The biggest news from last night, of course, is that the GOP won control of the House of Representatives. That means Republicans now control all the House committees, and Ohio's John Boehner -- a believer in wider highways -- will wield the Speaker's gavel. The Democrats hung on to the Senate, though, and pundits are forecasting two years of gridlock.
Streetsblog has mainly been profiling races for governor where transportation issues had a high profile. Here are some results with big implications for smart growth and sustainable transportation.
Governor Results
California: Jerry Brown (D) 54 percent - Meg Whitman (R) 41 percent Whitman would have said no to high speed rail, Brown has a record of curbing sprawl and fighting highway expansion.
Colorado: John Hickenlooper (D) 50 percent - Tom Tancredo (AMC) 37 percent - Dan Maes (R) 11 percent TheGOP hangs on to major party status by a hair after bike-paranoid Maes costs them the election. Hickenlooper is a bike and transit advocate who really gets it.
Florida: Rick Scott (R) 49 percent - Alex Sink (D) 48 percent Scott has said he'll kill high speed rail, giving back federal dollars. Sink is a transit supporter who said bike infrastructure could improve street safety.
Georgia: Nathan Deal (R) 53 percent - Roy Barnes (D) 43 percent Barnes has environmental concerns about a highway expansion project Deal supports. Barnes wanted to "unclog Atlanta" through transit.
Maryland: Martin O'Malley (D) 56 percent - Bob Ehrlich (R) 42 percent Incumbent O'Malley will move forward with building a light-rail Purple Line to complement the D.C. Metro. Ehrlich said he favored bus rapid transit but some thought he was just trying to cause delays.
Ohio: John Kasich (R) 49 percent - Ted Strickland (D) 47 percent The winner says high speed rail is the dumbest idea he's ever heard. Incumbent Strickland has tried to green the industrial state.
Tennessee: Bill Haslam (R) 65 percent - Mike McWherter (D) 33 percent Haslam has gained some praise for his bike policy but he's not friendly to transit, which McWherter supports.
Texas: Rick Perry (R) 55 percent - Bill White (D) 42 percent Will the Trans-Texas Corridor mega-project go through? It's likely, now that Perry won an unprecedented third term.
Wisconsin: Rick Scott (R) 52 percent - Tom Barrett (D) 47 percent Another race where the Republican pledged to kill high speed rail projects underway. Barrett promoted transit as a way to reduce wear and tear on highways.
House Races
Minnesota: Chip Cravaack (R) 48 percent - Jim Oberstar 47 percent This is a huge blow to transportation reform. Oberstar, the chair of the Transportation Committee and architect of the reauthorization bill, was a strong ally of reformers.
Oregon: Peter DeFazio (D) 54 percent - Art Robinson (R) 45 percent After a closer-than-expected contest, transit supporter DeFazio stays to fight another day.
Senate Races
California: Barbara Boxer (D) 52 percent - Carly Fiorina (R) 42 percent The Environment and Public Works Committee chair had the fight of her political life against the Hewlett Packard exec, but she'll stick around. And with the Democrats keeping control of the Senate, EPW will remain under her leadership.
Stay tuned... later today we'll be taking a look at how the 29 transportation-related ballot initiatives fared.
Tanya became Streetsblog's Capitol Hill editor in September 2010 after covering Congress for Pacifica Radios Washington bureau and for public radio stations around the country. She lives car-free in a transit-oriented and bike-friendly neighborhood of Washington, DC.
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