Progressive Democrat Issue 95: A RUNDOWN OF THE RESULTS
IOWA:
IA-1: This was one of our best pick up chances of the year. And we won it easily.
IA-2: this one only became close in the last couple of months of the election. But we won!
IA-3: the Republicans thought they could kick Vietnam vet and incumbent Dem Boswell while he was down, recovering from a bout with cancer. But we safely defended this seat.
Sec of State win (Mauro)
Sec. of Agriculture: Sadly, organic farmer Denise O’Brian did not win. This could have been historic, but we didn’t win it.
We won control of both the Iowa state house and senate, with DFA endorsed Elesha Gayman winning against a Republican incumbent in my father’s hometown of Davenport.
Big win in Iowa!
INDIANA:
IN-2: started “safe Republican” but with the help of MoveOn.org, we won this one! No one would have predicted this even a few months ago. Yet in the end it wasn’t even close.
IN-7: safely defended this seat. Congrats to Julia Carson!
IN-8: Can’t resist the obvious joke: there’s a new sheriff in town in this district. Ellsworth CREAMED the incumbent Republican.
IN-9: Our THIRD pickup in Indiana. We won it by a good margin, though not quite the knockout blow we had in IN-2 and IN-8. I predict this will be a tough battle ground district in 2008.
Took control of the Indiana state house, but not the state senate.
Sadly, we failed to take the very important Sec. of State and Auditor positions in Indiana, so there is yet ample potential for Republican fraud in Indiana…but we still kicked butt. And I bet Republicans are going to have a hard time getting corruption by Congressman Ellsworth!
Indiana was sill a HUGE success for Democrats and sane government this year, even if we lost some key battles.
WISCONSIN:
WI-5: we lost this one, though it always was a long shot. So, one of the horrible “Katrina 11” Republicans remains occupying this seat.
WI-8: Nice win here.
Took control of the Wisconsin State House, but not the senate, though we gained seats in the senate as well.
Mixed results in Wisconsin.
OHIO: everyone’s eyes were on Ohio, of course.
SENATE: We CREAMED them. Incumbent Republican DeWine is drowning his sorrows while Democrat Brown is celebrating.
SEC of STATE: YES! YES! YES! YES! The corrupt Republican Blackwell got his ass kicked running for Gov, and Democrat Jennifer Brunner has won the race to replace him. We now have a chance to clean up Ohio’s elections!!!
ATTORNEY GENERAL: The corruption of the Ohio Republican party has become legendary. Well, now there is a Democratic Attorney General who can prosecute them! Go Mark Dann. Time to clean up the mess in Ohio.
The only race we lost that would be important for cleaning up corruption in Ohio was the State Auditor’s position. We lost that one. But hopefully Governor, Sec. of State and Atty. Gen. will be enough.
We didn’t win as big as some expected with the Congressional House races in Ohio. We only picked up one House seat here, OH-18, and that was thanks to Bob Ney’s downfall. There were some close races, and some where election fraud might have skewed results, but it looks like we will only pick up the one seat.
Gained in both state legislatures, but both remain controlled by very corrupt Republicans. That will make reform harder and make Strickland’s job difficult. Mixed results in Ohio, but still damned good since it gave us a Senate seat and gives Ohio a chance to clean up the HUGE mess that it has become thanks to Republican fraud and corruption. Good luck Brunner and Dann!
PENNSYLVANIA:
HUGE Senate win. The most odious Republican, Rick Santorum, was soundly defeated. Casey would not have been my choice for a candidate, but he won. Casey is anti-choice, his biggest defect, but then again, so is Senator Reid of Nevada and yet his leadership has been excellent. Let us hope Casey will follow Reid's footsteps.
In terms of House seats picked up, PA was our biggest win with four solid pick ups. In a fifth race we are awaiting a recount, but we seem ahead by 1000 votes. We may pick up FIVE HOUSE SEATS in PA, which would be astonishing.
NEW YORK:
In my own state we kicked ass. Governor, Attorney General, Senate all were won not just soundly, but OVERWHELMINGLY. I can’t say our candidates for these positions were my favorites, but Eliot Spitzer has great promise for Governor, Cuomo may surprise me as Attny. General, and Hillary Clinton is overall good even if she supports the war in Iraq.
But the real gains were in the House. Three solid pickups in a state most people ignored at first. Here it really was the grassroots that made the difference. Most of NY’s House races were ignored by everyone but the local grassroots. Only at the end did they become nationally on the radar, and in the end we won three.
VIRGINIA:
Webb beat the racist Republican Allen for Senate, though it was much closer than it should have been. With all due respect to Virginia, a former Sec. of the Navy should be able to beat someone who is publicly racist and otherwise useless more soundly. But Republicans seem to like racism and corruption better than former Secretaries of the Navy, so the race was very close. In the end, though, Webb won and I predict he will be a real force to be reckoned with in the Senate. Good job!
