President Bush Wins Second Term, Kerry Concedes

WASHINGTON, DC, November 3, 2004 (ENS) - President George W. Bush has won election to a second term in the White House.

“We are convinced that President Bush has won re-election with at least 286 Electoral College votes," White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said this morning. “And he also had a margin of more than 3.5 million popular votes.

Standing at his desk in the Oval Office, President George W. Bush receives a phone call from Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in which the senator conceded defeat in the 2004 presidential election. (Photo courtesy The White House)

Republicans also added to their majority in the House and the Senate.

Senator John Kerry took the stage at Boston's Faneuil Hall today to give his concession speech.

Kerry described his conversation with President Bush when he called the White House to offer congratulations. "We had a good conversation. We talked about the danger of division in our country and the need, the desperate need, for unity, for finding the common ground, coming together. Today, I hope that we can begin the healing."

Senator John Kerry votes in Boston, Massachusetts Tuesday. (Photo courtesy Kerry campaign)

Kerry pledged to continue working to advance the values on which he campaign was based.

"Our fight goes on to put America back to work and to make our economy a great engine of job growth. Our fight goes on to make affordable health care an accessible right for all Americans, not a privilege," he said. "Our fight goes on to protect the environment, to achieve equality, to push the frontiers of science and discovery, and to restore America's reputation in the world."

President Bush plans to address the nation later today.

The environment did not seem to be an important factor in the choices of voters in states like Ohio, the pivotal battleground state.

In their morning after analysis, University of Dayton political science professors said Ohio voters were more concerned with moral issues than any other issue including the war on terrorism.

"President Bush's victory in Ohio is a major accomplishment for the Bush-Cheney ticket," said Father John Putka, lecturer in political science. "A possible determining issue was the issue on the Ohio ballot creating a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions. This placed an emphasis on traditional moral values and helped to produce a substantial surge in new voters from the evangelical and 'born again' Christian parts of the electorate."

"These voters also favored the president by large margins," Putka said. "The fact that 11 states voted the way Ohio did on the issue of same-sex marriage indicates this could become a new defining issue in our politics, second only to abortion."

Colorado passed a measure that requires Colorado’s top electric utility companies to provide an increasing percentage of their retail electricity sales from renewable resources such as wind, solar and biomass. The increases start at three percent in 2007, six percent by 2011 and rise to 10 percent by 2015.

Ponnequin Wind Farm, Colorado's first, has some 15 turbines that generate electricity for about 6,000 customers. (Photo by Warren Gretz courtesy NREL)

In other environmentally related ballot measures:

Alaskans turned down a measure that would have allowed the baiting of bears to lure them into positions where hunters could shoot them easily.

Arizona rejected a measure that would have allowed the exchange of state trust land for other parcels of public land as long as the swap made good economic sense and resulted in the protection of land for conservation or to protect a military base.

Louisiana overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure protecting the freedom to hunt, fish, and trap.

Maine voters rejected a bear hunting measure that was the subject of an intense campaign for its defeat by animal advocates. The first trophy hunt of Maryland's black bears in more than 50 years ended today after 20 bears were reportedly killed on the first day.

Montana voters turned down a ballot measure that would have lifted the ban on open pit cyanide leach mining. The campaign to reverse the ban was paid for almost exclusively by one Colorado mining company, Canyon Resources, which has spent more than $2 million on the effort. The measure was narrowly defeated although the proponents, Miners, Merchants and Montanans for Jobs and Economic Opportunity, promised new, tough, environmental protections to go along with renewed cyanide leach mining.

Montana approved $10 million to combat noxious weeds, and also approved the right to hunt and fish.

Oregon voters rejected a measure that would have limited logging in Tillamook State Forest that was supported by the Wild Salmon Center and the Audubon Society of Portland.

Rhode Island approved $20 million in bonds for clean water and pollution control.

In Utah, voters approved a $150 million conservation bond backed by a .05 cent sales tax hike. Sponsored by Utahns for Clean Water, Clean Air & Quality Growth, the funds will pay to improve air and water quality, build parks and preserve open space.

Washington voters approved Initiative 297 a broad measure to control the handling of mixed radioactive and hazardous materials wastes at Hanford and to halt the import of additional wastes until existing problems are cleaned up.