Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Democratic Wave Begins to Form

In an ominous development for endangered Northwest Republican incumbents like Dave Reichert and Gordon Smith, a Democrat has won Mississippi's 1st Congressional District, a district that broke heavily Republican in 2004 for George W. Bush.

With 94% of the precincts reporting, Democrat Travis Childers is defeating Republican Greg Davis, 53%-47%, or 54029 votes for Childers to 47,361 votes for Davis.

Greg Davis even tarred and feathered Travis Childers, in this ad, with the dreaded "liberal" label for his endorsement by Barack Obama. It's the kind of ad that has worked in the past in a Republican district against a Democratic candidate. Not this time. Hope and change overcame business as usual.

This is the biggest news of the night. The pundits are falling all over themselves and can't say enough about how big this is for Democrats and how much trouble Republicans are in.

With a previous win for Democrats in Louisiana, the Democratic wave is forming and threatens to sweep Bush lackeys like Reichert and Smith out of office.

Update: Jonathan Singer at MyDD sums it up well.
1. I don't want to go so far as to say that this is the end of the Republican Party, because it's not. But this is as bad news as the GOP could possibly get at this point. They lost a district that leans 6 points more Republican than the nation as a whole in Illinois in March. They lost a district that leans 7 points more Republican than the nation as a whole earlier this month in Louisiana. Now they lost a district that leans 10 points more Republican than the nation as a whole in Mississippi. If they can't win in Mississippi's first congressional district, where can they win

2. The Republicans tried to make this election about two people: Barack Obama and Reverend Jeremiah Wright. And despite running this type of campaign, they lost. While it is true that Childers distanced himself from his party (and implicitly from Obama), the fact is that the Obama/Wright smears simply DID NOT WORK. The Republicans are going to have to get a new game plan, and the establishment media are going to have to get a new meme. Sorry folks.

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