Well, that was interesting. Election Day was yesterday and, nationwide, Democrats took a drubbing. The U.S. House is in Republican hands again. The Senate remains in Democratic hands. Can’t say results on the national level surprise me.
I found the local races more interesting. GOP took control of the General Assembly for the first time in over 125 years. The Republicans face tough decisions with a looming $5 billion state budget deficit. Cutting taxes won’t solve that problem, so now Republicans will have to govern rather than whine.
For all the “throw the bums out” talk, nearly all North Carolina Congressional incumbents were reelected. At this time Bob Etheridge is calling for a recount against political newcomer Renee Ellmers. At this point it looks like Etheridge is done. If so, he’ll become the only congressional incumbent to lose this election.
While the election was bad enough for Democrats, it wasn’t a complete disaster. I expected bigger GOP gains. A lot of Democrats in NCGA races prevailed against good GOP challengers. Democrats ran competitive races for the Wake County Commissioners but lost Lindy Brown’s seat to former Garner alderman Phil Matthews. Brown’s frequent breaking of ranks with her Dem colleagues has always bothered me, but she would’ve been a better choice than Matthews. Matthews is a nice enough guy but it remains to be seen if he’s got what it takes to be a good commissioner.
My personal efforts during the election seem to have paid off. Two of the candidates I volunteered to help wound up winning their races. I stood for two hours in the cold outside of a polling place yesterday on behalf of a candidate and I was happy to see that that the majority of voters at that polling place voted for my candidate. That was a personal bright spot in an otherwise dismal evening.
It will be really interesting to see what happens to this state and country in the next two years. I get the feeling those folks who were just newly elected better not feel too comfortable.