Hope for 2012?

Megan Covington
School of Engineering
Class of 2014

For all the talk about the doomed presidency of Obama and the rise in number of people who identify as Republicans across the country, local and state elections across the country yesterday showed that the Democratic Party isn’t down for the count quite yet.

While small, these elections are hardly insignificant. Mississippi failed to pass a referendum defining life as beginning at conception. This bill would have given the unborn full rights and could have meant outlawing practices like in-vitro fertilization, so the defeat is a big win for pro-choice advocates. Democrats in Iowa, with key support from promoters of same-sex marriage, managed to retain control of the State Senate. Ohio voters repealed a law limiting employees’ collective bargaining rights, echoing the sentiment of protestors in Wisconsin earlier this year. Democrats in New Jersey are still in charge of the state legislature, largely because of a new redistricting plan. Democratic Governor Steve Beshear was re-elected in Kentucky.

Perhaps one of the most shocking results of the day came from New York, where Democrat Kathy Hochul pulled off an unexpected victory over GOP candidate Jane Corwin. The notable part? Jane Corwin supports the Republican plan to reform Medicare. Even more notable – this district typically supports Republicans. Hochul’s victory is a sign that Medicare is a rather potent weapon in Democrats’ arsenal, one that might lead some Republicans to rethink their campaign strategies.

These results may be big news for the Democratic Party, but they might not bring much hope to President Obama’s re-election chances. Many Democrats have been distancing themselves from the president in recent weeks, especially as the president’s approval ratings have continued to drop. The election victories have a lot more to do with local politicians successfully distinguishing themselves from the Democrats in Congress and the White House than with a sudden resurge in support for the president.

Several districts where Democrats won yesterday have low approval ratings for the president, meaning that a Democratic victory yesterday does not necessarily translate into a Democratic victory in a year. The governor of Kentucky might still be a Democrat, but Kentucky went for McCain in 2008 and has 2 Republican Senators. The only clear lesson learned from yesterday is that 2012 is going to be one heated, contentious, and competitive election cycle.

View article: Lessons from the 2011 elections
Photo courtesy: Associated Press