We lost VA-2 by a little and VA–10 pretty badly, but our efforts in those districts helped Webb. Virginia is still a tough nut for progressives, but overall, both 2005 and 2006 were pretty good years in Virginia elections.
NEW JERSEY:
Menendez held onto his Senate seat, and I bet he can now hold onto it for a long time to come, if he wants. Sadly we did not win NJ-5 or-7, but they were always long shots. Still…I’m disappointed. But still, we came closer than people had thought and that certainly helped Menendez.
SOME OTHER RACES:
HUGE Senate win in Missouri. Defeating Talent is big, and McCaskill is one of the best new faces in the Senate. Some small gains in the state legistlature as well.
In Montana we won in the Senate, sending the very excellent Jon Tester to replace corrupt Conrad Burns. But the bad thing is we lost control of the state legislature. That is a bad sign after the great gains in 2004.
We won somewhat unexpectedly in AZ-5, while creaming the white supremicist Republican incumbent in AZ-8. Along with Allen’s defeat in Virginia, that is a nice blow against racism that has been growing within the Republican party.
A particular sweet win is CA-11. Corrupt and anti-environment Republican incumbent Pombo was soundly defeated by McNerney. McNerney is great! He resigned from West Point to protest the Vietnam war and he has been a strong proponent of wind energy. This is a case where a particularly horrible Republican was defeated by a particularly excellent Democrat.
One big surprise, and one that Democrats really should pay attention to, is the fact that the Wyoming House race was practically tied. This was considered safe Republican. But the Democrat gradually and steadily wore away the Republican’s lead. As of now, the Republican has a handful more votes, but the race has yet to be called.
In Connecticut Lieberman won, which sucks but it doesn’t really change anything since he was the incumbent, and I admit that I do like to see Independents win from time to time to keep both parties on their toes…still, Lamont would have been far better. There were three close House races in CT. We won one, lost one and one is still in a recount with the Democrat slightly ahead.
In New Hampshire things swung back and forth. For a long time it looked like we would win two House seats. Then the Republicans surged and it looked like both seats would remain Republican. But in the end, we surged again and won. Two House pickups in New Hampshire! But even more amazing, we took BOTH state houses.
In Texas we picked up Tom DeLay’s seat (TX-22) and won Attorney General.
We did not win Attny. Gen in Florida, but we did win Florida CFO and out candidate there was a very excellent one. We won FL-22 and FL-16 but it looks like we may lose FL-13, which was one I was pulling hard for at the end. But that isn’t decided yet and will probably go into recount.
IA-1: This was one of our best pick up chances of the year. And we won it easily.
IA-2: this one only became close in the last couple of months of the election. But we won!
IA-3: the Republicans thought they could kick Vietnam vet and incumbent Dem Boswell while he was down, recovering from a bout with cancer. But we safely defended this seat.
Sec of State win (Mauro)
Sec. of Agriculture: Sadly, organic farmer Denise O’Brian did not win. This could have been historic, but we didn’t win it.
We won control of both the Iowa state house and senate, with DFA endorsed Elesha Gayman winning against a Republican incumbent in my father’s hometown of Davenport.
Big win in Iowa!
INDIANA:
IN-2: started “safe Republican” but with the help of MoveOn.org, we won this one! No one would have predicted this even a few months ago. Yet in the end it wasn’t even close.
IN-7: safely defended this seat. Congrats to Julia Carson!
IN-8: Can’t resist the obvious joke: there’s a new sheriff in town in this district. Ellsworth CREAMED the incumbent Republican.
IN-9: Our THIRD pickup in Indiana. We won it by a good margin, though not quite the knockout blow we had in IN-2 and IN-8. I predict this will be a tough battle ground district in 2008.
Took control of the Indiana state house, but not the state senate.
Sadly, we failed to take the very important Sec. of State and Auditor positions in Indiana, so there is yet ample potential for Republican fraud in Indiana…but we still kicked butt. And I bet Republicans are going to have a hard time getting corruption by Congressman Ellsworth!
Indiana was sill a HUGE success for Democrats and sane government this year, even if we lost some key battles.
WISCONSIN:
WI-5: we lost this one, though it always was a long shot. So, one of the horrible “Katrina 11” Republicans remains occupying this seat.
WI-8: Nice win here.
Took control of the Wisconsin State House, but not the senate, though we gained seats in the senate as well.
Mixed results in Wisconsin.
OHIO: everyone’s eyes were on Ohio, of course.
SENATE: We CREAMED them. Incumbent Republican DeWine is drowning his sorrows while Democrat Brown is celebrating.
SEC of STATE: YES! YES! YES! YES! The corrupt Republican Blackwell got his ass kicked running for Gov, and Democrat Jennifer Brunner has won the race to replace him. We now have a chance to clean up Ohio’s elections!!!
ATTORNEY GENERAL: The corruption of the Ohio Republican party has become legendary. Well, now there is a Democratic Attorney General who can prosecute them! Go Mark Dann. Time to clean up the mess in Ohio.
