First of all, congratulations to my Republican friends on a substantial election victory. While the GOP underperformed expectations in the Senate (where Democrats scored upset victories in Colorado and Nevada), they exceeding them in the House, where they won well over 60 seats and will take control of the House with an over 50-seat margin. Stateside, things also were pretty solid for the Republicans -- taking over at least 11 governor's mansions (while losing them in Hawaii, California, and probably -- pending recount -- Minnesota) and racking up big margins in state legislatures. That will be a big benefit come redistricting time.
That being said, step away from the carnage, and where are we? Democrats control the White House. A sizable Republican majority in the House is balanced by a decent Democratic majority in the Senate. The wind at their backs in every way -- bad economy, off-year election, riled up base, an overextended Democratic Party after two straight "wave" elections of our own -- and the GOP only pushed us back to 50 yard line.
To be clear, that's no small accomplishment when you're starting from your own 10, and the GOP demonstrated an excellent ability to play red zone defense in the first half of the Obama administration. I'm not going to engage in any tripe either about how now Republicans have to show they can govern because, if there is one thing the GOP proved these past two years, it's that voters will blame the president's party for all that happens (good or ill) even if the opposition does literally nothing other than try and grind the machinery of government to a halt. They've found a winning strategy -- why shouldn't they stick with it?
So, congratulations to the GOP for getting back into the ballgame. Two more years until Obama is up for re-election, and as far as I'm concerned, every single one of those House seats you just won comes with a two-year expiration date.
Game on.
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A lot of us here in Colorado feel rather proud of our state right now. We were helped along by the complete implosion of the local Republican Party. That Democrats kept the governorship represents quite possibly the most fantastic own-goal ever in state politics (though the Democrats ran a good candidate, which helps).
As for our Senate race, I'm of two minds about what the results mean.
More outside money came into that race than any other in the nation, and most of it was spent on attack ads against Buck highlighting his views on reproductive rights.
So on the one hand, I think it's cool that access to abortion and birth control is important enough to voters that it swayed some of them even in this year of tremendous backlash against Democrats. (And as an appointee hand-picked by Obama, no one was more tied to the administration than Bennet.)
On the other hand, maybe all it means is that Senate seats can still be bought, for the right price.
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