An Election About Something
Republicans have a shot at a true realignment, if they don't blow it.
by Rod D. Martin
November 9, 2014
People wondered if Republicans would win the Senate this time. In fact, they won everything that wasn't nailed down.
Take Arkansas. 37 year old Republican Tom Cotton didn't just defeat incumbent Mark Pryor: he slaughtered him, 57%-39%. Pryor is the scion of one of the state's foremost dynasties: his father David was a Congressman, Governor and Senator before Bill Clinton was Governor, and remained Senator long after. Cotton fought hard in what was considered a tight race right up to the end. Defeat was shocking enough; coming in under 40% was a humiliation.
But the Cotton-Pryor race was not a fluke (oh, and did you see that Sandra Fluke lost her bid to be a state senator? How will she afford her condoms now?). In a state where, for most of my lifetime, Republicans held only one federal office, the GOP now holds both U.S. Senate seats, every U.S. House seat, and every state constitutional office. And…