Republicans clapped stiffly to "Let the Sunshine In" from the Broadway hippie musical Hair as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger celebrated victory on Tuesday, November 7. A year ago, after California voters rejected the governor's ballot measures during a special election, this scene would have been unimaginable, but this week it was an expected outcome, minus the choice in music. Schwarzenegger soundly defeated his Democratic challenger Phil Angelides, garnering 55.7 percent of the votes statewide, according to unofficial returns.

Schwarzenegger's re-election followed a legislative session in which he approved nearly all the LGBT related bills that crossed his desk, from Senator Carole Migden's (D-San Francisco) domestic partnership tax relief bill SB1827 to AB1160, Assemblywoman Sally Lieber's (D-Mountain View) Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act, the bill that limited the use of gay and trans "panic" defenses in the courtroom. Though the governor made very few new gay friends after his veto of Assemblyman Mark Leno's (D-San Francisco) gender-neutral marriage bill last year, he seems to have redeemed himself by continuing to approve a wide range of LGBT protections, signing more than 20 such bills since he first took office in 2003, according to the Log Cabin Republicans.

"The governor has reached out to all Californians, including the gay and lesbian community. The governor's inclusive leadership is a model for other Republicans around the nation. His re-election shows that inclusion wins," said a statement from Jeff Bissiri, Log Cabin's California director.

"On a night when the national Republican Party suffered many defeats, Schwarzenegger's victory shows that mainstream inclusive politics is a winning strategy," the statement continued.

To say that positions supporting LGBT equality helped candidates statewide is absolutely true, according to Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California. About 95 percent of EQCA's political action committee-endorsed candidates won their offices, he said. And candidates who did not support LGBT rights – Republican and Democrat alike – suffered as a result.

"What's really telling is every statewide antigay candidate lost," said Kors, who pointed to Republicans Tom McClintock, Chuck Poochigian, and Tony Strickland, all of whom lost their races to Democrats. Unofficial returns showed John Garamendi beat McClintock for lieutenant governor with 49.5 percent of the total vote; Jerry Brown won attorney general over Poochigian with 56.7 percent; John Chiang beat Strickland for controller with 50.8 percent of the vote.

Other Democrats who won statewide election include Debra Bowen, who took the secretary of seat race with 48.5 percent of the vote; Bill Lockyer, who won the office of treasurer with 54.8 percent of the vote; and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, who easily won re-election, garnering 59.8 percent of the vote.

Candidates who won state office to represent San Francisco and the Bay Area include Democrat Leland Yee with 77 percent of the vote in state Senate District 8; Democrat Fiona Ma with 70.6 percent of the vote in Assembly District 12; and Leno, who pulled in 87.2 percent of the vote for Assembly District 13. Democrat Betty Yee won re-election for the state Board of Equalization (District 1) with 63.9 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile, the two Republicans who did win their races – Schwarzenegger and Steve Poizner, the new insurance commissioner, are on record supporting full equality for LGBT couples, with the exception of marriage.

"The message there is that anti-gay right wing conservatism is soundly rejected in California," said Kors, who also pointed out that Assembly races in the 88th and 34th districts are too close to call, and that EQCA deliberately chose not to endorse the Democrats in those races who did not support full LGBT equality.

"We stayed out of both of those races because the Democrats did not support full equality. The resources EQCA would have put into those races would have made a margin of difference," said Kors, adding that, "the message there is the Democratic Party needs to put up candidates who support our rights, otherwise they're not going to have our help and it's going to cost them."

Much of the LGBT community also celebrated an important victory on Tuesday night with the defeat of Proposition 85, an initiative that would have required parental consent for minors seeking abortions and was nearly identical to the defeated Proposition 73 of last year. "No" votes came from 54.1 percent of voters, unofficial returns showed. LGBT opponents of the proposition worked in coalition with labor, healthcare, and education groups to defeat what was seen as a medical privacy and teen safety issue.

Proposition 83 – a sweeping sex offender notification bill that could have consequences for people convicted of consensual acts or public lewdness – passed with 70.5 percent of the votes; Leno was a vocal opponent of the bill.

Leno was otherwise optimistic about Tuesday's results, despite the Democratic loss for governor.

"[Angelides] had the Sheraton ballroom packed with admirers. He really does excite his followers. Given that the governor absolutely refused to debate – and because of the tens of millions of dollars that oil, tobacco, and insurance companies donated so he could dominate the television commercials – there was no exchange of ideas in this election. Add to that the very expensive and bruising primary election, and Phil never had a chance to communicate with California voters."

The two gubernatorial candidates did meet once face-to-face in a televised forum in early October.

Leno noted that the only other Republican victory (Poizner) in the statewide election also featured a multi-millionaire candidate who self-funded his campaign.

"The silver lining É is that people are evermore opening their eyes for publicly funded campaigns," said Leno, who thinks there is hope beyond the defeated Proposition 89 campaign finance bill, which could have been written differently.

On the future of the heavily Democratic legislature working with Schwarzenegger, Leno said it is really quite simple: "If he continues with a Democratic agenda as he did this past year, he will succeed and be welcomed by voters. If he returns to his far-right pursuits of 2004 and 2005, he will fail. It's his choice."