The votes are in and Austin King has been re-elected to Madison's District 8 seat on the City Council. We congratulate King and all of Tuesday's other winners on their victories, especially those coming out of hard-fought races.

However, this seems an apt time to remind the newly minted City Council that serious work lies ahead. In less than four months, a repressive smoking ban will sweep through city bars, wreaking havoc on taverns' business, owners' rights and Madison's libertarian values as a whole. The council must act — and quickly — to rectify this ill.

Should alders be unwilling to totally correct the error in the last council's ways, they must at least re-raise the numerous sensible amendments to this heinous piece of legislation. Cigar bars and other relaxed restrictions are a necessity if the council cannot see clear to completely righting this wrong with an overturn of the ban.

King was a proponent of many of these amendments originally, and now would seem high time for him to re-introduce them. We know there to be support from other members of the new council and would very much like to see a healthy debate over the smoking ban as a whole and, if necessary, what sensible amendments must at least be made as consolations.

We also encourage the new City Council to closely examine how 18-year-olds may patronize bars as a means of reducing house-party traffic. Underage club attendance where alcohol is available only to legal adults is something the last council made progress on and this council must continue to pursue.

Finally, we urge a reconsideration of the inclusionary-zoning and minimum-wage ordinances to whatever extent the city isn't already in over its head. Madison is quickly becoming a gloomy place for businesses and, although many alders have been re-elected, the message voters too often harped on during this campaign was one of sheer disillusionment with these policies as well as the aforementioned smoking ban.

Kudos to King and company on their victories. We hope these politicians will take a day or two, enjoy their success and then get to work. Madison is in more trouble today than it was when election results last poured in two years ago, and that makes the responsibility placed on the shoulders of yesterday's victors all the more essential.