New Jersey factories, and demolished Nixon, New Jersey.

While a very famous industrial disaster, the Nixon Nitration Works and Nixon New Jersey are remembered now principally for being mentioned in Band of Brothers as Cpt. Lewis Nixon III, a major character Ambrose's depiction of the 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment, mentions it.  Lewis Nixon was in fact a member of the family that owned the plant, and it was the case that Richard Winters, his close friend and for most of his service in Europe his superior, worked there for a time after the war.

The Nixon's were troubled in general, and Lewis Nixon III was no exception.  His marriage contracted just after the start of the war failed during it, as did a subsequent one.  A third marriage to Grace Umezawa, formerly a Japanese internee, was successful.  She helped him overcome the alcoholism depicted during the series.

The KDP, the Communist Part of Germany, was reinstated.  The KDP, together with the NADSP, the Nazi Party, would figure enormously in the destruction of German democracy as the extremes grew increasingly powerful in the remaining years of the Weimar Republic.

Alice's Day at Sea, the first of 57 Alice comedies produced by Walt Disney, appeared.  They were short films meant to be shown before the feature, something at one time common.

White rats paraded in San Pedro, California.

Hacks, i.e., cabs, were allowed back in Hyde Park for the first time since 1636.

Not a hack, but on this day, an Irish Traveler feeding his pony on this day in 1924.

Locally, a story didn't add up.

A 20-year-old marrying a 15-year-old?  

And she was in 6th Grade?

The 2023 "Off Year" Election.

October 2, 2023.

Some states, albeit not Wyoming, are having elections this November.  

And some of them will have interesting topics on their ballots.  We start with this one, a Texas right to farm act, that will be on the ballot in Texas.

Texans to Vote on Right to Farm Constitutional Amendment November 7

November 8, 2023

Following the trend of voting to make Americans even more intoxicated and dim than they already are, Ohio voted to legalize recreational marijuana.  It also voted in favor of opening up abortion, unfortunately.

Houston is going to have a mayoral runoff.

cont:

Democrats gained control of both houses of the Virginia legislature.

Republicans only barely held the House of Delegates before this, but this can legitimately be regarded as another example of the Trump GOP losing power in an election.

Democrats took the Governor's race in Kentucky.

None of this may be dramatic, but the GOP has a demographic problem, and Trump isn't helping it.  Therefore, ironically, there's a fairly good chance that he'll be elected as the next President, but the House and the Senate will go Democratic.

cont:

Democrats won big in New Jersey.

For some reason, apparently it was thought they would not, which is odd.

November 9, 2023

Regarding ballot initiatives in Maine; Maine passed a resolution prohibiting election funding by foreign governments, including entities with partial foreign government ownership or control.

The Pine Tree Power Company initiative decisively failed.

A right to repair initiative requiring vehicle manufacturers to provide access to vehicle on board diagnostic systems to owners and repair facilities passed.

An attempt to allow out of states to gather initiative signatures failed.

Texas, not too surprisingly, had a bunch of initiatives on its ballot.  Some of interest here:

A right to farm, ranch, harvest timber, practice horticulture and engage in wildlife management was added to the State Constitution.  The vote was overwhelmingly in favor.

Voters authorized an ad valorem tax exemption on medical and biomedical equipment.

An effort to raise judicial retirement age from 75 to 79 (what the heck?) failed, thank goodness.

A resolution to prohibit a tax on net wealth passed.

Thursday, August 30, 1923. Italians overreact.

Having learned utterly nothing, apparently, from World War One, Italy was having a massive overreaction, or perhaps fascism, thinking it was immune from history, was taking advantage of Greek weakness.

A mob attacked a Ku Klux Klan meeting at Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

Friday, December 18, 1942. Ciano dispatched to Hitler.

Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini's son-in-law and a prominent figure in the Italian government, was dispatched to the Wolf's Lair with a message from Mussolini urging Hitler to make a separate peace with the Soviet Union.

Ciano only rose to power via his marriage to Edda Mussolini, but starting in 1939 he began to pull away from the dictator over the war, which he opposed.  He was sidelined by being appointed Ambassador to the Holy See in 1943.  He voted with the Fascist Grand Council to remove Mussolini in July 1943, but was removed from his office by the government, after which he fled to Germany.  The Germans in turn handed him over to Mussolini's rebel fascist Italian Social Republic, which would have him executed.

