Via an emailed press release (no link as yet), the DGA says that Dem John Kitzhaber will be the next governor of Oregon. They also note that they spent a million bucks on the race. More as we get it.
UPDATE: The Oregonian and local TV news both call the race for Kitz as well.
I haven’t watched it yet, but apparently it’s weird.
I kinda viewed Kitz as my pet governor’s race to watch. Someone who seemed solid and was ready to get in there and crack some skulls for a progressive government. Dudley impressed me as having NO agenda.
This is a BIG win, in my book and was one of the toss up races I wanted the most (FL and OH would have made my night in the GOV category if everything else went the way it did, but I’ll take IL).
I know that it looks like they are tied in the state legislature, which sucks, but in ’94 didn’t one or two really really awful and scandal-plagued Republicans win House seats?
Video probably available here:
http://www.kgw.com/live-stream
The wave was real. It crushed Democrats across the country.
Except…not on the West Coast. Not in New England. Not in Maryland or Delaware.
Democrats won tossup races, with just a few exceptions (CA-20 and NH-02), and those by the slimmest of margins. Even in defeat, liberal independent Eliot Cutler dramatically overperformed, losing by just 10,000 votes even with three serious left-wing candidates on the ballot. Gov. O’Malley destroyed Bob Ehrlich in a rematch of 2006, a Democratic wave year, more than doubling his margin in the face of a Republican tsunami.
That’s basically why Mark’s projection was wrong. He thought the wave would be uniform. It wasn’t. Liberals held the line in Burlington and Bridgeport, Provincetown and Pawtucket, Rockville and Rochester. They fought back against big-spending neophytes and conservative demagogues from San Francisco to San Mateo, Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Eureka to Eugene. Youth voters turned out. Latinos turned out. African Americans turned out. The slimy likes of Jeff Perry, Carly Fiorina, and Scott Bruuuuuuuuuun were rejected; nutters like Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angle, and Art Robinson bounced.
So, Tea Party, as a goddamn proud blue-state American patriot, you can take that mindless rage and really shove it.
I thought it was weird they would just call it for Malloy, the DGA and SoS, when Foley was leading by 8000 votes. At least in Oregon, Kitzhaber is leading by 12000 votes.
Another question. Kitzhaber won almost by this same amount in 1994, but in 1998 he won a landslide because his opponent was Bill Sizemore. Anyone think Kitz is that good a governor to win reelection by the same amount, against at least a credible opponent?