In Pennsylvania:
Hatboro, PA: The Democrats have not held a single seat on Hatboro Council in 14 years. In one day, yesterday, they took a super-majority on the council and upset a Republican Mayor who had been in office for two decades.
Doylestown Borough, PA: As of Monday, all nine members of Doylestown's council, and its mayor, were Republicans. After election day, Democrats took three of those seats and the mayorship.
Doylestown Twp, PA: Two Democrats defeat Republicans for open supervisor seats in very conservative township.
Hatfield Twp, PA: Republicans lose their 4-1 grip to a 3-2 Democratic Majority.
Chalfont, PA: Two Democratic challengers took spots on the borough council.
Warminster, PA: A Democrat wins the job of township supervisor for the first time in more than a decade.
Warrington, PA: The board of supervisors was 4 for 4 republican. After big upsets last night, it stands at 2-2.
Quakertown, PA: Republican Borough Council President ousted by a Democratic challenger.
Also in Pennsylvania: Springfield Township Commission and Conshohocken Borough Council flipped from Republican to Democratic control. Democrats won a clean sweep of the Norristown Council seats on the ballot.
In Mt Lebanon, PA (suburb of Pittsburgh) the only contested commissioners seat was won by the Dem challenger. This is a heavily Republican town - Rick Santorum's old home town when he ran against Doug Walgren back in 1992. Dems swept the nearby town of Greentree for the 1st time in decades.
Lancaster, PA: Gray(d) unseated Smithgall (2 term incumbent R) 58-42, and the council was swept with dems, going from 4-3 to 7-0.
"BELLEFONTE -- Democrats swept the State College Borough Council and mayoral races Tuesday for the first time in years...."
"Bensalem, Bucks County PA - we took one Democratic council seat on the previously all-Republican board."
3 of 5 Northampton County Council Seats
2 of 3 Lehigh County Commissioner Seats
Mayor of Allentown
Mayor of Bethlehem
Allentown City Council -- clean sweep
Bethlehem City Council -- clean sweep
Lehigh County Executive (first Democrat since the position was created in 1978)
Northampton County Executive
As I noted before, Republicans were ousted from the Dover School Board, in Pennsylvania.
In New York State, Democrats made gains in Saratoga Springs and Hudson, NY. Very conservative stronghold Stony Point threw out its Rep supervisor and one council member. Ditto Village of Suffern (though not as conservative) They elected a Dem mayor and a trustee or two.
"Long Island has gone completely Democratic for the first time ever!" Saratoga Springs has swung to the Democrats.
"In St. Lawrence county, up on the Canadian border, a Democrat named Nicole Duve just won a tough race for DA."
"Allegheny County [PA] Council...goes from 8-7 Dem to 10-5 Dem, and one R won by 39 votes out of 18,000 cast, so there might just be a recount that would make it 11-4."
Dutchess County NY Great News!
Highlights from Dutchess County via http://joeruggiero.org:
Not a single Democrat incumbent lost re-election.
Democrats elected Diane Jablonski County Comptroller. This is the first time Democrats have elected a comptroller in county history.
Democrats gained seats in County Legislature from 17-8 to 13-12. Unofficial results show GOP has majority. There are three seats that are too close to call and could go Democratic once paper ballots are counted.
City of Beacon - Democrats Sweep City Council for first time in over a decade. Dems go from 4-2 minority to 6-0 majority.
Town of Hyde Park - Democrats sweep Hyde Park defeating GOP Supervisor and Town Board. Democrats gain majority 5-0.
Town of Rhinebeck - Democrats defeat GOP Supervisor and Town Board. Democrats gain majority 4-1.
Town of Milan - Democratic Supervisor re-elected and expand Democratic majority to 4-1.
City of Poughkeepsie - Democrats gain City Council majority for first time in 6 years. GOP loses 6-2 majority to Dems 5-3.
Town of East Fishkill - Democrats gained one council seat.
Town of Beekman - Democratic Councilman Dan French, who is 24 years old, was re-elected Tuesday, after winning a special election last year during the president election.
Town of Wappinger - Democrats held on to the majority . Supervisor Joseph Ruggiero was unopposed; first time that a Democratic majority has been re-elected in Wappinger. First elected Democratic Town Clerk in town history.
"For the first time in more than 25 years and only the second time ever, Democrats on Tuesday took control of the Ulster County Legislature, turning a 16-17 minority into an apparent 21-12 majority."
County Legislature - Democrats increased majority from 8-7 to 12-3 taking suburban districts formerly held by Republicans.
Tonawanda, NY (Buffalo Suburb) - Democrats take town council for the first time EVER!! Three years ago Republicans controled the town council 7-0 as of Tuesday it will be 5-2 Democratic. Until three years ago Tonawanda NEVER had a Democratic town councilperson... now they have a majority.
Democrats picked up the Erie County Comptrollers seat as well!!
"Oneida County, New York...gained three seats in the county legislature. We're still among the reddest places in New York State, but we're closing the gap. D's cleaned up in the Utica city council races, too."
Irondequoit, NY (Rochester Suburb)
From Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
(November 9, 2005) -- In a stunning upset, Democrats swept into power in Irondequoit, unseating the incumbent four-term town supervisor and two sitting board members.
