State House Politics

Don't overlook the importance of the gubernatorial races. The Democrats won 20 of 36 races and now hold the executive branch in a majority of statehouses.

The television pundits are talking about gridlock. But over the next few years, I think we will begin to see a lot of state experimentation on issues like energy independence, health care and campaign finance reform. States are our laboratories of democracy. The next round of change won't be coming out of Washington, but in states with strong governors and progressive-minded legislatures.

I was especially pleased to see Republican Ken Blackwell go down in flames in Ohio. I've followed the evolution of his opportunistic career (he began as a liberal) closely for three decades (I lived in Cincinnati during the 1970s), and it is fitting that it ends ignominiously. Conversely, Baltimore mayor Martin O'Malley's narrow win in Maryland (my current home state) over Republican incumbent Robert Ehrlich signals a repudiation of the desperate racist tactics employed by Republican admen. Voters didn't buy the pictures that showed rundown buildings with a voiceover saying this was what O'Malley had planned for the rest of the state. What garbage.

Arnold Scharzenegger won big in California. But he tacked left throughout the campaign after hitting rock bottom in the polls last year. The left coast, don't forget, passed a single payer health insurance bill a few months ago, which the Governator vetoed. Our biggest state isn't afraid of experimentation. It's a perfect testing ground for a national solution to our health care mess.

Arnold, you can't become president (sorry, weren't born here). Make a legacy for yourself. If not single-payer (like your native Austria), what?