I See the 42 Narrative Forming

See, people wanted to vote for 42.  After all, it got 58% of the votes!

Except...

It got 58% of the votes actually cast between the two amendments, which, as I write this is about 35K votes less than the vote to not amend the state constitution.  What they won't tell you is about 50K that voted not to amend at all didn't bother to vote for either (because if you don't want to amend the constitution, why vote for the lesser of two evils option? This question will not be answered, except perhaps in a brief, small paragraph at the end of stories).

It's confusing, and the Clarion-Ledger and its fellow travelers in the media/lawyer caucus will use that to muddy the waters in the coming years.  I imagine there were a lot of people who were intent on voting for 42, but took one look at the sticker price ($201 million), and put it back on the shelf.

Always remember the truth of this issue:  The Little Guy won, because all of the trial lawyers, education consulting firms, Gannet Media, and out of state money couldn't buy an election in Mississippi.  Even with an endorsement of the New York Times this morning (helpfully retweeted by a CL writer as a "workaround for Red-State Dems"), the underfunded Little Guy kept the trial lawyers out of education.

There's still more work to be done, for sure-Hood, it appears, will remain in his post for four more maddening years, in which the politically connected will get away with anything short of murder-but the tide was held back today.