ANALYSIS | It was an election tailor-made for Republicans. There were four gubernatorial elections in four states Obama lost. There was a referendum on "personhood" in Mississippi and another initiative targeting unions in Ohio, a state that just ousted a Democrat governor. And, yet, Republicans managed to lose half of these key votes. Republicans need to start asking questions of their leadership, before they lose next year's election too.
Earlier, I wrote about how West Virginia was a win for the Democrats, as acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin pulled out a narrow victory over businessman Bill Maloney. But Republicans generally ignored the results, even as I warned about the connections to Kentucky.
Well, Kentucky gave Democrats a huge win too. Stephen Beshear, once given up for politically dead in the Bluegrass State's politics, coasted to an easy reelection over state senate President David Williams. Even though Kentucky lags behind the country in this anemic recovery, Democrats pretty much swept the other statewide races.
In Mississippi, Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant won his race by defeating Democrat Hattiesburg Mayor Johnnie DuPree, a candidate making his first statewide race. But that victory was offset when Mississippians rejected the controversial "personhood" initiative. Maybe Dupree could have made it an even closer race (though he was heavily outspent) had he stood with Mississippians and opposed the measure, instead of mimicking Bryant's stand.
Republicans won Louisiana handily because the Democratic Party dissolved overnight. One wonders now what a little political backbone and organization might have done, at least in some races.
Excuses have been made of West Virginia and Kentucky being "Democrat" states. Well not only have both voted Republican in all presidential elections since 1996, but both are among the ten states that give President Obama the lowest marks; both states only have a third of their population approve of him. If Republicans can't win in these states, how do they expect to do in places like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio?
Speaking of Ohio, the state roundly rejected the anti-union measure on the ballot. And a look at mayor elections in swing states and red states shows Republicans doing about as well as Democrats did in Louisiana state elections.
So how are Republicans taking the news? They're generally ignoring the results. On Fox News' Election Night website, Beshear's name couldn't be found, unless you clicked on a link in the scorecard. The Ohio results were pooh-poohed in an editorial. There was more coverage of Herman Cain and the USS Cole than the entire night's electoral events.
The Republican Party website was even more clueless. It was a near blackout of 2011 results on election night. They focused on 60 percent of their "New and Noteworthy" section on Eric Holder. The other stories were Obama's visit to Pennsylvania and new Hawaii GOP Chair David Chang. They didn't even mention Phil Bryant's win in Mississippi!
Reince Priebus was brought in as the new RNC Chair, after the Michael Steele was dumped following one of the biggest Republican election nights in history, following a good GOP showing in 2009. The GOP should ask the same tough questions of Priebus, and should try to learn something from the experience, so they don't repeat the same mistakes next year.
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