Associated Press
North Carolina Gov.-Elect Patrick McCrory (R)
The 2012 elections didn't go as planned for Republicans, especially at the federal level. President Obama was easily re-elected; the Democratic Senate majority got larger; and the House GOP majority got smaller. These weren't the results Republicans had in mind.
But what about state races? The Republican Governors Associations raised more money than it's ever seen for the 2012 cycle, so maybe they have something to show for it? Well, the good news for the GOP is that they flipped North Carolina from blue to red.
AP has projected that Republican Patrick McCrory beat Democratic challenger Walter Dalton in the North Carolina governor's race. Gov. Bev Perdue (D), plagued by low approval ratings, announced in January that she would not run for a second term. Polls have always suggested that Dalton faced an uphill battle here.
The bad news is, that's it. Republicans successfully flipped one governor's mansion but made no other progress. Last night, Montana's Democratic Attorney General Steve Bullock was named the winner of his gubernatorial contest, and though the race in the state of Washington has not yet been called, Democrat Jay Inslee appears likely to prevail. Republicans also came up short in New Hampshire, Vermont, West Virginia, and Missouri.
Maybe GOP candidates had better luck in state legislative races? A little -- Republicans reclaimed the Wisconsin state Senate and Arkansas' legislature. But elsewhere, California and Illinois now have Democratic supermajorities in both chambers; Democrats flipped both chambers in Maine; Republicans lost their supermajorities in Arizona's legislature; and Democrats claimed new majorities in Colorado and Minnesota. [Update: Democrats also won a state House majority in New Hampshire.]
As the dust settles on the 2012 election season, it looks like a year Republicans will be eager to forget, up and down the ballot.
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Re that photo: Is anybody else reminded of one of the last scenes in Police Academy?
Zzzzzzzip
I hope the American people learned a very good lesson during this election season as well. In 2010 when the people were lead to believe that Healthcare reform was the end of the world as we know it and blindly voted in the crazies, they put the country on stand still. From this election, I truly hope that people continue to be informed voters and choose whom they feel is the right candidate.
I also hope, and I realize I am dreaming, that Republicans work with Obama and if not American replaces them all.
When the ACA is fully implemented , those rural red state places that have been waiting for Doctors Without Borders are going to go Whaaa! ? Insurance? Reasonable Rates? No Pre-existing condition ban?
I do believe we will get some converts
There is no question that the Affordable Care Act, when it finally goes into effect, will be very popular with low income, working people. For the first time, they will have affordable health care. The GOP so demonized "Obamacare" and lied about it so much that people were ready to vote to repeal it.
It will be very beneficial to the country. I have always known that because I know what is in it.
I was hoping that the Republicans would see, after the election, that this is a moderate country. Instead, they have taken the wrong decision on their policies. Now they are saying they should have run a staunch conservative like Rick Santorum. Next time they promise to do that.
How thick are these people running the GOP?
I honestly hope that we go over the fiscal cliff. We have to get rid of the costly, deficit raising Bush tax cuts AND it will tell Grover Norquist that his pledge isn't sustainable. We are starved for revenue. I sure don't trust the house T-party to take this decision, as they gave every indication that they still want to keep the Bush tax cuts. They claim to be fiscal conservatives, but want welfare for the rich! Let the deficit raise for the WEALTHY! I say OFF THE CLIFF!
I agree, coffeetalk, see my comment, #3.2
My insurance (same basic full coverage) goes up $72 per month (I get a group rate-retiree) next year. Obamacare has not kicked in yet.
I am curious what it would be if not for Obamacare.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/11/07/1155911/five-ways-obamacare-help-after-election/
As to the cliff, I think we ought to let tax cuts sunset and come back next year and really get to work on Budget with cooperation. The tax rates have to be on the table. Boehner has put some taxes on the table. I say insist on more and say we need to stop the hemorrhage and get to work and stop the b.s. We need to adjust tax rates and for me, Bush tax cut was $350.00 a year, so I think I can afford that if the higher incomes ante up a little more.
The TeaPublicans need to stop spinning election yarn to knit or weave a false narrative why they lost. They lost seats in the Senate and House lost many of the TPers and they lost House seats. The trend is toward cooperating in Congress, not taking harder stands against the other side. Now, I want to say my State is on the verge of a Democratic super majority so, this is not anything Repubs should be cheering about.
They had a long run of very low taxes in war time and we still lost jobs. We also need jobs, which boost revenue. So cutting jobs is not wise, either. Those big donors to PACs might have invested in something to create something on U.S. soil, their investments might have netted something better and increase revenues without tax increases.
I wonder if it was more a matter of Obama's coattails, or if Romney was just that poisonous to all levels of the ticket. Probably a combination of both.
