Arizona a blue state? Not yet. One policy watcher said it’s more like plaid.
In Arizona, Democratic Governor Napolitano won re-election with 62 percent of the vote.
Here’s the breakdown:
Votes %Governor Napolitano 837,137 62.5
Libertarian
Barry Hess 26,548 2.0
Republcan
Len Munsil 475,478 35.5
However the GOP remains in control at the Legislature, although the Dems have picked up a few House seats and could pick up one in the Senate.
Here are the numbers:
GOP Dems
House 35 25
Senate 17 13
These numbers could change.
1 Senate; 2 House seats remain undecided.
One former GOP lawmaker views the match-up between the “ambitious Democratic governor and a conservative Legislature” as a throwback to the 1980s when Democratic Governor Bruce Babbitt sought re-election while the Legislature remained in Republican control. “It’s like a solar eclipse,” he said. “It only comes around every generation or so.”
Republicans also have held onto most of the elective office holder seats, like Secretary of State (Jan Brewer); State Treasurer (Dean Martin); Superintendent of Public Instruction (Tom Horne); and Arizona Corporate Commissioner Kris Mayes and newcomer and former lawmaker Gary Pierce.
Other statehouses
Elsewhere in the U.S. Democrats broke the partisan deadlock in the nation’s statehouses Nov. 7 by capturing control of one or both legislative chambers in at least seven states, including the New Hampshire House for the first time since at least 1922.
Democrats now will control both legislative chambers in 23 states, more than they have held since 1994.
Source: National Conference of State Legislatures
Blue governors
For the first time since 1994, Democrats won control of a majority of the nation’s governors’ mansions, wresting away five Republican seats and ousting one GOP incumbent, Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich Jr.