If the Democrats lost or gained a house or senate seat in your area, please tell us the story.

[mahina]

I think we would be in a much different situation right now if we kept our majority in the House.

What caused the loss in your community?

In my own, we turned a fluke short term R house seat blue, and went from light blue to dark blue all over the state. We now have one lone republican in the Senate and a tiny number in the House. The Republicans put up more candidates this year than ever before and they got their butts kicked.

Our deep blue Governor, Neil Abercrombie, won with a 17 point lead when the race was a statistical dead heat.

Why? Three main reasons I can point two, and one minor reason.

1. The 08 Presidential election created a huge number of new registered Democrats, and lots of those new voters voted again.

2. We had a hell of a ground game and a much better candidate for Governor.

3. The Republicans put all their eggs in the gay marriage fearmongering hubub. For a long time it really did look like they might prevail...but they didn't!

Also, their candidate for the house seat was a douchebag.

I don't mean to gloat. I am sure lots of us worked hard in those states that lost Democratic representation. I would really like to hear what happened and learn from it as I am able.

Next time...a hui hou.

[mdmc]

1. NYSCD19

John Hall lost to Nan Hayworth (R).
Third party negative ads attacked Hall night and day.
You would have thought that a high profile sex offender had moved in next to a powerful millionaire.
Mud 24 / 7 - sank Hall..

[Raine]

2. I'm in CA stayed the same here ... Democratic

for both my Senator and House Rep

[Selatius]

3. Gene Taylor where I lived was always a center-right Democrat.

He even waffled on supporting the minimum wage bill when it came up for a vote, but eventually, he did vote for it.

He lost his seat simply because Palazzo got really high turnout in the rural counties vs. the more urban coastal counties in South Mississippi.

Taylor suffered from lack of enthusiasm from the base of the party. They stayed home, and the Republicans were super-energized. Nobody could ever call Taylor a working class populist.

Gene Taylor had been in office for 22 years. It was considered a safe seat until out of nowhere a multi-millionaire with more money than God came and ran against him. His defeat hit the local party hard. I mean, he had been there for so long; I guess we kind of got used to him as a sort of rock or placeholder.

[Gaedel]

4. My congressman is now Allen West

The guy ran an energetic grass roots campaign and probably had a bit of outside money coming in. The incumbent D (Ron Klein) had a campaign which constantly attacked West as a teabagger and all around nut job but never said anything about why you should vote for Ron Klein. The only mention of Ron Klein in his ads was "I am Ron Klein and have paid for this ad" at the end. You can't just say "I am a Democrat" and get elected except in deep blue districts. You have to get out there and work.