First, I don't think the outcomes will have a major impact on IT spending. Federal, state, and local governments are already in tight budget times and I don't think there's much real identified information technology fat to cut. States and local governments have been reigning in and slowing down some of their projects and plans and the feds have been reviewing big agency IT projects and unplugging those that are off track and/or over budget. Governments will continue to be a sizeable steady IT market, it's just that vendors serving the market may have to adjust their thinking when it comes to project size and scope. Increasingly, discreet projects are overtaking large enterprise efforts.

Second, I think the IT opportunity is better when there is a significant turnover in elected officials. Granted, there's an education job out there for vendors serving the market, but common themes among this year's candidates were the desire to "serve the people better", "to "make government work for the people", and even those who want "less government". IT has a big roll in all of those, and even less can be more for IT.

CIOs, IT vendors, and those interested in government information technology should be reaching out to the newly elected now to educate the newly elected on information technology's role in achieving the goals they see for government. Hopefully they are...maybe that's why it's quiet.