As we chew our nails waiting for the Brown – McClintock results and vacilate wildly between reflecting on how we lost on Prop. 8 and simply feeling the pain of that loss, some good news came out of CA-03.

While Dan Lungren beat Bill Durston, silver lining in that defeat abounds. For starters, Durston made serious inroads since the previous match-up. The final tally will likely end up 49-44, a relatively small margin – especially compared to two years ago, when Durston ran as a virtual unknown. He ended up only pulling down 37 percent of the vote in 2006, meaning that in two short years Durston went from a 22-point margin to a 5-point margin. Makes you feel a little cocky about 2010, huh?

Speaking of 2010, Durston just announced he will run again in two years, setting up what should be a tight race that we will have a real chance of taking. In fact, our chances may be much greater: progressives won’t have the Obama campaign taking up all their time and money; if we’re lucky, Brown will be comfortably defending his seat against a weaker candidate, needing less resources; and as readers of this site know, Lungren can be counted on to pull at least a few idiot moves in the next two years.

As our president-elect said on election night, the fight has just begun. Let’s get ready for 2010, folks.