State Progressive Victories From Tuesday's Election

Beyond federal victories for progressives, November 4th was in multiple ways a resounding victory for progressives at the state level.

• First, with President-Elect Obama's experience as a state legislator, state leaders will hopefully have an ally in the White House who understands the challenges they face and the need for a federal partner to make state innovation effective.
• Second, even after large gains in state legislatures for progressives in 2006 and 2007, Tuesday saw additional legislative gains, with new progressive leadership taking control of number of key state chambers.
• Third, the results show a nationalization of politics where state election results, good and bad, tended to follow the trend in Presidential voting.
• Fourth, with a few important exceptions, right wing ballot initiatives were overwhelmingly defeated across the country, and a number of progressive initiatives were enacted into law.
• Finally, with new voters streaming to the polls, using tools like mail-in voting and same-day registration, progressives are seeing the fruit of years of struggle to eliminate hurdles that have suppressed voter turnout for too many decades.

For a look at PSN's earlier overview of the ballot initiative landscape, see this previous Stateside Dispatch.