Democratic Pickups

From Roll Call: States in Red voted for Bush in 2004, states in Blue voted for Kerry.

Democrats who have defeated incumbent Republicans:

Arizona 5: Harry Mitchell (D) 51%, J.D. Hayworth (R) 46%

California 11: Jerry McNerney (D) 53%, Richard Pombo (R) 47%

Connecticut 5: Chris Murphy (D) 56%, Nancy Johnson (R) 44%

Florida 22: Ron Klein (D) 51%, Clay Shaw (R) 47%

Indiana 2: Joe Donnelly (D) 54%, Chris Chocola (R) 46%

Indiana 8: Brad Ellsworth (D) 61%, John Hostettler (R) 39%

Indiana 9: Baron Hill (D) 49%, Mike Sodrel (R) 46%

Iowa 2: Dave Loebsack (D) 51%, Jim Leach (R) 49%

Kansas 2: Nancy Boyda (D) 51%, Jim Ryun (R) 47%

Kentucky 3: John Yarmuth (D) 51%, Anne Northup (R) 48%

Minnesota 1: Tim Walz (D) 53%, Gil Gutknecht (R) 47%

New Hampshire 1: Carol Shea-Porter (D) 51%, Jeb Bradley (R) 49%

New Hampshire 2: Paul Hodes (D) 53%, Charles Bass (R) 45%

New York 19: John Hall (D) 51%, Sue Kelly (R) 49%

New York 20: Kirsten Gillibrand (D) 53%, John Sweeney (R) 47%

North Carolina 11: Heath Shuler (D) 54%, Charles Taylor (R) 46%

Pennsylvania 4: Jason Altmire (D) 52%, Melissa Hart (R) 48%

Pennsylvania 7: Joe Sestak (D) 56%, Curt Weldon (R) 44%

Pennsylvania 10: Chris Carney (D) 53%, Don Sherwood (R) 47%


GOP open seats lost:

Arizona 8: Gabrielle Giffords (D) 54%, Randy Graf (R) 42%

Florida 16: Tim Mahoney (D) 49%, Mark Foley/Joe Negron (R) 48%

Colorado 7: Ed Perlmutter (D) 55%, Rick O’Donnell (R) 42%

Iowa 1: Bruce Braley (D) 55%, Mike Whalen (R) 43%

New York 24: Michael Arcuri (D) 54%, Ray Meier (R) 45%

Ohio 18: Zack Space (D) 62%, Joy Padgett (R) 38%

Texas 22: Nick Lampson (D) 52%, Shelley Sekula-Gibbs (R) 42%

Wisconsin 8: Steve Kagen (D) 51%, John Gard (R) 49%

Too Close to Call (incumbents are marked with *):

Connecticut 2: Joe Courtney (D) 117,434, Rob Simmons (R)* 117,211; 97% reporting

Georgia 8: Jim Marshall (D)* 80,401, Mac Collins (R) 78,719; 98% reporting

Georgia 12: John Barrow (D)* 69,991, Max Burns (R) 66,604; 96% reporting

New Mexico 1: Heather Wilson (R)* 100,027, Patricia Madrid (D) 98,724; 99% reporting

Ohio 2: Jean Schmidt (R)* 113,932, Victoria Wulsin (D) 111,609; 100% reporting

Ohio 15: Deborah Pryce (R)* 119,208, Mary Jo Kilroy (D) 107,947; 100% reporting

North Carolina 8: Robin Hayes (R)* 60,500, Larry Kissell (D) 60,032; 100% reporting

Pennsylvania 6: Jim Gerlach (R)* 118,807, Lois Murphy (D) 115,806; 100% reporting

Pennsylvania 8: Patrick Murphy (D) 125,667, Michael Fitzpatrick (R)* 124,146; 100% reporting

Washington 8: Dave Reichert (R)* 61,555, Darcy Burner 58,900; 31% reporting

Wyoming At-Large: Barbara Cubin (R)* 91,828, Gary Trauner (D) 91,006; 99% reporting

It's a nice distribution between Red and Blue states. I wanted to find out which Presidential candidate each of the districts voted for in 2004 but that information seems to be impossible. You can get the presidential vote by county, but not by congressional district.

It seems that Democrats now control the political high-ground in the North East. New Hampshire went from Bush in 2000 to Kerry in 2004 and replaced its two Republican Representatives with Democratic ones in 2006. In Pennsylvania, three Republican representatives are gone, two more seem likely to be removed though the races are close and haven't been called yet. Rick Santorum, third ranking Republican in the senate is gone and Governor Rendell (D) beat his Republican opponent by 20 points.

New York and Connecticut saw consolidation by the Democratic Party.

Republicans still hold the South, though this year saw inroads. The new battle ground will be the west. We showed gains there too.

It's important to remember that we won't hold onto all of these seats in two years. There just won't be a climate this good again. Some of the traditionally Red districts will revert. What won't 'snap back' is the gains made in the North East.

We need to govern well for the next 24 months. After years of inaction and defernce to the Bush Administration, the American people expect (and deserve) strong governing from the Democrats. There should be inquiries into BushCo. malfeasance but there should also be progress. Speaker Pelosi has outline the first 100 Hours of a Democratic House. That's a great start. A law requiring paper trails for all elections wouldn't be a bad addition. Do that while voting problems are fresh in the minds of Democrats and Republicans.

2006 Election Results