With glee I write this from Eastern Pennsylvania. For the third consecutive major electoral cycle (2000, 2004, 2006; I don't consider 2002 major), Republicans have had their smug faces summarily booted out of the Mid-Atlantic region. Once again, their delusional fantasies of pulling some magical upset wins in New Jersey and Maryland came crashing down definitively at the last moment. Do we all remember the cavalier proclamations that New Jersey and even Maryland were "in play" in 2004? But Maryland came out huge against presidential Republican shenanigans that year, giving John Kerry one of his steepest margins of victories in the nation. Last night, significant inroads into minority communities still failed to make any headway for Republicans in this deep blue Mid-Atlantic state. With a less than remarkable candidate, we took it by 10%!
And New Jersey, I love it. It's the same thing every year. The GOP tries to fabricate some imaginary vulnerability we might be experiencing in the Garden State. They start polling it like crazy and get us all insecure about some whacko undercurrent brewing on the other side of the Delaware River. Again, even with a sea of scandal at his side in a year where voters rated corruption as their #1 issue, voters gave Democrats a decisive victory in New Jersey. This is a state where the Supreme Court mandated a legislative arrangement for gay/lesbian couples identical to marriage and voters are so attuned to equality here, gay marriage
didn't even materialize as a campaign issue. Again, GOP, squander millions of dollars here at your own peril. The message is clear. You are not welcome in New Jersey.
Finally, my great home state of Pennsylvania. If I had a penny for every dollar spent here by the national GOP, I'd be richer than Scrooge himself, Dick Cheney. Time and again, Republicans close their eyes and dream about stealing our trove of 20 electoral votes and tapping into some fanciful "conservative" sentiment that they're greatly overestimating in this state. Was it Carville who described Pennsylvania as Philly and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between? Well newsflash Republicans: that "Alabama" actually includes a swarm of mid-sized cities who would be thrilled to never hear from your petulant maws ever again. Sure, there's a big rural zone in PA outside the big P-cities, but has Karl Rove and co. ever looked up the demographics and population of the counties that include Wilkes-Barre? Allentown? Reading? Erie? Scranton? (huge 70-30% Casey victory there!) Johnstown? Stroudsburg/Poconos? Bethlehem? There are literally millions of people in these combined counties that all vote reliably Democratic every year. Only Lancaster, York (KKK country), and to a dwindling extent Harrisburg give any hope for GOP prospects in PA's myriad of mid-sized cities. But the other cities combined are much larger. Twice this state told George Bush in no uncertain terms how we felt about him and unprecedented spending and a record number of visits here on his part failed to dissuade us at all.
But last night was the most delicious. Not only did two-time incumbent fixture of the state, Ricky Santorum, lose here to a challenger... He was decimated! Friends, what may have been considered a challenge for us last year came true here last night and in a bigger way than anyone could have dreamed. Rick Santorum lost Pennsylvania 59%-41%! Even the highly favorable polls throughout this electoral season underestimated the brazen rout he got here last night. 59% to 41%. Tell me that doesn't that look like a Dem/Rep split coming out of Massachusetts. Did you see that, GOP?
The message is clear. The Mid-Atlantic region is now nearly as reliably deep blue as New York and New England. Republicans, the door is that way (southward). Please exit the building and don't bother returning. We do not want your hate up here!