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WEDNESday Issue NOVEMBER 7, 2012 FRESNO STATE
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SERVING CAMPUS SINCE 1922
Obama in office for four more years By David Lightman The McClatchy Tribune
Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT President Barack Obama, flanked by first lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, waves on stage Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, in Chicago, after the president was re-elected.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Tuesday won a second term in the White House, defeating Republican challenger Mitt Romney in a hard-fought election that served as a referendum on who could better ease Americans’ economic pain and uncertainty. Obama marched across the nation, scoring victory after victory in battleground states where the economy had mounted just enough of a comeback to
convince voters to give him four more years. He held onto the coalition that led him to victory in 2008: women, Latinos, African-Americans and young people. Romney, seeking to become the first Mormon to win the presidency, was able to win only two states Obama had won last time, Indiana and North Carolina. The second Democrat to win a second term since World War II, Obama swept the Northeast and West Coast states and won most of the Rust Belt battlegrounds, including Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Romney
won dependably Republican states across the South and into Texas and the Great Plains. Obama took office in January 2009 with a mandate to revive an economy still struggling to recover from the Great Recession of 2007-2009, the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Six of 10 voters Tuesday said the economy was the most important issue, well ahead of health care or foreign policy. Three of four voters said the economy remained poor or not so good. Obama touted the economy’s steady See OBAMA, Page 3
VALLEY DEMOCRATS UNITE ON ELECTION NIGHT
FRESNO STATE REPUBLICANS REACT TO LOSS
By Ricardo Cano The Collegian
By Rogue Morales The Collegian
It was hard to gauge which announcements elicited the loudest cheers from the hundred-something Fresno County Democrats at Club One Casino on Tuesday night’s watch party. But in President Barack Obama’s conquest to 270 electoral votes – from securing key battleground states to the ever-prized California – and en route to securing his second term in the White House, one thing was for sure: the crowd at Club One mired in ecstasy for their candidate. “Fantastic. This is g reat,” said Michael Evans, chair of the Fresno County Democratic Central Committee. “Obama has done a g reat job. He deserved another four years.” MSNBC called the election in favor of Obama roughly around 8:14 p.m., with states such as Florida, Nevada and Colorado still “too close to call.” With TV screens showing anxious crowds at Times Square and Chicago, the network projected Obama’s reelection – 274 electoral votes to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s 203. The projected victory over battleground state Ohio (18 electoral votes) propelled Obama past the 270 mark. At 8:14 p.m., the crowd in Club One Casino roared. “It’s going good. Our president was just reelected to the White House,” said Steve Smith, with glossy eyes and a tear trickling down his cheek. “It’s going stupendous!” Added Evans: “I expected it to be
The room fell silent as the numbers flashed on the TV screen, projecting that President Barack Obama had won the election. Many would cheer and celebrate, but those watching the screen at the Downtown Club in Fresno had very different feelings. With Obama’s victory came many feelings of sadness, fear and uncertainty, said Fresno State students who attended a Republican polls watch. “I worry for my children. I have grandchildren. I’m just deeply sad for their future because I understand what this means,” said Lori Nackaguchi, a Fresno State graduate student in the nursing program. “I don’t think a lot of young people understand what this means for their future and I’m sad, very sad.” Both Nackaguchi and her friend, Fresno State student Robert Berry, an electrical engineering major in his junior year, feel that with Obama’s reelection, students can expect to see increased unemployment as well as increasing national debt. “I think we’re going in the wrong direction and I that think students are setting themselves up for a very poor future,” Berry said. Berry said that his father is a selfmade business owner. He feels that his father has been “demonized” as a bad person under Obama’s policies. The atmosphere for those wanting to start a business will be hard and not encouraged, Berry said. Both Berry and Nackaguchi feel that the reason some people voted for
See UNITE, Page 3
Roe Borunda / The Collegian
Fresno State hosted it’s first polling place yesterday in the Satellite Student Union which was open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Associated Students, Inc helped in the push to bring a voting precinct to Fresno State as well as register students to vote.
See LOSS, Page 3
Proposition 30 steadily climbs to ‘yes’ lead By Dalton Runberg The Collegian Long after Barack Obama won his second term as President Tuesday night, the battle for California’s Proposition 30 continued on into the night. As of 1:10 a.m. Wednesday, the California Secretary of State website reported 53 percent “yes” and 47 percent “no,” with 72.3 percent of precincts reporting. Proposition 30, the “Temporary Taxes to Fund Education” ballot measure, would increase taxes by .25 percent for four years and raise the income tax on citizens who make more than $250,000
for seven years in an attempt to temporarily stabilize funds for education. If the initiative failed to pass, it would have triggered $250 million in budget cuts to the Califor nia State University system, likely resulting in higher tuition for students in the coming semesters. The proposition has been a major topic of debate in California, as well as on the Fresno State campus. The Fresno State College Republicans and College Democrats club representatives discussed the topic in a heated debate on Oct. 18 in the Free Speech Area. A debate between two graduate communication students also brought
attention to Proposition 30 on the Fresno State campus. Gov. Jerry Brown took a campaign tour of California on Oct. 23, heavily promoting the “profoundly important” ballot measure in Los Angeles, San Diego, Bakersfield and Fresno. “It’s not about the legislature,” Brown said. “It’s about the kids, students and future of our state.” Congressman Jim Costa added, “This kind of investment is critical to ensuring California’s future economic wellbeing.” Opponents of Proposition 30 cite that it would not guarantee funds for schools, and that most of the money
would be lost into the general state fund, with no accountability for where it would go actually go. As the first numbers for Proposition 30 started rolling in at 8:00 p.m., when polls officially closed in California, it stood at about 46 percent “yes” and 54 percent “no.” The voting results became closer as the hours passed by, with “yes” steadily narrowing the margin. At 11:05 p.m., the ballot initiative tipped into “yes” territory with 50.1 percent of the vote, a lead that would not be relinquished for the rest of the evening. See Page 3 for the results of more California state ballot measures.