Political Pearls: ELECTION SPECIAL: BREAKING NEWS--DAN MALLOY WILL BE CERTIFIED THE WINNER IN CT

DAN MALLOY HAS WON THE GOVERNOR'S RACE IN CT!  It is now 12:55 pm and Dan Malloy has enough votes, even without those who voted after 8pm in Bridgeport. He's won a very close election against Tom Foley, the Republican candidate.  Democrat Dan Malloy, Dick Blumenthal and all the statewide candidates and 5 congressional district candidates on the Democratic side appear as of this hour to have won!

IT'S A CLEAN SWEEP FOR CT DEMOCRATS!  The right candidates won in the Nutmeg State, the way too-lengthy Rell/Rowland Administration in Hartford is finally over in January.  Yesterday the U.S. House delegation was 4 Democrats and 1 Republican, now it's 5 Democrats.  I spoke with a happy Rosa Delauro last night at her victory party, but it was certainly a subdued gathering given the other events of the day.  I thanked her for all her amazing help to my home town, Wallingford, and she was, as usual, responsive, available and eager to communicate with her district on the busiest political night of the year.  THANK YOU ROSA!

The State House and Senate went Democratic as well.  I want to thank the hardest working State Representative I know, Mary Mushinksy from the 85th District and congratulate her on a well-deserved victory.  THANK YOU MARY!

Denise Merrill will be the new Secretary of the State in January, also a much-deserved win by her, replacing a great incumbent, Susan Byszewitz.  A complete and thorough investigation of yesterday's election, especially the ballot shortage, especially following the Y2K fiasco in the count, recount and one vote party line victory revolving around Florida's Presidential vote(remember "hanging chads,"  Al Gore's victory in the popular vote totals, Jeb Bush and Florida Secretary of the State Kathryn Harris' nonsense, resulting in the 5-4 party-line Supreme Court 1 vote margin giving George W. Bush the Presdency in the 2000 election) is obviously necessary and I am confident that Susan and Denise will give us the facts.  THANK YOU SUSAN AND DENISE!

Dan, a misdiagnosed former special ed student with a visual impairment has climbed to the highest elected office in the state of Connecticut(West Haven was the proud home of the World Special Olympics a few years ago under the leadership of then-Mayor Richard Borer--THANKS RICHARD) from a special ed classroom.  THANKS DAN!  Many are misdiagnosed, and many people, including myself, tend to live both up or down to others' expectations.  Dan apparently made the difficult choice to choose not living down, but only to live up to, and surpass, the expectations of others.  What an inspiring story for the state, nation, and the species, regardless of your politics!

Dick Blumenthal made some campaign mistakes early, but won by double digits because he is the right and moral man that should have won. Because he's right on the issues.  Because he's had a career of public service that's made him the most popular political candidate of either party within the state during my lifetime.  THANKS SENATOR-ELECT BLUMENTHAL!  He holds the promise of being the best CT Senator ever, and the promise of future advancement(one day the White House will have a vacancy again, Ned Lamont, Dan Malloy, and Dick Blumenthal).

Ned Lamont ran a good campaign against Dan for the nomination, and then threw his full weight behind Dan for this election(hear that Joe Lieberman?).  THANK YOU NED LAMONT.  Joe Lieberman needs to be replaced and the most competent, most qualified, most hard working and dedicated next US Senator elect for the state of CT in 2012 is Ned Lamont. RUN, NED, RUN, PLEASE!

But more importantly, thanks to all the candidates nationwide, poll workers, volunteers from any and all parties and to all who took the time to register and vote.  The real winner was little "d" democracy, which has been evolving and growing stronger for 234 straight years in this melting pot of an experiment in this portion of North America they chose in 1776 to refer to as the United States of America.  Despite occasional steps backwards at times in this long journey, we did it again.  We had a largely peaceful election.  So the people won, yet again.

Let's just not try to export our experiment agressively overseas the next two years I ask all those elected to federal office, I plead.  And please talk to each other, reason things out, be respectful, civil, even cordial and friendly in your discussions and afterwards.  No name calling or threats, implied or otherwise would be nice.  Compromise, please.  Let laws be passed, budgets be passed, and friendships with opponents happen, please.  At all levels;state, federal and local.  And in the 2011 election and following let's please just be friendly and "loyal" in our opposition please boys and girls.

And thanks to all, regardless of what your opinons may be,in both the private and public sectors for engaging in one of the highest callings I can possibly imagine: Public Service.  And congratulations to Leader Reid, and to House Minority Leader, and likely U.S. House Speaker and third-in-line to the Presidency, John Boehner.