Despite the loss of 3 Governorships in 2003, Democrats did have some good things happen to them in 2003. For one thing, we found our voice again, and while it's pretty incoherent now, it will be clear once we pick our nominee. In addition, Democrats did quite well in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Indiana in particular, but also in many other states with smaller elections. The GOP may have snagged the big kahuna, but the Democrats picked off all the little prizes.
In my home state of New Jersey, Democrats broke a curse-they picked up seats in a Gubenatorial midterm election. Democrats picked up 2 Senate seats and 6 Assembly seats, giving them their biggest majority since the Florio years.
Democrats also picked up the Mercer County Executive Position, held the Freeholder Boards in Bergen and Passaic Counties, and won some suprising victories in Mayoral elections on GOP turf.
The Democrats gained seats from the following districts in New Jersey:
District 4-Democrat Fred Madden narrowly defeated Senator George Geist to pick up a Senate seat. Madden is the former Acting Suprientendant of the NJ Police. Also, Democrats outsted Assembylman Steve Altamuro.
District 12-Democrats outsted all three GOP incumbents-Senate President John Bennett and Assemblymen Claire Farragher and Michael Arnone. The winner were Ellen Karcher for Senate (the talented daughter of a former Assembly Speaker) and Michael Panter and Bob Morgan for Assembly.
District 19-Democrats outsted ex-Democrat Arline Friscia with Democrat Joe Vas in an Assembly race. Vas is the Mayor of Perth Amboy.
District 33-Democrats easily picked up an open GOP seat in heavily Democratic turf. The winner isDemocrat Brian Stack, Mayor of Union City.
District 38-Democrats Bob Gordon and Joan Voss picked up both Assembly seats, one from the open Republican seat and the other from Green Party Assemblyman (ex-Democrat) Matt Ahearn.
In addition, Democrat Jordan Glatt became the first Democratic Mayor of Summit, New Jersey in 100 years. This is the town right next to mine, so it's great news indeed.
What does this all mean? Well, from a strictly campaign sense it means that George Bush has little chance of winning New Jersey in 2004. The State Democratic Party has such a strong organizational advantage over the NJ GOP that Bush won't have much luck getting his vote out in 2004. So, barring a GOP landslide, I predict that New Jersey's 15 electoral votes will go Democratic in 2004.