Most Kossacks are cheering a Democratic landslide across the country.
However, here in South Carolina the mood is pretty glum.
Despite fielding what many are considering the best slate of candidates the Democrats have fielded in years, Republicans appear to have swept all the constitutional offices, except Superintendent of Education, where Democrat Jim Rex leads Republican Karen Floyd by 214 votes with one precinct in Greenville County uncounted.
So what happened? Democrats were outspent. Badly.
sandlapper has blogged extensively about the amount of money poured into SC state races by out-of-state libertarian groups, especially by multi-millionare Howard Rich.
This money made a huge difference on the ground.
The Republicans had a sophisticated, computerized voter targeting system, and a large GOTV effort, and an army of volunteers (I heard homeschooled students played a major role, can anyone confirm?). The Democrats, at least in Anderson, had a few enthusiastic former high school buddies knocking on doors in African-American neighborhoods. On election day, they were joined by a handful of paid canvassers.
Democrats were outspent on the air, on the ground, in the mail and across the board.
Democrats may still hold Superintendent of Education, but this one shouldn't have even been close. Jim Rex is a lifelong educator, while Karen Floyd is an inexperienced empty suit who would never have been taken seriously had it not been for all that out-of-state money.
For all this talk of a "50 state strategy", there was very little help from the national party anywhere to counter this massive influx of Republican cash.
What this race shows is that those of us in small, poor states are vulnerable to becoming guinea pigs for the policy experiments of wealthy Republicans. It seems like the national party is unconcerned or unaware of this problem.
So, do we have a "50 state strategy" or do we have a "49 state strategy"?