Posted on 11/09/2004 11:27:23 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
What with having their presidential candidate beaten by a decisive margin, and having lost seats in both the U.S. House and the Senate, Campaign 2004 was not a heck of a lot of fun for Democrats.
Don't get the wrong idea. The party is in no imminent danger of implosion. After all, a few shifts in a few states - Ohio, especially - could have installed John Kerry in the White House. And the Democrats' power base is very much intact. While virtually all of what you might call mid-America is firmly in the Red Zone, the Northeast, New England, the upper Midwest and the Pacific coast remain resolutely Blue.
Still . . . Democrats and their supporters are going to have to work pretty hard to put a happy face on this year's results. And Texas Democrats in particular see a grim political landscape: Where once cigar-puffing Democratic grandees dominated Austin, there is now smoldering rubble.
That's no accident. With relentless, unwavering determination, Texas Republicans did a job on Democrats - particularly those who held seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The profoundly cynical, but effective, redistricting plan hand-crafted by U.S. House Majority leader Tom DeLay and executed by the GOP leadership in Austin steamrolled its way through three special legislative sessions. The package shamelessly gerrymandered district boundaries to the end of ousting incumbent Democratic congressmen. The new boundaries zigged, zagged and wiggled into the most bizarre, indefensible configurations, but the GOP leadership showed not even a sign of embarrassment.
In the end, the GOP plan succeeded. On Tuesday, four of the five Democratic congressmen targeted by the Republican redistricting map - Charles Stenholm, Martin Frost, Max Sandlin and Nick Lampson, with a combined total of 68 years in the House - were booted out by voters who cared not a whit for their seniority and their collected wisdom. The only survivor was Democratic U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, whose GOP opponent, Arlene Wohlgemuth, was so right-wing that even hard-right voters couldn't bring themselves to elect her.
It's a famous victory for Tom DeLay. For the districts that lost all that accumulated seniority, however, some pain awaits. And just as importantly, the Republicans' crude bulldozing of incumbent Democrats will make it that much harder for Texas lawmakers to summon up the mutual trust to fashion an urgently needed consensus on this state's needs.
In 1994, the Alabama supreme court was 100% Democrat...after this past election, it is 100% Republican.
Sheesh, no bias there...
Republican Rep. Max Burns in Georgia was also defeated, a belated result of the Democrats' gerrymandering.
Plus, we picked up an additional seat with Kenny Marchant up here in the Metroplex. I think Ralph Hall was already counted in the Republican number.
Texas Rats....the rat national platform sucks...doesn't line up with conservative beliefs...you no longer represent Americans only special interest groups...and liberal loons/goons commie leanings.
Ah, right, thanks.
The Democrats are looking at doing away with the runoff system ....
I would THINK that we'd have an advantage in this year's runoffs because there's really no particular reason for blacks to go to the polls.
Just out of idle curiosity, what did the districts look like before the most recent change? Somehow I bet they were just as bizarre...
Bush carried Texas with 61.14 % of the vote. The votes for congress are less than that.
32 x .6114 = 19.56 seats.
Good, we need to balance out the years the demonrats had way too many seats!
We Texans would just like to say that we are ashamed of the fat little loudmouth squawking bitch natalie maines who claims to be a Texan.
Screw her -- and DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS.
Maybe they will go to New Mexico again!
One way to demolish snide comments from a Democrat about redistricting is to hand them the list of all redistricting bills introduced in Texas since 1880. Texas state politics was dominated by Democrats, lock, stock, and barrel until recently. What's good for the goose, is good for the gander. By my reckoning of this list, Republicans can introduce a fistful of redistricting bills over the next four years and still not even begin to approach what the Democrats did while they were in power. Unfortunately, I live in Austin, the Berkeley of Texas. Nothing would make me happier in two years than to see Travis County turn red.
We also lost an open seat in Colorado where John Salazar (Ken Salazar's brother) won.
Out: Frost, Stenholm, Nick Lampson, Max Sandlin, and Jim Turner
In: Marchant, Ted Poe, Louis Gohmert, Conaway, and Michael McCaul
Switch: Ralph Hall
Change from 2002: +6
In the end, the GOP plan succeeded. On Tuesday, four of the five Democratic congressmen targeted by the Republican redistricting map - Charles Stenholm, Martin Frost, Max Sandlin and Nick Lampson, with a combined total of 68 years in the House - were booted out by voters who cared not a whit for their seniority and their collected wisdom. The only survivor was Democratic U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, whose GOP opponent, Arlene Wohlgemuth, was so right-wing that even hard-right voters couldn't bring themselves to elect her.So, we picked up FOUR seats due to redistricting. (Seems the Texas rags kept talking about a SIX or SEVEN seat pickup likely by the GOP).
If I recall right, GOP held a 17-15 seat advantage before redistricting. So we hold a 21-11 advantage now??
Change from 2002: +6Ah, thanks. So the GOP advantage is 23-9. Cool.
And sometimes you just get even. :)
It was dems 17; GOP 15!
Ralph Hall switched to R, making it 16 to 16.
Now it's 21(R) to 11(D)!
That's a successful redistricting, and we should knock off Chet Edwards in two years.
Feels good that Martin Frost got kicked out.
His aide got caught with stolen redisricting maps.
Frost himself was a disgrace after 9/11......a US congressman, he stupidly made questionable public statements and did not even have the decency to defend grieving Americans and American interests.
Good riddance, you traitor.
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