The only race we lost that would be important for cleaning up corruption in Ohio was the State Auditor’s position. We lost that one. But hopefully Governor, Sec. of State and Atty. Gen. will be enough.
We didn’t win as big as some expected with the Congressional House races in Ohio. We only picked up one House seat here, OH-18, and that was thanks to Bob Ney’s downfall. There were some close races, and some where election fraud might have skewed results, but it looks like we will only pick up the one seat.
Gained in both state legislatures, but both remain controlled by very corrupt Republicans. That will make reform harder and make Strickland’s job difficult. Mixed results in Ohio, but still damned good since it gave us a Senate seat and gives Ohio a chance to clean up the HUGE mess that it has become thanks to Republican fraud and corruption. Good luck Brunner and Dann!
PENNSYLVANIA:
HUGE Senate win. The most odious Republican, Rick Santorum, was soundly defeated. Casey would not have been my choice for a candidate, but he won. Casey is anti-choice, his biggest defect, but then again, so is Senator Reid of Nevada and yet his leadership has been excellent. Let us hope Casey will follow Reid's footsteps.
In terms of House seats picked up, PA was our biggest win with four solid pick ups. In a fifth race we are awaiting a recount, but we seem ahead by 1000 votes. We may pick up FIVE HOUSE SEATS in PA, which would be astonishing.
NEW YORK:
In my own state we kicked ass. Governor, Attorney General, Senate all were won not just soundly, but OVERWHELMINGLY. I can’t say our candidates for these positions were my favorites, but Eliot Spitzer has great promise for Governor, Cuomo may surprise me as Attny. General, and Hillary Clinton is overall good even if she supports the war in Iraq.
But the real gains were in the House. Three solid pickups in a state most people ignored at first. Here it really was the grassroots that made the difference. Most of NY’s House races were ignored by everyone but the local grassroots. Only at the end did they become nationally on the radar, and in the end we won three.
VIRGINIA:
Webb beat the racist Republican Allen for Senate, though it was much closer than it should have been. With all due respect to Virginia, a former Sec. of the Navy should be able to beat someone who is publicly racist and otherwise useless more soundly. But Republicans seem to like racism and corruption better than former Secretaries of the Navy, so the race was very close. In the end, though, Webb won and I predict he will be a real force to be reckoned with in the Senate. Good job!
We lost VA-2 by a little and VA–10 pretty badly, but our efforts in those districts helped Webb. Virginia is still a tough nut for progressives, but overall, both 2005 and 2006 were pretty good years in Virginia elections.
NEW JERSEY:
Menendez held onto his Senate seat, and I bet he can now hold onto it for a long time to come, if he wants. Sadly we did not win NJ-5 or-7, but they were always long shots. Still…I’m disappointed. But still, we came closer than people had thought and that certainly helped Menendez.
SOME OTHER RACES:
HUGE Senate win in Missouri. Defeating Talent is big, and McCaskill is one of the best new faces in the Senate. Some small gains in the state legistlature as well.
In Montana we won in the Senate, sending the very excellent Jon Tester to replace corrupt Conrad Burns. But the bad thing is we lost control of the state legislature. That is a bad sign after the great gains in 2004.
We won somewhat unexpectedly in AZ-5, while creaming the white supremicist Republican incumbent in AZ-8. Along with Allen’s defeat in Virginia, that is a nice blow against racism that has been growing within the Republican party.
A particular sweet win is CA-11. Corrupt and anti-environment Republican incumbent Pombo was soundly defeated by McNerney. McNerney is great! He resigned from West Point to protest the Vietnam war and he has been a strong proponent of wind energy. This is a case where a particularly horrible Republican was defeated by a particularly excellent Democrat.
One big surprise, and one that Democrats really should pay attention to, is the fact that the Wyoming House race was practically tied. This was considered safe Republican. But the Democrat gradually and steadily wore away the Republican’s lead. As of now, the Republican has a handful more votes, but the race has yet to be called.
In Connecticut Lieberman won, which sucks but it doesn’t really change anything since he was the incumbent, and I admit that I do like to see Independents win from time to time to keep both parties on their toes…still, Lamont would have been far better. There were three close House races in CT. We won one, lost one and one is still in a recount with the Democrat slightly ahead.
In New Hampshire things swung back and forth. For a long time it looked like we would win two House seats. Then the Republicans surged and it looked like both seats would remain Republican. But in the end, we surged again and won. Two House pickups in New Hampshire! But even more amazing, we took BOTH state houses.
In Texas we picked up Tom DeLay’s seat (TX-22) and won Attorney General.
We did not win Attny. Gen in Florida, but we did win Florida CFO and out candidate there was a very excellent one. We won FL-22 and FL-16 but it looks like we may lose FL-13, which was one I was pulling hard for at the end. But that isn’t decided yet and will probably go into recount.
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