Wednesday, November 04, 2015

Huge Conservative Victories From Coast To Coast?

by JASmius



Is the Washington Post right about that?  Nah, probably not, at least as it pertains to that hyperbolic adjective.  But it most certainly did have its moments, like putting a Tea Partier in the Kentucky governor's mansion:

Republicans and conservatives notched stunning wins in elections across the country in victories amid voter sentiment fueled by a "year of the outsider."

Voters in Kentucky, Virginia, Ohio, Mississippi, and in cities like Houston and San Francisco soundly rejected Democrat candidates or Democrat-backed measures.

Here's a sampling of the conservative wave:

Matt Bevin's upset victory in the Kentucky's governor's race makes him just the second Republican to govern the State in four decades, the Washington Post notes.

And in bemoaning the defeat of Democrat Attorney General Jack Conway....

Who you may recall also lost to Rand Paul in the 2010 Kentucky U.S. Senate race.

....Democrat Governors Association head Elisabeth Person called the win a consequence of "Trumpmania" in a "year of the outsider," the Post reports.

But the victory also illustrated how a conservative voters' base came out in droves, likely in response to social issues including the effort to defund Planned Parenthood and the anti-s[odo]marriage fight of court clerk Kim Davis, the Post reports.

You may also recall Governor-Elect Bevin as the Tea Party "insurgent" who launched a bitter primary assault on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last year and was quite a sore loser about it in the aftermath of his defeat (or at least "victory is an entitlement"-addled Tea Partiers were).  But, to his credit, he picked himself up, dusted himself off, and went after a much more attainable open-seat Statewide opportunity against much easier primary and general election opponents and cleaned up.  I wouldn't call his victory over Jack Conway all that much of an upset, really, and it wasn't close - 53% to 44%, with 3% going to some irrelevant independent.  And you know that Kentucky Donks are petrified of Bevin by how the media is already trying to "RINOize" his public image.

Other Election Day highlights:

* Republicans held their seats in Virginia's state Senate — a rebuke to Democrat Governor Terry McAuliffe and blow to his party hoping to bolster the tie-breaking authority of Lieutenant-Governor Ralph Northam, the Post notes.

* Voters in Houston crushed an ordinance that was designed to [inflict freaks and perverts into the wrong restrooms], while Ohio voters soundly rejected marijuana legislation.

* In San Francisco — where the gunshot death of Kate Steinle....by illegal [alien] Francisco Sanchez inflamed voters — the sheriff who defended the city's "sanctuary" policy went down in flames, the Post reports.

* Mississippi GOP Governor Phil Bryant's re-election only illustrated the "south is becoming even redder," according to the Post's blog writer James Hohmann. In that State's elections, the Clarion Ledger reports, the GOP increased its majority in its House and toppled the House minority leader.

The best Hohmann can do to dismiss all of these small but still noteworthy results is to warn the Right that this was a "low turnout election," so we "shouldn't get our hopes up" that this will carry over to a year from now.  Which is not untrue as far as it goes, but isn't really saying much otherwise.

What this does reflect is that (1) while there are fewer conservative voters than liberal voters, conservative voters are more diligent about voting, which is why the GOP has grown so powerful at the State and local level, while liberal voters are far more fad-chasers, turning out in large numbers predominantly in presidential election years, which helps explain why about the only bastion of Democrat strength left on ANY level is the demigod sitting atop the Great Black Throne.  And what happens if/when he pedals off into the sunset?

This:

Carson 50%, Rodham 40%
Rubio 46%, Rodham 41%
Cruz 46%, Rodham 43%
Christie 46%, Rodham 41%

But Hillary does still beat Donald Trump 46% to 43%.

Hint, hint.

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