Democrats lost in 2010. They lost almost everywhere. In January 2011 they will have fewer governors, senators, members of Congress, state legislators, attorneys general, and everything else than they had in 2010.
How do you spin this? At a luncheon today at the St. Regis, the Democratic Governors’ Association made the case that 2010 had been almost as good for their candidates as it could have been. Nodding at how much spin he was responsible for, DGA executive director Nathan Daschle acknowledged just how much of Washington runs on b.s.
“I’ve told many of you that I like being bald,” said Daschle – who sports the classic Yul Brenner look – “because hair is a nuisance.”
Along came the slideshow. Daschle reminded lunchers and reporters of the four-year plan that Democrats began in 2007, knowing that 2010 would be a brutal year. They hit most of their goals, he said, pointing to the committee’s fundraising. One slide broke down the four years into circles with some description of how successful they were. Last year, 2009, was marked “partially accomplished,” even though it saw the elections of GOP governors in New Jersey and Virginia. “We didn’t win our races,” explained Daschle, “but we hit our fundraising goals.”
This year was objectively better for Democrats. Daschle happily reminded the audience of some of the quotes Haley Barbour supplied the media with in 2010, in his role as the RGA chairman who was convincing Steele-phobic GOP donors to give money to him, not the RNC. Barbour’s quotes, including a pledge that the GOP would end 2010 with at least 30 governors, and that the election would be worse for Democrats at the gubernatorial level than the congressional level. These quotes were illustrated with an image of Barbour, who is as thin as Daschle is hirsute, laughing like a Bond villain.
So Democrats focused on the raw numbers. In 1994, Republicans gained a net nine state houses. In 2010, they gained five. “With Mark Dayton’s projected win in Minnesota, we have flipped five states from red to blue,” pointed out incoming DGA chairman Martin O’Malley.
Why does the DGA have to grind so hard to spin this? Two reasons. First, the Democrats’ gains from Republicans came largely in blue states, like California, Vermont, Minnesota, and Hawaii. Second, as the
press loves pointing out,
the new Republican class of governors includes Hispanic Brian Sandoval in Nevada and Susana Martinez in New Mexico and Indian-American Nikki Haley in South Carolina. The RGA’s annual meeting in San Diego was covered as a look ahead to the 2012 or 2016 elections. Apart from O’Malley, no one who took the DGA’s stage is buzzed about as a potential national candidate.