You obviously haven't been paying attention, rethugniCons all over the country have been acting batshyt crazy. The sheeple may just be starting to awaken to the damage they've been doing to themselves...
At least that's my dream...
I have been paying very close attention, actually. The overwhelming magnitude of the GOP losses this year can't all be explaiend by "bat@!$%# craziness." The "sheeple" by definition don't pay attention to that stuff anyway; low information voters aren't going to know or care what the guy running for the state legislature thinks or says about any given issue. Something else was also at play here.
Zora, No, they're planning to go further to the extreme right! They got it backwards!
...it looks like a year Republicans will be eager to forget...
And forget it they will. The GOP has shown and amazing capacity for deflecting blame...Romney wasn't conservative enough, the media the media the media, Sandy, Christie, and, of course, the voters, who were just too female and too brown.
Welcome to Mysh!tdon'tstinkistan.
I do believe you are right . As long as the threat of being primaried looms over their heads....they will quake in fear.
Low turnouts in primaries except for teabaggers will insure a continuing supply of fringe candidates who are "Conservative Enough" and get their ass handed to them when put up against reality based candidates.
lets hope that the republicans go even harder right in the midterms. if they get it handed to them hard enough maybe the democrats will have "the brass" to get back to, at least, left-of-center where we belong.
i'm pretty sick of the new democratic party. they are farther to the right than some republicans used to be. hell, eisenhower or powell could run as a democrat today and win.
What is wrong with Wisconsin? Do they really want to become a third world nation? Has Ayn Rand become the new Ronald Reagan there?
I wondered that, too, Dan. How could the Wisconsin Dems (not to mention the national Democratic Party) allow the Republicans to re-take the state Senate. Look for two more years of Walker and his buddies pounding away at the unions and public employees.
How about a story on Occupy Sandy?
I'm curious, how many house seats are up in the next election cycle? Enough to flip the house blue?
All house seats and a third of the senate is up every two years.
Also, Republicans lost super majorities in both Florida houses.
As with all things political in this country the pendulum will eventually swing back to sanity. The Republicans are going to have to go back to their position as the center right side of the deal making team and give up this hyper-partisan craziness or they will end up being left behind by the rest of America.
Thanks. I feel stupid asking, I used to know that. Been awhile since poli sci.
citizenpain, Don't give it a second thought. Just reading your comments tells me you're smarter than the average bear.
How do you think I felt not knowing who Bruce Springsteen is!
I'd like to flip that house blue, as well. Until we can, we Dems and the president are in for a blood bath trying to get them to pass anything. That's why I say, "Off the cliff!"
My understanding is they've taken the decision to go further to the RIGHT. They believe that's why they lost. These people are simply thick. Clueless to the fact that this is a moderate country!
The democratic party has to pay more attention to governor races and run candidates that actually have a chance. Roger Dalton, the democratic nominee in NC was a weak choice and Pat McCrory has been running forever. He has promised to open up all land for hydrofracking and his connections with various industries is suspicious. Dalton seemed like a nice guy, but his connection to Governor Perdue weakened enthusiasm for him. I thought Dalton had a chance if the turnout for the president was good, but that didn't happen. It came up short. There definitely was a lot less attention paid to NC this time by the party and it shows. There was a real enthusiasm gap this time in comparison to 2008.
Walter Dalton.
I am sorry for the mistake!
Repugs don't know how to govern. For the most part, they posture with a holier than thou attitude. But it's like Moses coming down from the mountain stoned, instead of with stone tablets. One has to be pretty desperate for leadership to keep voting for failed leaders and hypocrites.
If the past four years are an example of how republicans react then...the right will become even more radical,the voter suppression will become more blatant and perhaps violent,the war on women will heat up to the point where hot flashes will no longer be a shared thing, the anti-immigrant talk will become a drunken brawl on the border, the NRA will start dumping more money(membership will get expensive)into races and we will see two year olds becoming caretakers for their childish republican parents!
You know what their problem was, don't cha?
They didn't run as true conservatives. They didn't fight hard enough on the abortion front. They were too lenient to illegal immigrants. They didn't take the fight to public unions like cops and firefighters and teachers.
Let's face it, it's not the ELECTION that Republicans will smack themselves with hammers to forget in 2012. It's the LESSONS to be gleamed from losing the election that they'll forget...hell, they'll never let themselves learn in the first place.
Meanwhile, because of the success they had in redistricting to keep the House solidly red for at least the next 2 years, possibly the next 10 and beyond, the one lesson, the ONLY lesson, they'll take away from '12 is this: Rigging the system pays huge dividends.
