Election Results: GOP Govs Win Big, Dems Take California, Oberstar Ousted

The current governor map, before yesterday's winners are seated.
The current governors map, before yesterday's winners are seated. Several blue states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, will turn red. California will flip from red to blue.

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
The GOP 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.

  • Glenn

    Transit has become too much of a one party issue. With a whole bunch of Republicans in moderate swing districts that have transit connections, there’s fertile ground to start recruiting a conservative caucus for transit funding. And it’s a great way to create middle class jobs

  • Larry Littlefield

    “A whole bunch of Republicans in moderate swing districts that have transit connections, there’s fertile ground to start recruiting a conservative caucus for transit funding.”

    I think it would be easier to recruit conservatives to cut highway spending and other federal subsidies for sprawl. Not easy, given mass hypocrisy, but easier. They don’t want to increase the gas tax? Well…

  • SFR

    @Glenn – One of the fundamental precepts of contemporary Republican ideology is that the public spending on anything other than guns and freeways is akin to radical Marxism. We can try to sell them on the obvious practical advantages and economic dividends of transit funding but having them accept that fact would undermine their deepest ideological foundations.

  • Kwyjibo

    In “Real America,” opposition to public transportation is often rooted in racism. Hating on transit is a useful tool for Republicans looking to tap into fear and prejudice to gain power, and it’s far easier than creating jobs, which in the minds of many GOP voters would probably go to non-whites anyway.

  • Emily S.

    Not real important, just a correction to the map– Virginia should be white. The most recent gubernatorial election in Virginia was last year, and they elected McDonnell, a fire-engine-red Republican. Most of this year’s election results went red as well. :-/

  • AC

    Re: Trans-Texas Corridor mega-project

    I was not familiar with the TTC, so I googled it and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Texas_Corridor states: “In 2010, official decision of “no action” was issued by the Federal Highway Administration, formally ending the project. The action eliminated the study area and canceled the agreement between TxDOT and Cintra Zachry.”

    I was in the DFW area last month an was floored by the amount of highway projects. Highway construction everywhere running 24×7… Where does Texas get that kind of money?

  • Benito

    The Republicans are so funny, when the economy is good you say let’s all celebrate “Cinco de Mayo, my brothers” but when the economy is down “it’s all your fault, you damn immigrant”.

    The GOP has gone on a nationwide rant in proposing and passing several anti-immigration legislation (that our US Courts continue to strike down) and have continue to blame the immigrant for the flat economy or worse.

    Plus the more radical of the GOP are now attacking our Constitution (with all Amendments), and the Declaration of Independence, in their crazy notion of wanting to take away rights that all of us take for granted in their misguided attempt to garner some much needed votes, they really are fools, and leading the GOP towards obscurity because they are no longer a party of ideas, just of empty suits.

    When most Americans (of Latin America roots) went to the polls this November we all remembered who stood with us and who stood against us, so trying to make amends now is somewhat funny, but go ahead, you did not change our minds. Your hate made you do it, and you found out that you reap what you have sown. I wonder what Abraham Lincoln would say about todays GOP, he unlike the current GOP was a man of ideas.

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