and let's realize what also makes this big: the dems have a majority of state governors for the first time in 12 years, winning in tough red states like colorado. they picked up an estimated 300 seats in state legislatures, giving the party control in 23 state houses kansas, republican state attorney general phil kline was defeated 58-42% by democrat paul morrison; kline was an anti-abortion crusader who had subpoenaed women's medical records from abortion clinics, a cheap scare tactic if there ever was one.
i'd like to think what happened tuesday could amount to as big a shift as what happened 40 years ago, about which andrew e. busch writes:
When all was said and done, the GOP gained 47 House seats, three Senate seats, eight governorships, and 557 state legislative seats. Republican governors controlled 25 states, the most since the early 1950s. Republicans actually won a majority of the aggregated national vote for U.S. Senate. Of the 38 House districts where Democrats had replaced Republicans in 1964, only 14 remained in Democratic hands in 1966.the numbers may not all stack up here or against the 1994 midterm elections either, and clearly there is not the unified progressive-liberal opposition now as there was a conservative opposition then. but i wonder if there's something in the psychological significance of 2006 that cannot be captured in the numbers.
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