Thank God It's Over

As I write this, it's Tuesday, and the polls are still open in Arizona.

The results are starting to trickle in from the eastern side of the country (Rand Paul ... really, Kentucky?), but I don't know if these early GOP gains are indicative of anything that will happen in Arizona.

All I can think is: Thank God this election is over. I am quite done with the nonstop TV ads, the robocalls, the campaign mailers and the flaming online comments. If you think it's bad here, thank your lucky stars that our U.S. Senate contest wasn't close. I spent last weekend in Las Vegas at the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Writers' Workshop, and you could not escape the Harry Reid-Sharron Angle race anywhere. It seemed like every TV ad involved the campaign.

In any case, by the time you read this, the election will be over (save some inevitable recounts and legal challenges). And now there's work to do. Congress has to tackle the budget deficit, immigration reform and all sorts of other issues. In Arizona, we have to balance the budget and figure out how to get the economy further back on track. The budget specter hangs over the city of Tucson, too.

I hope that we can all put aside the petty bullshit and spin-doctoring, and figure out how to move this city, this state and this country forward. However, I am not all that optimistic. Possible new Speaker of the House John Boehner is already pledging that there will be "no compromise" as far as repealing health-care form is concerned, and Arizona's GOP legislative leaders are known for pushing ideology over cooperation.

We shall see ... and the Tucson Weekly will be here to cover how it all turns out.