Democrats Surge in State Legislatures

15 thoughts on “Democrats Surge in State Legislatures”

1. Actually, the GOP picked up one state Senate seat, while the Assembly was unchanged.

   Certainly, outside of California, it was a very good night for Democrats in state legislatures.  The problem in California is term limits which create a lot of open seats,
   especially in the Assembly.  With the weak state of the Democratic organization here, that’s a problem when an Assembly seat can cost up to $2 million.

   Time for an overhaul here.

2. The table is correct for CA Senate (24D-15R) because one seat is still undecided.  So, it should be N/C until this race is decided.

   In the text above the table, it should read that the Dems took over the Wisconsin Senate, not the Wisconsin House.

   The Minnesota and New Hampshire gains were amazing.  This is the first time Democrats have controlled the New Hampshire House since 1922.

3. It is +5 for the Texas House. It’s +6 if you include the open seat we picked up in a special election back in February. The new House is 81-69.

4. Read a very interesting take on the Wisconsin turnout and the impact of the Same Sex/Civil Union marriage Amendment on the 2008 elections from Rep. James Sensenbrenner R-WI of all people. 

   Sensenbrenner noted the GOP legislative majority purposely  slowed down passage of the Gay Marriage Amendment to align it with the Nov 2008 Governor election.  The GOP also added a zany non-binding death penalty referenda with language specificly mentioning DNA evidence to attract the CSI vote I guess, it passed by a 56%-44% margin.  The Amendment + the referendum were to generate a tidal wave of social conservatives voting Yes-Yes-GREEN.  Sensenbrenner next noted the Marriage Amendment outpolled Green by about 275,000 votes statewde ((it passed statewide by exactly 399,000 votes, Dane County (Madison) voted over 2-1 against the Amendment but it passed in every other county winning statewide 59-41%)).  Meanwhile Jim DOYLE was easily re-elected 53%-45% which by recent Wisconsin standards is a landslide.

   Sensenbrenner noted the Amendment hurt the Republicans badly. It energized the state college campuses who tidal waved, voting mostly No-No-Doyle, and it energized the blue collar union vote who did come out and vote in larger numbers.  They voted Yes-Yes-Doyle and many voted straight party ballots for the Democrats.  The harmless GOP State Treasurer Jack Voight was also ousted this election so the Dem tide was deep by recent Wisconsin standards.

   The AG race however shows what the Club of Growth did nationally, the Dems can do as well.  The incumbent AG was Peg Lautenschlager, who is perhaps the most progressive AG in America at the moment. (Kathleen Falk is another fine progressive. Falk wanted to succeed Doyle in 2012 and felt she needed to win a statewide office to create credibility outside of Dane County) Peg proceeded to get a DWI about a year into her term.  Several Dem state legislators then prodded Dane Co. Executive Falk into a primary challenge of Peg due to the DWI.  Falk out spent Peg and won by an anemic margin in a bitter race.  Falk lost her home county to Peg, progressive stronghold Dane Co., 60%-40%. In the Eau Claire vicinity however Falk steam rolled Peg about 70%-30%.  Kathleen Falk was subsequently defeated by GOP nominee J. B. Van Hollen who at one point claimed there were terrorist training camps operating in Wisconsin (he is a Federal US Attorney).  Van Hollen won statewide by about 9,000 votes, but Jim Doyle received 11,000 more votes than Kathleen Falk did in Dane County.  In otherwords, Kathleen lost because 11,000 Dane County progressives could not forgive her nasty primary challenge of progressive icon Peg Lautenschlager and bypassed voting at all in the Attorney General race if they couldn’t stomach Van Hollen. 

   Three of the four Senate pick ups were achieved by defeating incumbent Republicans. Ron Brown was a quiet conservative back bencher. David Zein was the point man for the NRA in the Capitol and an extremely combative conservative. Tom Reynolds is a wingnut obsessed with attending conferences that explored such crucial voter topics as the “homosexual agenda”.  Think Marilyn Musgrave with a darker mustache and soul.

   The Assembly races were more affected by corruption issues.  Scott Jensen, the former GOP Senate leader, is currently doing jail time for felony influence peddling.  Many of the GOP Assembly members who were upset this week were linked to Scott Jensen by their opponents. Just like the GOP in the US Congress, the GOP here in Wisconsin killed election reforms after a significant legislative scandal because they felt it would not be a voting issue by 2008. They were wrong.

    

5. Republicans have a huge majority in the legislature, 34-13-2 before the election. With that majority, they control committees. Now, without an official partisan nature to the legislature, members are free to form coalitions and trade votes, resulting in strange variance in laws. For example, the unicameral passed a law giving in-state tuition to immigrants who graduated from a Nebraska high school, over the governor’s veto. They passed a law giving ex-felons the right to vote 2 years after completing their obligation. They passed a conceal & carry law, and a law segregating Omaha’s schools.

   A Democratic majority isn’t essential in this legislature. But with term limits eliminating half the body this year, it was important to elect new Democrats to the legislature to replace the veteran Democrats who were forced out. Six Democrats retired from the legislature this year, and in those open seats, four Democrats won. Democrats won in four open seats held by Republicans, and may pick up another if a recount goes their way. But assuming the result of that race favors the Republican, the current status of the legislature is 32 Republicans, 15 Democrats, and 2 Independents.

6. Under federalism, particularly the post-Reagan version in which much power has devolved to the states, the states make a lot of important domestic policy. This is particularly true in times of do-nothing Congresses, as we have now; look at minimum wage laws, health coverage, and environmental policy, just to name three areas that many states have forged ahead of the national government.

   Wingers know this well, and they put a lot of resources into managing policy at the state level through the American Legislative Exchange Council (www.alec.org). On our side, the electoral gains have been great, but our policy networking is still far behind. The Progressive States Network (www.progressivestates.org) is trying to fill the gap, but its resources are a small fraction of the right’s.

   In order to capitalize on the electoral successes, we need to build this infrastructure — at the state as well as the national government. And, no disrespect to James intended — we need to look at statehouses not as the farm team, but the major-league team on important policy issues at the state level.

7. is the year for election to the Virginia legislature.  The Republicans are seriously divided between the no-tax-ever crowd and the relative moderates (about 20, who Warner brought along in support of his biennial budget).  There could be a number of pickups in twelve months….

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