Rep. Paul Broun Jr, Charles Darwin, and Stubbs the Cat

In April 1997, the current mayor of a small 'town' in southern Alaska was born, and three months later he became mayor of that town.

Talkeetna, Alaska is only recognized as a town by the U.S. Census with a population of 900, and the town itself is really a historical district of Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska. Talkeetna, which is en route to Mount McKinley, has a mayor; a cat named Stubbs.

Stubbs, after what -must- have been
 a long day at the office.

Stubbs was adopted by Lauri Stec, who is the manager of Nagley's General Store in Talkeenta, when Stubbs' former owners were giving away kittens (including Stubbs himself). Lauri chose him because he did not have a tail. Stubbs' first mayoral election in which he was a write-in candidate, after people were unsatisfied with the human candidates, was a successful write-in campaign. He won, and assumed office on July 18, 1997, is still mayor of the town, and has the distinction of being the current longest-serving mayor in Alaska.

As cute as that story is, Charles Darwin, (yes, THAT Charles Darwin) despite being deceased, could apparently learn something about being elected to office from Stubbs.

Yes. This happened.

U.S. Representative Dr. Paul Broun Jr. (R) of Georgia's 10th congressional district has served since a special election in 2007, and was the only person on the ballot in this year's election. He won, but did not receive a substantial number of the votes cast in this election. Charles Darwin, who has been dead for 130 years, received what can only be called a 'lot of votes' as a write-in candidate; at least about 4,000 that were counted, although they don't count in the official voting count. All 4,000 of these counted votes came from Athens-Clarke County, which is one of the larger areas in Georgia's 10th congressional district. The 10th district had a large number of write-in candidates that weren't Charles Darwin too, including Big Bird, and an individual named 'Anyone But Broun'. The only write-in candidate that actually campaigned was Brian Russell Brown of Augusta, who received 200 votes.

Charles Darwin, circa 1868.

Dr. Paul Broun's opposition campaign came mostly from citizens who disagreed with him on evolution, which Broun called a lie "straight from the pit of Hell"; however, Broun is one of the most polarizing figures in the House of Representatives beyond that. Broun attempted to scare his constituents into thinking the federal government is trying to force us to eat fruits and vegetables. Broun claims to be a 'strict constitutionalist,' and runs constantly on the idea that if the Constitution doesn't say it, we don't need it. Broun's voting record, however, constantly contradicts that idea, himself voting with Republicans in the House 86% of the time, whether a measure is allowed through a literal interpretation of the Constitution or not, and often enough, there is no interpretation, literal or not, which would justify the bills he votes on.

Dr. Paul Broun Jr.

Dr. Broun is such a polarizing figure that a sitting county Republican Party chair within Broun's district (who will go unnamed because I assumed the conversation was private) apologized to me for Broun being in office, and called him an 'idiot.'

That's way harsh, but I think the harsher thing is that a dead person, even one as celebrated as Charles Darwin, can receive a measurable percentage of votes from the county where a sitting congressperson grew up. Not counting provisional ballots, 40,631 ballots were cast in Athens-Clarke County and of those voters, 16,996 of them voted for Dr. Broun. We don't know just from the released results how many people filled out a ballot and then abstained from voting in this race, but what we do know is that Darwin's numbers were not insignificant in light of this. At least one in 10 voters in Athens-Clarke County would vote for a dead guy over the incumbent Dr. Broun.

Perhaps if the Democrats put up a person whose heart is actually beating two years from now, I'll be able to write a goodbye blog detailing Dr. Broun's funniest moments, especially since in races where there were Republicans and Democrats -both- on the ballot, the Democrat tended to win in Athens-Clarke County. President Obama won Athens-Clarke County by a 29-point margin. My friend Tim Riley beat incumbent Republican Frank Ginn in Athens-Clarke County by a 26-point margin. Spencer Frye won by a 41-point margin. A Democrat who runs up his or her margin of victory in Athens could have a shot at winning the whole district overall.

Until such a time, I have to choose to place my faith in Stubbs the cat, or the third coming of Darwin, and as great as they both are, I don't like their chances. Yes, that's right. I am one of Dr. Paul Broun's constituents, and I too received write-in votes in this election, although I don't know if race was one of them.

