By now, I imagine most of you have read about JoAnn Windholz, the Colorado Republican state legislator who felt compelled to blame Planned Parenthood for the terrorist attack on their office in Colorado Springs last week. But for those who have yet to read about it, here is a charming little snippet from her statement:
Violence is never the answer, but we must start pointing out who is the real culprit. The true instigator of this violence and all violence at any Planned Parenthood facility is Planned Parenthood themselves. Violence begets violence. So Planned Parenthood: YOU STOP THE VIOLENCE INSIDE YOUR WALLS.
Admittedly, when I was made aware of Windholz’s outrageous victim-blaming rant, I assumed she was safely ensconced in one of the deep-red legislative districts in Colorado’s reliably Republican rural stretches. Nope.
Folks, JoAnn Windholz represents Colorado’s 30th House district, a stretch of suburban Denver which in 2012 went for President Obama by a 58-40 margin. Windholz is in the midst of her first term, a term she earned after scoring an upset win by just 106 votes over incumbent Democrat Jenise May last year.
Turnout in that midterm election in the 30th district was 48.25 percent of registered voters. By way of comparison, when May easily defeated Republican Mike Sheely for the seat in 2012, turnout was 66.7 percent of registered voters. To put it in simple terms, over 7000 fewer voters cast ballots in the midterm election than cast ballots in November of 2012.
Windholz would’ve been a top target in 2016, anyway, and almost assuredly penned her political obituary with this statement. But these are the kinds of elections that Democrats should never lose—but often do. State legislatures are filled with fringe Republican types who earn their way into political power by narrowly winning low turnout affairs in nominally blue territory.
Over the past several weeks, we have looked at the growing crisis of nearly unprecedented Republican control of legislative power across the nation. Last week, in particular, we looked at the disproportionate tendency of “Obama districts” going to the Republicans in state legislative elections. One of the potential culprits, as was discussed in that article, was this presidential/midterm “turnout gap.”
The existence of clearly ill-fitting legislators like Windholz in districts amenable to supporting Democratic candidates underscores what a crisis that particular gap has become for the Democratic Party. Democrats cannot afford to try to regain power by hoping for tsunamis during every leap year. Fortunately, groups like the DLCC (the campaign wing of the Democratic state legislative effort) know this well, which is why their Advantage 2020 project is so critically important. The goal of getting the Democrats back to state legislative relevance by the time the next round of redistricting comes around, one could credibly argue, is the most important fight Democrats have ahead of them in the coming years.