"Niskayuna, is a republican stronghold. Not anymore. Not a single republican was elected last night. Its morning in Niskayuna.
Livingston County also reflects this trend, and it's really amazing. This county is the deepest crimson of all of rural NY usually, but not this time. The local GOP, in the arrogance of one-party rule, decided that for the 2 county judge spots that were open they would nominate one very well-respected attorney (we Dems had no argument with him) and one very shady attorney who had a domestic violence conviction 15 years ago! He plead down initial felony charges to a misdemeanor, but the fellow plead guilty to menacing his girlfriend with a gun. . . . guy (unfortunately, lawyers in Livingston County feel they must be registered as Republicans to get work), and we worked our butts off for him. He was a good candidate (he's switching his party registration right now), and we won. . . . This spilled over into other local elections, too. The town supervisors' (mayors') races that we contested both went Democratic as well.
Even the city of Schenectady which is strongly republican didn't elect a single republican."
"Democratic prosecutor named Kathleen Rice beat eight-term Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon, a Republican."
In Tomkins County, New York:
For the first time in over 15 years, a Democratic candidate has won representation on the Newfield town council. In Caroline and Ulysses, voters swept in all-Democratic town boards, while Republican dominance on Dryden's Town Board ended with the election of a Democrat...."This is the first all-Democrat board since I've been in politics, which is 12 years," said Don Barber, the [Caroline] town supervisor.
In New Jersey:
Bergen County New Jersey
Suburban County. All but one Freeholder seats went Dem. More Towns Democrat only a few GOP towns of the 70 in this county. Towns like Hillsdale, very Republican, now in Democrat control.
George Bush is used by Democrats in Commericals.
Attention Nation. Learn the lesson of Bergen County. This used to be a GOP county. They said you couldn't win in the suburbs. As late as 1997 we couldn't get anyone to run for freeholder.
"Very wealthy, very white, very conservative Millburn NJ has been solid Republican seemingly forever. Last November they elected a lone Dem to their 5-member Township Committee - the first non-Publican in over 30 years. This year they elected Democrats to both seats that were up for grabs - one open, one holding an incumbent. So, probably for the first time ever, Democrats control Millburn's township government."
In Delaware:
"Haverford Township elected two Dems to the township commission. One of them beat the longtime Delaware County Republican chairman, George Twardy."
In Ohio:
Salem, Ohio is a fairly conservative small town (pop. 12,000) located on the southern edge of the liberal Northeast Ohio. . . . The City Council consists of seven voting councilpersons, led by a President. The Republicans had the majority on the Council by a 4-3 margin, and the President was a Republican as well.
Last night, the three incumbents that were up for reelection (three Republicans) were unseated and replaced with three Democrats. The President was ousted by his Democratic challenger. So, in a fairly conservative small town, our City Council now has a 7-1 Democratic majority.
In in Southern Ohio:
Miami County, OH where a Kossack was elected to the Village Council! Not only that, but I was a write-in candidate and have a 10-letter Greek last name! Kicked the Republican incumbent's butt by nearly 3:1.
Our town is also very conservative and rural (pop. 2,500), and you can still see a few (but fewer) W stickers and yard signs. However, my wife and I are openly progressive, having put out the only RON signs in the town (and obviously being responsible for the other RON signs posted around town).
In California:
"San Bernardino, CA, a scarlet red part of California. Was I surprised to see that the Dem candidate for mayor got more votes that either the guy on the Republican slate or the Mormon guy. (San Bernardino is a Mormon outpost). The DEM?? I couldn't believe my eyes. It doesn't happen here. It wasn't a complete victory because nobody got a majority and there will be a run-off, but still..."
In Arizona:
Tucson had a nice upset for the city council seats. Longtime incumbents Kathleen Dunbar and Fred Ronstadt(yes, brother of Linda), both Republicans, lost hard to two Democrats, Nina Trasoff and Karin Ulrich. When I say lost hard, try 65-35%.
In Connecticut:
"Westport, CT... Gorden Joseloff/Shelley Kassen won first/second selectman seats... In fact, Dems swept up almost every seat in town - board of ed., planning and zoning, etc. etc. (with a couple exceptions)."
In conservative Northern Virginia:
[S]everal area House of Delegates races that were expected to be close or go to Republicans were instead won easily by Democrats.
Del. Richard H. "Dick" Black, one of the House's most conservative members, lost to David E. Poisson in a Loudoun district dominated for years by the GOP.
In western Fairfax County, C. Chuck Caputo had little trouble beating Chris S. Craddock, and David L. Bulova defeated John Mason by a solid margin.
Democrats need to sustain dissatisfaction with the Republican adminstration. They have les than a year in most states to do so now.
In Colorado:
Most local government races are non-partisan, but a slate of voucher candidates backed by the Republican party in conservative Colorado Springs were all defeated by a counter-slate of anti-voucher candidates in the local school board race.
1 comment:
Blink.
San Bernadino? Republican stronghold?!? Things must've changed since I was growing up there not to mention living there for over two-thirds of my existance...
But yes, it is a Mormon outpost, and has been for many a year. There's just enough regular folks to balance it out a bit.
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