Post-Election thoughts

For Republicans, Tuesday's election brought about a monumental sweep in the House of Representatives. As of Thursday, it looks like the Republicans will pick up a net of 63 seats when all is said and done. There are a few races where Republicans lead that are still being counted (TX-27, IL-8, CA-20).

Fun fact you won't find anywhere else: the Democrats not only lost 63 seats on Tuesday, but with losses in both Dakotas, MN-8, NM-2, CO-3 etc, Dems will control less than 1/2 of their previous land area.

However, most of the Republican gains came at the expense of the Blue Dogs. Of the 54 Blue Dogs that occupied the House of Representatives last session, six retired or ran for other offices. All six seats were won by Republicans. Of the remaining 48 seats where the incumbent Blue Dog was running, 24 of the Blue Dogs won and 23 lost. One seat, Ben Chandler in KY-06, is still undecided. The net result of this drubbing is that the Democratic caucus will move to the left since the remaining Democrats are freed of at least 29 oesky Blue Dogs. Of course, the Republican caucus will move sharply to the right due to the addition of many tea party candidates. Despite everybody's pro-forma promise to work together for the good of the country, the 112th House is going to be extremely fractious and is likely to accomplish nothing.

List of Blue Dogs:

CD	PVI	Dem candidate	Dem	GOP%	Result
GA-12	D+1	John Barrow*	57%	43%	Won
OR-05	D+1	Kurt Schrader*	51%	46%	Won
IA-03	D+1	Leonard Boswell*	51%	47%	Won
GA-02	D+1	Sanford Bishop*	51%	49%	Won
PA-08	D+2	Patrick Murphy*	46%	54%	Lost
TN-05	D+3	Jim Cooper*	57%	42%	Won
ME-02	D+3	Mike Michaud*	55%	45%	Won
CA-18	D+4	Dennis Cardoza*	58%	42%	Won
CA-47	D+4	Loretta Sanchez*	51%	42%	Won
CA-20	D+5	Jim Costa*	49%	51%	Lost
CA-36	D+12	Jane Harman*	60%	35%	Won
CA-43	D+13	Joe Baca*	65%	35%	Won
CA-01	D+13	Mike Thompson*	63%	32%	Won
CA-29	D+14	Adam Schiff*	65%	32%	Won
GA-13	D+15	David Scott*	69%	31%	Won
TX-28	R+0	Henry Cuellar*	56%	42%	Won
OH-06	R+2	Charlie Wilson*	45%	50%	Lost
IN-02	R+2	Joe Donnelly*	48%	47%	Won
NY-24	R+2	Mike Arcuri*	47%	53%	Lost
NY-20	R+2	Scott Murphy*	45%	55%	Lost
PA-03	R+3	Kathy Dahlkemper*	44%	56%	Lost
KS-03	R+3	Stephene Moore	38%	59%	Dennis Moore retired, seat lost
AZ-08	R+4	Gabrielle Giffords*	49%	48%	Won
MN-07	R+5	Collin Peterson*	55%	38%	Won
VA-02	R+5	Glenn Nye*	42%	53%	Lost
AZ-05	R+5	Harry Mitchell*	42%	53%	Lost
CO-03	R+5	John Salazar*	46%	50%	Lost
NC-07	R+5	Mike McIntyre*	54%	46%	Won
FL-02	R+6	Allen Boyd*	41%	54%	Lost
IN-09	R+6	Baron Hill*	42%	52%	Lost
CA-04	R+6	Betsy Markey*	41%	53%	Lost
NC-11	R+6	Heath Shuler*	54%	46%	Won
PA-04	R+6	Jason Altmire*	51%	49%	Won
TN-08	R+6	Roy Herron	39%	59%	John Tanner retired, seat lost
PA-17	R+6	Tim Holden*	56%	44%	Won
AR-04	R+7	Mike Ross*	58%	40%	Won
OH-18	R+7	Zack Space*	40%	54%	Lost
AR-01	R+8	Chad Causey	43%	52%	Marion Berry retired, seat lost
PA-10	R+8	Chris Carney*	45%	55%	Lost
IN-08	R+8	Trent VanHaaften	38%	57%	Brad Ellsworth ran for Senate, seat lost
KY-06	R+9	Ben Chandler*	50%	50%	Tie
SD-AL	R+9	Stephanie Herseth Sandlin*	46%	48%	Lost
ND-AL	R+10	Earl Pomeroy*	45%	55%	Lost
GA-08	R+10	Jim Marshall*	47%	53%	Lost
LA-03	R+12	Ravi Sangisetty	36%	64%	Charlie Melancon ran for Senate, seat lost
TN-06	R+13	Brett Carter	29%	87%	Bart Gordon retired, seat lost
MD-01	R+13	Frank Kratovil*	42%	55%	Lost
TN-04	R+13	Lincoln Davis*	38%	57%	Lost
OK-02	R+14	Dan Boren*	57%	43%	Won
MS-01	R+14	Travis Childers*	41%	55%	Lost
UT-02	R+15	Jim Matheson*	51%	46%	Won
AL-02	R+16	Bobby Bright*	49%	51%	Lost
ID-01	R+18	Walt Minnick*	41%	51%	Lost
MS-04	R+20	Gene Taylor*	47%	52%	Lost