The Great State Victory

The headlines today are, of course, Democrats retaking the House, and likely the Senate (the AP has declared Webb the winner in VA, giving Dems the Senate). But equally important, and indicative of the deep political movement yesterday’s election represents, is the less heralded news that Democrats took 9 new state legislative chambers last night, and now control the majority, 28, of Governorships.

"As of 7 a.m. MT, Democrats control both houses of the legislature
in 23 states; Republicans in 15, and nine are split. Final counts
aren’t available yet for three chambers in two states: the Montana
House and Senate and the Pennsylvania House. This adds up to 49 states
because Nebraska’s legislature is nonpartisan.

Before the election, Republicans controlled 20 state legislatures; Democrats 19, and 10 were split.

Democrats won approximately 275 more state legislative seats, adding up
to new majorities in nine chambers across the nation: the Iowa House
and Senate, the Indiana House, the Minnesota House, the Michigan House,
the New Hampshire House and Senate, the Oregon House and the Wisconsin
Senate. (The Iowa Senate was previously tied.)

Republicans
gained a few seats in the Oklahoma Senate to tie that chamber, but
Democrats will likely control it because the lieutenant governor, who
casts deciding votes, is a Democrat.

"The voters expressed a
real desire for change, and all in one direction," said NCSL’s
elections expert Tim Storey. "The Democrats have put some light between
the two parties. This isn’t parity anymore."

The
Republicans made a fierce counter-attack on the Colorado legislature,
which they lost in spectacular fashion in 2004 (as documented in Crashing the Gate).
Same in Montana, though results there aren’t finished. Yet all across
the nation, Republicans have thus far failed to wrestle a single
chamber from Democrats"

In addition, Democrats now have 14 indigo states (states where Democrats are now one-party government), the largest number since the GOP captured the same number of crimson states in 1994.

The voters have spoken, and they’ve spoken all the way down the ticket. Even here in Arizona there were a number of unexpected Democratic pickups where ultra-conservative candidates, such as Jorgensen and Melvin in LD 26, were defeated by Democrats.

The AZGOP did not get their hoped-for veto-proof majority in the AZ legislature. I’m actually almost sorry for it, because I would like them to face the wrath the voters would pile on their heads for obstreperously thwarting a Governor Arizonans just re-elected by a 30 point margin.

The GOP is in deep denial.

The voters have seen past their bullshit, and business as usual isn’t going to work for them any more. Many Republicans still think that a 30 point margin can be explained away as a problem with messaging or campaign strategy (i.e. the voters were fooled, or uniformed): fellas, 30 points means that Arizonans hated your candidate, and think he isn’t someone they could trust to run a Burger King, let alone our state. A credible candidate would have gained 20 more points. Janet still would have won, but you wouldn’t look like complete assholes right now. But, of course, I’m just a partisan who is trying to tempt you away from the doctrinal purity you must attain to win, so pay no attention to this gratuitous advice. By all means, continue to nominate stiff, unlikeable ideologues, who make women reach for the mace and babies cry and whose signature issue is that a memorial to the dead isn’t sufficiently jingoistic. We’re okay with that, really.

This massive shift in the American political landscape flows right down to the roots of our democracy; it is not just an act of frustration or anger with particular leaders of the GOP at the national level, it’s a fundamental repudiation of the core philosophies (or lack thereof, actually) of the GOP. You don’t vote out a Republican state legislative majority because of the war in Iraq, you do so because the GOP has betrayed those it was supposed to represent in fundamental ways.

This election was a fundamental rejection of GOP governance, and I am delighted that the GOP is denial about it. That means we’ll be able to do the same to them again in 2008. So much for the ‘permanent minority.’ When you dish shit for a living, sometimes you end up eating a bit of it. How’s that taste, bitches?