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by NW Spotlight
Election 2014 – As of 6:00 AM Thursday 11/6/2014
Republicans have won control of the U.S. Senate, and so will now control both chambers of Congress.
As of 6:00 AM Thursday, Real Clear Politics is reporting [2] that Republicans have won 52 U.S. Senate seats, and they may win two more – in Louisiana and Alaska [3]. It looks like Republicans also came close in a U.S. Senate race that wasn’t even supposed to be competitive in Virginia [4]. Real Clear Politics is also reporting that Republicans have picked up 13 more seats in the U.S. Congress and there will be 3 more Republicans governors.
That’s the good news on the national level.
It’s a different story here on the Left Coast [5] in Oregon.
Republicans lost a close gubernatorial race [6] to John Kitzhaber, and the U.S. Senate race to Jeff Merkley. No congressional seats changed hands (4 of Oregon’s 5 congressional seats are still held by Democrats, and one is held by Republican Greg Walden).
In what’s supposed to be a GOP favorable non presidential election year, Republicans lost a state house seat (HD20-Salem) and didn’t take any seats away from the Democrats. That means this coming session Democrats will hold a 35-to-25 seat advantage in the Oregon House – 1 seat shy of a super-majority. In 2010, the last non presidential election year, Republicans were able to get to a 30/30 split.
It’s possibly worse on the state senate side. Republicans lost SD8 (Corvallis/Albany), didn’t pick up any new seats, and are in a very close race in SD15 [7] (Hillsboro). If Republican incumbent Sen. Bruce Starr were to lose in SD15, Democrats would have a super-majority in the Oregon Senate. As of 07:50 PM on Wednesday, Sen. Starr has a 64 vote lead [8] over Chuck Riley (D): 15,553 votes to 15,489 votes.
Ballot Measures
Measure 86 (State debt to pay for college) – FAILED
Measure 87 (Judges can work for National Guard and universities) – PASSED
Measure 88 (Driver cards) – FAILED
Measure 89 (State ERA) – PASSED
Measure 90 (“Top Two” primary) – FAILED
Measure 91 (Legalize marijuana) – PASSED
Measure 92 (GMO) – FAILED [9]
Source for Oregon races and measures (unless noted otherwise): Oregonian [10]