Ciano's diaries are an important source of inside information regarding the Italian fascist government as well as the Axis alliance. 

The British prevailed at El Agheila.

New Jersey 1920's in Color! [60fps,Remastered] With New Sound

Poster Saturday: New Jersey Must Fight On

I'm not exactly certain what this 1919 vintage poster actually is seeking to advance.  It's a New Jersey Department of Health poster making reference to children and World War One, but why, exactly, isn't clear.

October 6, 1920. East Coast Scenes

Clayton, New Jersey Fire Department.  October 6, 1920.

Game two of the World Series went to Brooklyn, 3 to 0.

Ebbets Field, October 6, 1920.

Outside Ebbets Field, October 6, 1920.

April 22, 1919. Homecomings and mustering out.

363d Infantry upon their return to California.

Final review of the 26th Division, Camp Devin, Massachusetts.

312th Infantry passing in review.

Ft. Dix New Jersey. November 14, 1918.

Atlantic City, New Jersey. March 28, 1917

Massive explosion in Lyndhurst, New Jersey

On this day in 1917 a massive explosion occurred at a recently constructed ammunition plant which was providing ammunition under contract to Canada.  Sabotage was suspected at the time but a commission found in 1931 that there was no evidence to support that claim.

The disaster was bad enough but would have been worse but for the heroic act of Theresa Louise "Tessie" McNamara in staying at her post as a switchboard operator and providing notice to each link on the circuit that a fire had broken out and people needed to evacuate.  She's credited with saving up to 1,400 lives.

The belief at the time that the explosion was caused by German sabotage contributed to growing American support for entering the war in Europe.  Ironically, the Black Tom explosion of that past July had been caused by German saboteurs but that was not known at the time. So the Germans were blamed in the minds of some for an explosion they had not caused, but were not blamed for one which they had.

Monday, October 18, 1915. Suffrage in New Jersey, Shots at border dance, Constitutionalist advance, Fellowship and beer.

The Government General of Warsaw was established to govern German-occupied Vistula Land of Poland which had recently been part of the Russian Empire.

The Italian Army tried to capture the bridgeheads at Bovec and Tolmin along the Isonzo River.

Last edition:

Sunday, October 17, 1915: Of redemption, St Ge...

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Blog Mirror, Whatever It Is I'm against it, World War One

Wednesday, July 21, 1915. "Deliberately unfriendly".

Woodrow Wilson issued Germany an ultimatum in the third and final letter related to the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in May, warning any subsequent sinkings would be perceived by the United States as "deliberately unfriendly".

A refinery strike at Bayonne became increasingly violent.

Voters in Alberta voted for prohibition.

Last edition:

Sunday, July 18, 1915. Alpine combat.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Austro Hungaria, Austro Hungarian Army, Austro Hungarian Navy, boats and ships, Italian Army, Italian Navy, Italy, Second Battle of the Isonzo, World War One

Thursday, October 13, 1910. TR in Indianapolis on tariffs.

President Theodore Roosevelt spoke to a huge crowd from the balcony of the English Hotel in Indianapolis.  He was in the city to support a bill introduced by Senator Albert Beveridge for a tariff commission.

My, have we fallen.  TR, a New Yorker who was the advocate of the Strenuous Life was of course a Republican, and young.  Now we have a demented octogenarian supposed Republican who believes that exercise is bad for you destroying the country and imposing tariffs right and left.

Sic transit.

The Interstate Commerce Commission issued the first regulations requiring ladders, sill steps and hand brakes on all railroad cars in the United States.

Darned government bureaucrats and their outrageous regulations.

As an aside, you may have noted that the Administration's official talking point for those that their laying off is that they are bureaucrats, in the hopes that populsts Americans, no matter how utterly pointless their own jobs may be, will like bureaucrats getting laid off.

Divide et impera.

The Polo Grounds on this day in 1910:

Last edition:

Tuesday, October 11, 1910. TR takes a flight.

Labels: 1910, 1910s, 1911, Aircraft, Blog Mirror, China, Chinese 1911 Revolution, Qing Dynasty, Sun Yat-sen, Theodore Roosevelt