#2 I think the pundits have misread this. The number 86% is the LARGEST number of incumbents since 1972 that have been replaced. The TEA Party is less than two years old. The Repuglycons won a majority in more statehouses than they have in a long time. TEA Party candidates are working their way up the chain. If they don't get sandbagged, we'll see even larger numbers in future elections, until a majority of the incumbents have been replaced with people who think differently about government. Conservatives, either through the TEA Party or otherwise, need to hold the folks that ARE elected to conservative promises they make. It's going to take as long as a decade to make a difference in states like California or New York, less elsewhere. The game's not over just because 86% of incumbents won this time.
My congresscritter was easily re-elected, but then he's been talking the conservative talk and even walking it 90% of the time. He had two earmarks during the last Congress, got called on them, and has promised to refrain from future earmarks. Sometimes an incumbent SHOULD be re-elected. |