Republicans regained control of the State Senate in yesterday’s elections, and in the process now have the power in both houses of the General Assembly and all three statewide offices.
Looking at the results from Tuesday’s state elections that way, then, you’d think, Well, going to be tough for a guy named Barack Obama and a guy named Tim Kaine to win in Virginia in 2012. You know, because they’re Democrats, and Democrats are the minority party in Virginia these days.
Funny thing there – this new normal is based on Republicans gaining exactly two seats in the State Senate. And since all 40 seats were up for re-election in the 2011 cycle, that means a gain from 18 seats to 20, with Democrats dropping two to go from 22 to 20.
So we have a 20-20 tie in the State Senate. And looking at vote totals from yesterday’s elections, well, more on that in a minute.
There were 25 contested races involving a Democratic candidate facing off with a Republican candidate among the 40 up for grabs in the 2011 cycle. In those 25 races, Democratic candidates received 471,450 votes, according to numbers I pulled from the State Board of Elections website and then plugged into a spreadsheet. And the Republican candidates in those races received … 470,093 votes.
Republicans have all the power right now. Democrats are obviously still very competitive.
2012 should be very interesting in Virginia.
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