There were several interesting elections yesterday and much has been made of the GOP’s success in winning gubernatorial races in Mississippi and Kentucky. On the whole, however, the elections weren’t really a smashing success for either party.
If you use the 2000 election results — blue states vs. red states — as a guide, the 2003 elections went pretty much as expected.
For example, Mississippi and Kentucky (red states) elected Republican governors. Philadelphia (blue city in a blue state) kept its Democratic mayor. New Jersey (blue state) gave control of the state legislature to the Democrats, after having seen the two parties, evenly divided in the legislature, share power for the last two years. San Francisco (really blue city in a blue state) will have a runoff election in its mayoral race — between a Democrat and a Green Party candidate.
In Houston’s mayoral race (blue city in a red state), Democrat Bill White came in first but will face a runoff election against his Republican challenger. In Virginia (red state), Democrats, for the first time in a generation, made gains in the state House, but lost ground in the state Senate.
What do these results tell us? Not a heck of a lot. Republicans did well in states where Republicans are strong; Democrats did well in states where Democrats are strong. In local races, Republicans continued to do well in more rural areas; Democrats continued to do well in big cities.
I can appreciate the desire to read yesterday’s results, looking for indications of how things will turn out next year. I’m afraid, however, that there aren’t many hints to be found.