Guest Election Commentary
by Keith Brekhus
November 10, 2006
I guess my glass is half full this year. While disappointed in Green turnout locally--I still can't recall an election night this much fun since at least 1992 or 1986. Tuesday night was a lot more uplifting than either 2000, 2002 or 2004. Sure gay marriage bans still passed unfortunately, but by smaller margins than in 2004 and red state Arizona rejected the ban outright. Blood red South Dakota said no to banning abortion and 5 red states voted overwhelmingly to raise the minimum wage. According to exit polls in Missouri even 58% of Republican voters voted yes to a minimum wage increase.
Furthermore, I watched three truly reprehensible Senators (Santorum, Allen and Burns) get beat. Both Santorum and Allen had their presidential aspirations crushed...thankfully. I also watched Jim Talent spend 20 million dollars on a negative campaign in Missouri and still lose. I also watched with glee as voter suppression Fascists Katherine Harris and Kenneth Blackwell lost by resounding margins and I watched GOP wonder boy Mark Kennedy look like a 3rd party candidate in Minnesota.
In addition, the Northeast come closer to relegating the Republican Party to political extinction in the region as long term "moderates" felt crushed by Bush's albatross on their backs. New Hampshire went deep blue flipping about 100 state house seats and both Congressional seats. Especially heartwarming was activist Carol Shea-Porters underfunded primary victory, and though she was written off as having no chance she shocked Jeb Bradley to win her seat. Likewise, I saw Montana voters reject a milquetoast DLC-centrist in favor of progressive populist Jon Tester and still win in a state Bush carried by almost 20 points in 2004.
Not only did Bush lose, but in some respects the DLC-consultants and Rahm
Emmanuel took a back seat to activists and bloggers who rejected conventional wisdom and put up strong candidates in districts that weren't supposed to be competitive. Columbia activist Michael Ugarte's brother in law (Jerry McNerney) was one. Another was Tim Walz who beat a 6 term incumbent in my original hometown of Rochester, MN.
More importantly, the What's the Matter with Kansas crowd elected a new
Democratic Congresswoman and a Democratic Attorney General. They also re-elected a Democratic Governor and now have Democrats in 2/3rds of their US House seats. Indeed, the deep red interior West became an unexpected battleground. While it is unfortunate that challenges in Wyoming, Idaho and Nebraska came up short--the fact that the GOP had to dump millions of dollars into Districts that went 60-77% for Bush is a testimony to how far the GOP has slipped.
November 10, 2006
I guess my glass is half full this year. While disappointed in Green turnout locally--I still can't recall an election night this much fun since at least 1992 or 1986. Tuesday night was a lot more uplifting than either 2000, 2002 or 2004. Sure gay marriage bans still passed unfortunately, but by smaller margins than in 2004 and red state Arizona rejected the ban outright. Blood red South Dakota said no to banning abortion and 5 red states voted overwhelmingly to raise the minimum wage. According to exit polls in Missouri even 58% of Republican voters voted yes to a minimum wage increase.
Furthermore, I watched three truly reprehensible Senators (Santorum, Allen and Burns) get beat. Both Santorum and Allen had their presidential aspirations crushed...thankfully. I also watched Jim Talent spend 20 million dollars on a negative campaign in Missouri and still lose. I also watched with glee as voter suppression Fascists Katherine Harris and Kenneth Blackwell lost by resounding margins and I watched GOP wonder boy Mark Kennedy look like a 3rd party candidate in Minnesota.
In addition, the Northeast come closer to relegating the Republican Party to political extinction in the region as long term "moderates" felt crushed by Bush's albatross on their backs. New Hampshire went deep blue flipping about 100 state house seats and both Congressional seats. Especially heartwarming was activist Carol Shea-Porters underfunded primary victory, and though she was written off as having no chance she shocked Jeb Bradley to win her seat. Likewise, I saw Montana voters reject a milquetoast DLC-centrist in favor of progressive populist Jon Tester and still win in a state Bush carried by almost 20 points in 2004.
Not only did Bush lose, but in some respects the DLC-consultants and Rahm
Emmanuel took a back seat to activists and bloggers who rejected conventional wisdom and put up strong candidates in districts that weren't supposed to be competitive. Columbia activist Michael Ugarte's brother in law (Jerry McNerney) was one. Another was Tim Walz who beat a 6 term incumbent in my original hometown of Rochester, MN.
More importantly, the What's the Matter with Kansas crowd elected a new
Democratic Congresswoman and a Democratic Attorney General. They also re-elected a Democratic Governor and now have Democrats in 2/3rds of their US House seats. Indeed, the deep red interior West became an unexpected battleground. While it is unfortunate that challenges in Wyoming, Idaho and Nebraska came up short--the fact that the GOP had to dump millions of dollars into Districts that went 60-77% for Bush is a testimony to how far the GOP has slipped.
posted by Mark Robertson at 11:38 AM
2 Comments:
By my estimation, one of the best outcomes of this election is that the Democrats have thus far been able to avoid responsibility for Iraq in spite of their obvious complicity. Now, they get the whole mess dumped right in their laps and I think equivocation on the very issue that catapulted them to success can easily produce a huge backlash against them.
If the Dems think the message of this election was "We Love Democrats" they're in for a rude awakening. The message was "We're sick of this war!" They will do their best to hide behind the Baker-Hamilton Commission report, and it's up to people like us to blow their cover.
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