It is incredibly dissapointing to announce that in the race for Alabama's seventh State Senate district, Democrat Laura Hall has lost by an almost two to one margin against Republican Paul Sanford. The seat was held by now Congressman Parker Grifith(D, AL-05). This district was not much like Alabama since the district is based in the city of Huntsville and Barack Obama actually narrowly carried the district, in Alabama. This means that Republicans have cut the Democrats state Senate majority to just a 21-14 vote margin and that since Obama's election, Republicans have picked up a net of three state legislative seats through special elections.
http://www.co.madison.al.us/...
Part of the problem may have been that the Democrat in this district was black in a district that was only 33% black. But this is a disturbing trend that is showing up in polling. Independent voters especially are very concerned about the spending going on by Democrats in Washington and they appear to be turning into Republican voters because of this. Its funny that independents had no problem with Republicans from 2001-2004 when they spent billions and billions of dollars on a war that was of no benefit to us.
This is the first time I will directly say it. The fact is that I believe we are facing another 1994 in 2010. What may save us from losing much in the US Senate is the fact that most Democrats up are in very blue states and Republicans have a few very vulnerable open seats themselves. The House is a different matter, but I think we will lose a minimum of 15 seats and that number could be as high as 50 if we get a lot more open seats and Obama's approval rating falls below 50%. The most crucial races are state legislative races like this one. If we lose a lot more ground like we have been, Republicans will have a hammerlock on redistricting again and will draw the lines to make sure that we dont have a House majority again for a LONG, LONG time. We need to begin to bring plants in because a storm is coming.