In which Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington may be irrelevant.

Jack Baker and Michael McConnell in 1970.

Let's go back, but we'll not call it that far back so I don't offend my somewhat older readers. Back to 1970. The year All My Children was first broadcast on ABC. The year the first Earth Day was celebrated in San Francisco. The year The Beatles disbanded. The year 1 World Trade Center was completed and became the tallest building in the world at the time.

On May 18th, 1970, two men, Jack Baker and Michael McConnell applied for a marriage license in Hennepin County, Minnesota. This was back before many people thought to try to define what marriage actually is, but the couple was systematically denied a license. An appeal eventually made it all the way to the Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. McConnell eventually adopted Baker in August 1971, and Baker changed his legal name to Pat Lynn McConnell. A couple weeks later, they applied for a marriage license again, and the license was granted after the waiting period for licenses expired. The couple became the first gay couple to be legally married and recognized by a jurisdiction in the United States.

Three days ago, Minnesota voters -rejected- a ban on same-sex marriage, which preserved the nation's   first recognized same-sex marriage from annulment.

Some more history: In January 1973, Maryland became the first state to specifically ban gay marriage by state law, which began a long period of states banning same-sex marriage, which would eventually reach 45 states.

History was again made by Maryland three days ago, as it joined Maine and Washington as the first states to ever recognize gay marriage through a measure citizens voted on.

The more recent history, however, may not make the limited space most U.S. history textbooks in light of what could be coming soon.

The Supreme Court, which has -completely- turned over since 1973 -almost- twice (Thurgood Marshall's successor was Clarence Thomas, so that seat hasn't turned over twice), is a body which is supposed to be non-partisan, and depending on the which period of the Court's history that has held true, but many people, who watch the Court closely, are skeptical about the current composition of the Justices and whether or not they vote on party lines.

The Supreme Court, many feel, seems to understand this criticism, and many speculate that that is why Chief Justice John Roberts, who was appointed by a Republican president (George W. Bush) voted that ObamaCare almost in its entirety, is constitutional. The Supreme Court appearing partisan weakens the Supreme Court and encourages those who disagree with a decision to try again when the court is voting less on party lines.

The Supreme Court is set to consider, on November 20th, taking up one or some of the ten or so requests that have been made to address what the U.S. Constitution says about gay marriage, and it is -widely- expected to do so. If it does take on a case, we can expect the decision sometime by June 2013.

There is a way, however, that the ballot initiatives in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington could play a role, however. It -could- show that a democratic process is the way to handle the question, and that the 10th Amendment is the most relevant part of the Constitution when it comes to gay marriage, but it is also possible that isn't the case. It is possible that the Establishment Clause of the 1st amendment and/or the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment could play a major role in a decision to side with same-sex marriage advocates.

No matter what happens, what -is- apparent is the the decision would be any number of many, many different possibilities. Those possibilities, however, generally fall into one of three rulings. We'll use California's Prop 8 (which bans same-sex marriage) as an example for this:

• The Supreme Court decides to uphold Proposition 8. 
• The Supreme Court overturns Proposition 8, which would prevent Proposition 8 from becoming law, affecting only California. 
• The Supreme Court overturns Proposition 8, and rules in such a way that -all- bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, and are thereby void. This would likely effect all state bans, including amendments, as well as federal law, including the Defense of Marriage Act. 

We don't see decisions like the one made in the last bullet made very often at all, but something of that magnitude -has- happened before several times. In 1973, the same year Maryland banned same-sex marriage in that state, the Supreme Court made its decision on Roe v. Wade.

So, while four states each sided with gay marriage advocates this past election, it may or may not be a huge event in comparison to the one that very well might be coming less than a year afterwards. We will have to wait and see if the issue remains a state issue or not.

Brian (left) and me (right) and...green walls.

Personal note: May 18th, the date which Jack Baker and Michael McConnell first applied for a marriage license in 1970 is the same day in 2006 that my partner (Brian Smith) and I got together. In doing research for this post, I came across that and found it fascinating. 1 in 365 chance of that.