Posted by
cavalier973 on Wednesday, November 04, 2009 2:38:57 PM
The Republican Party made some significant gains last night; not only the two governorships, but many under the radar elections as well. Maine voters overturned same-sex marriage. But the focus seems to be on the one contest the "Republicans" lost--NY23; I suppose it will be more correct to say that "conservatives" lost NY23; which is a problematic result of giving a particular election a high profile. The narrative is shaping up to be that Republicans lost a Congressional seat that the party has held for over 100 years because of conservative-minded activism; that if the conservatives had sat down and shut up, then the Republican Party would still be holding the seat. We won't know that for sure, and its likely that Owens would have won the seat anyway, because of the possibility of conservative leaning voters going for Hoffman anyway, or staying home. What's of further interest about last night's election narrative is that the two governor races in which Pres. Obama involved himself, and which his party lost, are not considered referendums on his policies.
But what I hope happens is that this narrative ("conservatives lost the seat for the Republicans") becomes the conventional wisdom, and that this narrative overrides the narrative that Republicans had a big night with the winning of two governorships. I say this because such a narrative is obviously untrue, and will presumably lull the left-wing statists into a false complacency about the 2010 elections--and maybe even give them confidence to pursue the unpopular policies that turn people away.
In 1993, Republicans won two governorships in the face of a Democrat President who wanted to reform health care. The next year, the Republicans won control of both houses of Congress.