A Good Night For The Dems

With a big bag of salt tossed over the shoulder, seeing how fickle voters can be:

Union-busting? No thanks.

Voter suppression? No thanks.

Define birth control as murder? No thanks.

Turn the Iowa State Senate over to the GOP? No thanks.

Recall Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, the Republican author of his state's "paper's please" law? You betcha'.

But while the news was good for liberals, it was only so-so news for Democrats running for office. So the glass is half-empty too:

While the night was generally good for progressive policies at the ballot box, it was not as good a night for Democrats running for office.

On net Democrats lost state legislative seats and may have lost control of two important state legislative chambers. That’s significant given that only four states (Mississippi, Virginia, New Jersey and Louisiana) held regular legislative elections this year.

In Virginia Democrats lost seats in the lower chamber. Depending on the results of a recount, Democrats may end up losing two Senate seats, putting the balance of power at 20 D – 20 R with the Republican Lt. Gov giving the GOP a working majority.

In Mississippi the results are still being counted, but it looks like the Republicans may have barely netted enough seats to take control of the House of Representatives for the first time since reconstruction.

In New Jersey Democrats did about as well as they did in 2009, gaining only a single state legislative seat.

Some national Democrats may be talking heart in how completely the anti-union law was defeated in Ohio, but they should be more worried about the fact that in the state legislative races Democrats did only as well as or worse than they did in the 2009 election, and 2009 was not a good year for Democrats.