About a week ago, I blogged about the improvement that the state Republicans had shown in the state House of Representatives races. That's the good news.
The bad news is in the state Senate. Aside from the probable loss of Lori Clapp's seat, the aggregate vote also took a turn for the worse, and for many of the same reasons the Republicans did better in the House.
In 2004, the Republicans lost 51% - 47.3%, and by an aggregate vote of 35,000 votes. This time, in the same set of seats (ignoring the special race in District 16), we lost 56-44, and by about 129,000 votes. Of that improvement, about 48,000 came from Democrats competing in seats that were uncontested in 2004. And remember, 2004 was the year the Dems took over the legislature as a whole.
District 8 showed improvement, but was a hold, and District 19 showed significant improvement, but we still failed to wrest it away.
Combining this with the data from the House races, it's a fair bet that the results taken together are a result of more tactical spending on the part of CoDA and the Four Horsemen. Realizing that the House didn't show much chance or need for gains, whereas the Senate could be put out of reach for the vital redistricting year of 2010, that's where the "progressives" put their money.
I haven't looked ahead to the 2010 calendar, but I'm guessing that barring a major change in the landscape, the Senate now probably is out of reach, and redistricting will probably focus on that body more than any other.
