It wasn’t long ago that we were told that New England was gone for the GOP. I remember a Democrat friend showing me a regional map that was blue all around. He pretty much told me that it was over the GOP except the South.
Last November, while most of the country was either cheering Donald Trump’s presidential win or making an appointment with their therapist about how to cope with the results, New Englanders in four out of the region’s six “blue” states — Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine — woke up the next morning with four Republican governors.
Three of those governorships flipped from blue to red. It was a trend that the Northeast had not seen for a generation, but it received little national attention. (Connecticut and Rhode Island hold their governorship elections in 2018.)
If the reverse had happened, and four Democrats had won governorships in deep red states last year, the news would have been treated quite differently, said Brad Todd, a Washington, DC-based GOP strategist.
“It would have been on the front pages of every major newspaper in the country. And debated for weeks about how it spells the demise of the Republican Party,” Todd said.
Yes, the media loves stories about the GOP losing, but quickly forgets when Dems lose. Have you seen that young man from Georgia, the wonder boy who did not even live in his district, on TV recently? He was going to save the party in June and now no one remembers him.
The GOP gains in New England reflect a couple of things:
First, most of the states in that region are overtaxed and have experienced little growth. In other words, the “blue way” may have finally failed in the minds of the people who pay taxes and see little in return; and,
Second, it shows just how difficult it is to predict the future. Eight years ago, the GOP was doomed. Today, it looks like the Democrats are doomed. The answer is that economic performance is often the best barometer. People will replace the guy in charge if the state is doing poorly.
Nevertheless, it’s nice to see GOP governors in a region where “change” is desperately needed.
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