Democrats Kicked Ass In The State Legislative Races Around The Country Last Night

In the last few weeks leading up to the election, Blue America moved away from talking to congressional candidates to talking with state legislative candidates and to state leaders of ProgressiveMajority, the folks who are building a progressive base of local officials within the Democratic Party so that we wind up with more candidates like Martin Heinrich, Debbie Cook, John Adler, Gary Peters, Judy Baker and Mark Schauer and less like Heath Shuler, Tim Mahoney and Christine Jennings, Republicans handpicked by Rahm Emanuel to advance his insidious and completely evil agenda. (Good thing he won't have much influence in the future, huh?)

So our first local candidate was Matt Patten (check out the discussion we had with him on October 18) and he won his race and helped the Democrats win a majority in the Ohio state house. Same thing happened with Fred Clark, our awesome Wisconsin candidate who won his tough race and helped deliver the State Assembly to the Democrats. Saturday we've asked Dean Nielsen of Progressive Majority to come back and talk with us about the legislative races across the country and how they play into the redrawing of congressional districts in two years.

Democrats were outspent by the Republicans and their corporate allies in Ohio two to one and still will wind up with between 51 and 54 seats in a 99 person chamber. A friend suggested looking at last night's state legislative results as part of the build up that started in 2006 to the 2010 redistricting. In that time, Democrats-- progressives in many cases-- have won majorities, and expanded majorities where they already had them, in all regions across the country. Democrats now control 60 of 98 partisan chambers. After taking over the Delaware House of Representatives (and defeating Republican Speaker Terry Spence in the process), Democrats now control every legislative chamber in the Northeast, with the exception of the Pennsylvania senate. By winning in New York (the state Senate went blue last night-- the first time that's happened in my lifetime!) and Wisconsin, they now have both houses and the governor. I'm hoping that McHugh's seat in upstate NY will cease to exist and that Peter King will find himself with some more solidly Democratic constituents on Long Island. The Nevada Senate also went Democratic and Merkley is leaving Oregon with a super-majority in the House, having helped elect 8 new members last night.

Democrats also expanded their majorities in Connecticut, Washington and Michigan and beat back close calls in New Hampshire and Maine, where the GOP nearly mustered the strength to win back control. And in California it looks like Democrats will have a net gain of 2 seats in the Assemby and maybe one in the state Senate, where Hanna-Beth Jackson is stuck in a deadlock with right-wing nut Tony Strickland. Bad news in Montana was that while Gov. Schweitzer was coasting to re-election, the state Senate flipped to the dark side. Bad news in Tennessee and Oklahoma brought ties to the Senates there, leaving them unable to keep the far right from devastating working families in those states.

Progressive Majority in Wisconsin

Last weekend we spent some time with our Progressive Majority friends and allies from Ohio and met an exceptional state legislative candidate, Matt Patten. The same way they are helping turn Ohio blue and helping turn blue Ohio progressive, they are busy in Wisconsin assisting men and women with progressive values make their ways up the political ladder. Today we're going to spend some time with  Nicholl Caruso, Wisconsin State Director of Progressive Majority, and one of the state's most promising Assembly candidates, Fred Clark of Baraboo.

Progressive Majority’s top national goal in 2008 is flipping control in the Wisconsin Assembly. All it takes is three seats. In 2006, Progressive Majority was critical in shifting power in the Wisconsin Senate with a four-seat pick up. That year they won eight more seats in the Assembly. Building on those major gains they are now poised to win the three seats needed to win Assembly control from the Republicans. 

Progressive Majority has twenty Assembly candidates either challenging a conservative or running in an open seat formerly held by a conservative. That’s twenty opportunities to win the three seats Democrats need!

One of the incredible Progressive Majority candidates working to be part of the new governing majority is Fred Clark.

Fred Clark is challenging seven-year conservative incumbent, "Doc" Hines in Assembly District 42. His district is in south-central Wisconsin and includes the Wisconsin Dells area. Fred is a small business owner and forester.  Over 12 years ago he founded Clark Forestry, a forestry consulting and land management firm. In that time Fred’s clients have included hundreds of farmers, private landowners, environmental groups, and government agencies throughout Wisconsin. Before starting his business, Fred worked as a Senior Forester for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and as an ecologist with The Nature Conservancy. 
 
Fred has worn many hats throughout his nearly twenty-year career in Wisconsin. He is a skilled facilitator, and his work frequently involves resolving issues between stakeholders, neighbors, citizens and other affected parties in natural resource projects. 
 
Fred’s work on the environment has been so impressive that he was appointed by a Republican, former Governor Thompson, to the Lower Wisconsin Riverway Board in 1998, where he served as a representative for Columbia County. In 2004 he was appointed by Governor Doyle to the Wisconsin Council on Forestry, where he serves as Chairman of the Council’s Subcommittee on Invasive Species.
 
Fred Clark was a founder of the Woodland School, a Baraboo-based educational program providing conservation training to private landowners, now in its eighth year of service.  He was also a founding member of the Baraboo Range Preservation Association, a non-profit land trust serving Sauk and Columbia counties.
 
As state Representative, Fred will be a strong conservation advocate and with a progressive majority in the Assembly, he’ll be a leader in the fight for affordable health care and job growth. He is an ouspoken advocate for both campaign finance reform and for universal health care. Not surprisingly he has been endorsed by Russ Feingold. Stick surf over to Firedoglake and join Fred and Nicoll in comments. And please consider a  donation to Fred's campaign.