The Republican landslide in secondary offices
By Bruce Walker There has been a lot of notice given to the Republican victories in Senate and House races and an almost equal amount to the surprising gubernatorial wins. The huge Republican landslide in state legislatures has also been noted. Little, if any, attention however has been given to the overwhelming Republican win in those secondary statewide elective offices which can impact policies and groom strong future candidates for governor and senator. The left has not forgotten these offices. Recall George Soros' odious "Secretary of State Project" which aimed to elect a batch of "progressives" to count ballots in close elections? In 2014, 25 states elected a Secretary of State and in 17 of these 25 states, the Republican candidate won. That included Republican wins in all six of the states specifically targeted by leftist and conservative organizations alike as critical – Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and New Mexico. A state attorney general is an important official and historically the left has paid particularly attention to winning these offices. Eighteen states had lawsuits against Obamacare and Republicans won the attorney general races all eighteen of these states, including defeating the incumbent Democrat Attorney General of Nevada, who had refused to represent the state in the lawsuit filed by the Republican governor. Today, remarkably, most state attorney generals are Republicans. Republican victories in other secondary statewide executive offices have impact on broader policy issues. A state's insurance commissioner affects Obamacare implementation. A state's secretary of labor influences union power and right to work. A state's superintendent of public education affects school curriculum and teacher's qualifications. Other offices like State Auditor or State Comptroller – and Republicans won the vast majority of these elective offices this November - provide Republicans with an extra check on state government corruption or financial shenanigans. These were "wave" victories, in many cases, as evidenced by the large number of states in which Republicans in 2014 won every single statewide elected office: Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kansas, South Dakota, North Dakota, Indiana, Missouri, Arizona, South Carolina, Georgia, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Alabama, Missouri, Nevada, Nebraska and Wyoming. In every one of these states Republicans also control both houses of the state legislature. The wave nature of Republican victories in 2014, which often were built upon equally big wins in 2010, suggest that many states Democrats must win in presidential elections are now in play. Ohio and Florida are now strongly Republican at every level of state government. Michigan, often thought very blue, has a state government totally Republican. Other states, not quite as large but part of the Democrat electoral calculus, seem to be slipping away as well. In Nevada, all the statewide elected officials and both houses of the legislature are Republican, (which ought to give Harry Reid something to think about as well.) In Wisconsin, every statewide official except the Secretary of State and both houses of the legislature are Republican. In Colorado, although Democrats won the gubernatorial race, all the other statewide elective offices – Attorney General, State Treasurer, and Secretary of State – were won by Republicans. Iowa had a sweep almost as comprehensive. The Republican tsunami in secondary statewide offices also means that Republicans will have a very deep bench for future elections. In Ohio, for example, two different Republicans who have been Senate candidates in Ohio – Mandel and DeWine – won statewide offices. Democrats have used these offices as stepping stones to other offices, especially the Senate, but there numbers are now depleted (outside very blue regions where Democrats win anyway) and in many states Democrats have virtually no "established" candidates to run for senator or governor.
What ought to appall Democrats is that after November 2014, their party, at every level of federal and state elective office – except for the presidency – is a minority and in many parts of America a weak minority. Barack Obama has been able to do what even Ronald Reagan could not: make the Republican Party truly the majority party in America. Obama wanted to be a "transformative president." He has, indeed, fulfilled that goal. Bruce Walker is the author of book Poor Lenin's Almanac: Perverse Leftists Proverbs for Modern Life and a contributing editor to Enter Stage Right.
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