Didn't sleep much last night, from a mixture of sadness and puzzled elation. I feel like one of those survivors of a nuclear war in a sci-fi novel, stumbling about the wreckage until I run into another person, who says, "Didn't you hear? We won!"
And democrats did win in Montana yesterday, bigtime. Progressives mostly wrested control of a red state from the hands of some pretty scary right wing nuts, and have thereby changed the course of this state politically. First the scorecard; then a few thoughts.
The good news: Brian Schweitzer (D) won decisively, 51% to 45% over Secretary of State Bob Brown (R), becoming the first democratic governor in SIXTEEN YEARS. The victory party was an awful long time in coming. Also, the democrats seized control of ALL the top state offices, the first time in nearly SIXTY YEARS.
Democrats control the Secretary of States office (supervises elections!), the Attorney General's office, the state Auditor's office, the Office of Public Instruction and the state land board. Two moderate/liberals won seats on the state supreme court, beating back a scary right winger in one race. We are still waiting on legislative tallies to see if the democrats won enough seats to regain control of the state house.
On the initiative front, the gold mining company's attempt to rescind the state ban on cyanide heap leaching went done bigtime 59% to 41%. Medical marijuana has been legalized (yes we may need it) 62% to 38%.
Now the bad news. Bush carried the state 59% to 39%, a tighter margin than Bush versus Gore. The "definition of marriage" constitutional amendment passed 66% to 33%.
It `s hard to figure out all the factors in this change, but here's a few I can see right off.
Brian Schweitzer ran a great campaign, endlessly upbeat, with new ideas and even choosing a republican lieutenant governor, John Bohlenger, a great guy (a moderate) from Billings. Montanans were sick of incompetent repub governors, like Judy Martz, Stan Stephens and to a lesser extent Marc Racicot. Schweitzer, a small businessman, having never served in public office did not have a long public record that could be twisted against him. Having a blank slate does help at times.
Bob Brown, the repub gubernatorial candidate, would even say, give us four more years to fix the problems the democrats gave us with their last governors in the 1980s. It didn't wash. Shades of Bush blaming Clinton.
The Democratic Party ran an incredibly organized statewide grassroots campaign. The state party chair Bob Ream and director Brad Martin (to mention a few of many) did great work. They never gave up and organized, organized and organized. And that is what I think worked. Never give up, don't retreat, no surrender.
Meteor Blades is right. That my friends, is what we must do nationally as well.