Meanwhile, the very wrong lesson I fear we on the left will take away is that Citizens' United isn't anything to worry about. We got very lucky in that Obama was up for re-election. He was a known quantity. For better or worse, his record as president - what he's done and what he's tried to do - can be judged and apparently was rewarded. Imagine the kind of cash Adelson & the Koch whores being spent against a Dem candidate who ISN'T as well known. That could be problematic.
Obama needs to spend serious time the next 2 years convincing the electorate a: Citizen's United is a threat to democracy, and b: the only way we can do away with it is to give Dems a solid majority in the House and a supermajority in the Senate in 2014. It's sad we'll have to fight that long to correct a wrong, but let's face it, right-wingers will never stop trying to repeal Roe v. Wade or defunding Planned Parenthood. We have to frame this issue as deadly important and fight to overturn it, even if we look like hypocrites in the bargain ("if you're winning elections, doesn't that mean Citizens' United ISN'T a threat?" No, it means we had to bang that drum so loudly, the drums for every other issue got muted, now we can focus on those other as-important things).
The Dems will have to work very hard to maintain the 53 (or 55, including the two independents) seats they have in the U. S. Senate in 2014. The Republican seats that are up are fairly safe, while there are at least four seats held by Dems that will be heavily contested.
Hillary Clinton for SCOTUS rather than POTUS 2016. She is a lawyer. Sandra Day O'C was formerly a politician and made it to the court. Hillary can avoid the dirtiness of campaigning. The normal Republican opposition in the Senate will be glad she's out of the race for 2016. The left will have a champion on the court for many years.
I like your thinking! women will have a strong advocate for years to come as well!
This is an interesting idea. I like it.
Love it!
Hillary would be great on the SC if she were about 15 or 20 years younger. If there's a vacancy, you want Obama to put someone on the SC who will be there defending people from attacks by corporations and the right wing crazies for many years. That menas that this nominee needs to be in their 40s or early 50s, so they'll hold that spot on the court for a while.
I like this too since I don't think she has the desire to run for POTUS in '16. Hillary is way too valuable as a leader to sit on the sidelines after she leaves the Obama administration.
I like this too since I don't think she has the desire to run for POTUS in '16. Hillary is way too valuable as a leader to sit on the sidelines after she leaves the Obama administration.
Republicans strenghtened their majorities in NC legislature. Republicans in charge of everything here. I foresee more cuts in education, forced ultrasounds, a refusal to expand Medicaid and possibly refusal to implement the ACA. They may choose to expand charter schools, which they largely view as the remedy to all that ails the educational system.
People all over McCrory's facebook page is yelling "repeal Obamacare!". Clearly they don't understand that McCrory is the Gov. of NC and can't repeal a federal law. And they probably favor cuts in Medicaid and no "socialist healthcare!!"
oops sorry...they want to nullify the ACA in NC.
Vaginal probe Bob explaining why they lost neglected to mention his own misogyny and blatant disrespect to women in VA and around the country.
Should be an interesting battle in 2014 when 'ol Bob runs for the Senate against Mark Warner.
If you know someone in the religious right who believes that Sandy lost Romney the election, ask them if that shouldn't be considered a sign of God's intervention.
god doesn't intervene where democrats are concerned, and global warming (climate change) is a fairy-tale.
I think we need to continue to watch and help the democrats in state elections since it is the game plan of the republican party to take over the power in the states.
Someone help me with this one.....Isn't the basic message of most religions to not judge others and help those who can't help themselves? That God loves all people. Where is this message in the bible thumping Republican party?? They wonder why people are turning off to religion and their party.
How different would our world be if we stopped using religion as a tool for power and an excuse to do unspeakable things to people. If the republicans are so bent on power why not own it. If your such a righteous party then stop hiding behind religion as a justification for all your behavior. Have the courage to step out from behind the bible and stand in the stark light of honesty and then see how you measure up.
I think you missed that the Oregon house turned Dem.
We were half Dem already, SP. Though I think even the party leaders were surprised that we ended up at 34-26. I had heard predictions from them that were a little less optimistic than that.
Yes, indeed SalemProgressive. Oregon Dems took back the House, and the new speaker, Tina Kotek, is the "first openly lesbian speaker in the country".
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/11/oregon_democrat_rep_tina_kotek.html#incart_river_default#incart_m-rpt-2
California now has a Democratic SuperMajority so the GOP is totally OLD NEWS.
Money and time well spent, Republicans.
Maybe this is not a fair comparison, but has some truth in it, I think:
The GOP's approach to the election was to try to take a bigger share of the 'white vote' which is proportionally shrinking.
Similarly, the GOP's trickle-down economic approach is to grab a bigger share of a shrinking pie (i.e. giving tax cuts to 'job creators')
A better approach for both, I believe, is to grow the size of the pie.