State Election Results
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-11-07/state-election-results
Last night Republicans held on to their majority in the House. Democrats retained a slim lead in the Senate by winning a series of high profile races. In Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren unseated Scott Brown. In Indiana, Democrat Joe Donnelly took the seat once held by Richard Lugar and considered a Republican stronghold. At the statehouse level, North Carolina Republican Pat McCrory will be the first GOP governor since 1988. Maine and Maryland became the first states in the country to approve same-sex marriage by popular vote. Washington state and colorado voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use. A panel of journalists joins Diane to discuss highlights of state elections and what they portend for the nation.
Guests
Nathan Gonzales
deputy editor of The Rothenberg Political Report.
Greg Giroux
political reporter for Bloomberg News.
Susan Davis
chief congressional reporter for USA Today.
Comments
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Given the tea party's limited success on the national level, there are rumors they are going to make their mark on the state and local level instead. Is there any empirical evidence of this phenomenon?
I have seen absolutely no coverage at all of any of the third party voting results. One would think that, at minimum, they deserve having their final polling numbers reported. Is there some form of organized nonresponse on the part of the media to these groups or is this just a sign of how unimportant the media regards these citizens?
I am a 65 year old white woman living in St. Augustine, FL. I worked for the Obama campaign and voted for him twice.
It is very simple. The economy goes up and down and there is not much we can do about it. But once woman's rights are gone, it will be a long time before they come back.
The Republican Party has nothing to offer me.
Rhena Fleming
Diane, please ask the panel about Puerto Rico: apparently 65% voted for statehood.
One of the most serious consequences of this election is the ability of the president to name at least 2 new supreme court justices. They serve for life, the president has 4 years to effect change. It frightened me to think that a super conservative majority on the court would be impacting our country.
What happened in state governor elections and what are the implications for the national discussion about support of the welfare state?
What evidence is there to support the idea that Americans want change? They just voted in the same government structure we had before. They voted for divided government. There was no mandate for tax increases.
With the contraint of re-election behind him, President Obama and all Americans will be far less tolerant of Republican obstructionism. I expect great progress on major issues in the coming four years.
Could you ask the panel this question? What does it say about the American electorate that some many Republican governors were elected yet President Obama still won the election? Thank you!
I'm still doing the happy happy dance the morning after the MO senate race. Todd Aiken is finally gone. I've lived in his district for the past 9 years, have never voted for him, never supported, or respected him. I have always seen Todd Aiken as only representing the upper class (top 15%), big business Christian Right citizens of St. Louis & St. Charles counties. He has never represented my moderate liberal pagan or my husband's atheist views. Even my moderate Republican Father (not in MO) was disgusted at Todd Aiken. Today is a wonderful day for those in his district who never respected the man.
So do you think the Obama team is all ready focused on flipping congress in 2014.
If Republicans do not give a little this time around the future looks grim for that party. With the demographics the writing is on the wall if they do not honestly negotiate.
No matter what John Boehner says or what Mitch McConnell says, they have a losing hand. If they are not willing to move more than half way, we go off the fiscal cliff which affects their constituency far more than the "47%" who don't pay taxes.
Going downballot, various states like Alabama, Missouri, and Wyoming adopted referenda limiting Obamacare. How does this affect implementation of the law or willthere be a relitigation in the Courts of the Affordable Care Act?
Rafael Cabrero
Baltimore, MD
Our hard working Senator Sherrod Brown ripped through the millions that backed Josh Mandel up. The people win when Senator Sherrod Brown wins!
Results appear to confirm that less diverse states further entrenched their conservatism, digging in their heels against change........until demographics will eventually shove them kicking and screaming out of the 18th century.
Could really portend even more ascendancy for women.......as legislators, governors, and President. States must do a lot more in education reform and raise up the disadvantaged kids to full participation....withOUT trying to make business profits.
Jesse Jackson Jr., I suppose talking about the effect of the black racist vote is not allowed.
If Republicans do not negotiate on the tax issue in 2014 they will be driving themselves over the cliff for future elections. Their choice.
An indicted Illinois State rep was re-elected yesterday. He cannot be re-censured.
Obama threw Hispanics a bone right before the election. It was like they forgot about the huge numbers of deportations.
He threw Ohio plant workers a bone with the tough talk on China. It was like they forgot about the 3+ years of letting China manipulate their currency and steal American intellectual property.
On this morning’s light, it is clear in our state and nationwide that Money and Manipulation of districts helped Republicans retain their seats. They were quite worried and spent an awful lot of money. This does not mean Congress is on the path WE envisioned it is just that WE the People (Congress) was and is bought out by special interest and allegiance other than to this nation. Love m...... the beat goes on....The Quesion was this election season ..What VISION will the people decide on? So now we have chosen
The question this election season was in big letters…crying out……
What Direction do the American People want for our Nation? Two Clearly Different Choices!
This election decided the direction of our nation..the vision the American people voted into office.
It was said to be a pinnacle time and I agree.
Congress retained their seats due to Money and Manipulation of districts.
If money was not a question Congressional leaders in Washington and in our state would not have succeeded.
Clearly the hundreds of billions of $$ spent by Mr. Rove and Norquist did have an effect, not much but enough …with little effect on the highest office in our land.
Congress’s allegiance to outside interest over the wellbeing of our nation and the American People is treasonous.
It was not Congresses job to do anything about our President but only to work for the better good as with the Democrat’s and GWBush.
Yet, Congress did nothing…..causing many unnecessary issues for the nation and our people.
A Mandate of the Vision of this President is what we elected into office for our nation.
President Barack H. Obama’s vision is the best path for our nation and the global world at hand.
kathleen wrote: "if Republicans do not negotiate on the tax issue in 2014 they will be driving themselves over the cliff for future elections. Their choice"
Just curious Kathleen, do you think Obama's policy on tax the rich fair share rhetoric is going to solve our deficit problem? If not, are you prepared to pay a lot more in taxes to support the social demands of the democratic party?
It's Obama himself that has pushed both political parties to their extremes, who's kidding who.
Obama spent $1 billion and it worked.
Your conclusions about money spent makes no sense.
Ask kathleen a serious question and POOF, she's gone.
I've heard it said that many ppl of color have been offended with the general disrespect shown our president. Their examples include the comments made during state of the Union speeches, The governor of AZ finger in his face, an aggressive stance from and interrupting by Romney during the debates I have noticed this as well, including from NPR. For instance, newscasters often refer to him as Mr. Obama rather than President Obama. Why? I'm older than middle age, and, in my lifetime, I've never hears this reference to past presidents. I never heard either of the Bushes referred to as Mr. Bush rather than President Bush. Even Clinton and Nixon in their worst days were referred to as President. I expected more from NPR.
Sandra Shelly, Assistant Professor
Ball State University
@tangell - re "absolutely no coverage of any of the third party voting results."
The information is available with a web search for "2012 Election Results" or "2012 _____ elections results" where you fill in the blank for the type of contest you are looking for. You might have to click a link that says "show all candidates" or something similar to see the third party candidates. For example:
http://www.google.com/elections/ed/us/results
If you click on "show all candidates" you can see that the candidate who came in 3rd was Gary Johnson with about 1.14 million votes or 1% and 4th Jill Stein with just under 400,000 or 0.3%
However, very few third parties or independents were in ballots for all the states. If you want to see how a particular candidate did, you might have to search for all the states where that candidate was on the ballot. This is the unofficial result in MD for all presidential candidates:
http://www.elections.state.md.us/elections/2012/results/general/gen_resu...
I didn't realize Santa Claus was running in Maryland; do not recall seeing him on the ballot.
The President ran strongly on the issue of increasing taxes on the rich--and won. Democrats increased their control of the Senate, and strong progressives won three senate races (Brown, Baldwin, Warren). Progressive ballot measures were successful all over the country and "tea party" ballot measures were defeated.
But the takeaway from this panel of pundits is that Pres. Obama needs to work harder to woo the Republicans who gerrymandered themselves into continued control of the House?????
It must be nice to be a Republican, since the Very Important Thinkers in the media seem to expect absolutely nothing of them except to hold fast to their ideology (which large numbers of Americans just rejected).
@Stepen Griffin said:
"Could you ask the panel this question? What does it say about the American electorate that some many Republican governors were elected yet President Obama still won the election? Thank you!"
It appears that there were only 11 "governorships" up for election this year and in 7 of those states Democratic candidates are winning or far ahead in the contests. The only one that appears to have flipped was North Carolina from Blue to Red for the seat vacated by the retiring Bev Perdue. So, not a lot of Republican governors (4 out of 11) elected last night. It doesn't really change the makeup of the country. Admittedly, there are 50% more Republican governors than Democrats as of now, but there's not anything to be said about any kind of trend in this election.
sshelly wrote: 'I've heard it said that many ppl of color have been offended with the general disrespect shown our president"
They have been trained by their culture and the democrat party to see racism everywhere.
To address the above question "Given the tea party's limited success on the national level, there are rumors they are going to make their mark on the state and local level instead. Is there any empirical evidence of this phenomenon?" I believe that YES, North Carolina is very strong proof of the success of this strategy, & I'd love to hear other opinions.
Briefly, as others have said, NC had a period of progressive advance towards the middle & end of the 20th century (largely due to strong progressive leaders & the university & research communities in the Piedmont). When the TeaParty movement had their moment in 2010, they took over the N.C. legislature. By benefit of that one moment of alignment with extremist politics & a census, it seems to me that extremist Republicans have captured North Carolina for another 7 years (until 2020, another census, & the resulting redistricting). As a North Carolinian, I am sad & embarrassed for my state.
To a responder
The mandate for a tax change is already scheduled AND it's NOT an increase BUT the ending of a Republican free gift from a Bushes. Get your facts straight!
Thank you for your program, Ms Rehm.