Thursday, April 22, 2010

Not Just Right but Center-Right

There are a lot of Republicans running around insisting that only true-blue conservatives need apply to run as a Republican. While it is true that the Republican Party slowly lost its way after 1994 by becoming Democrat lite, this is a center-right country and not just a right wing one. To effectively control Congress, you need a decent majority. Red States alone cannot supply enough Republicans for effective control of the House of Representatives. We are listing below each state in order from the reddest one to the bluest ones according to our table in Presidential Elections. We show the partisan breakout for each state as it stands today after allocating the vacant seats to the Party that won the last election.

RED STATES PURPLE STATES BLUE STATES
State Dems Reps State Dems Reps State Dems Reps
Utah 1 2 North Carolina 8 5 Wisconsin 5 3
Wyoming
1 Missouri 4 5 Minnesota 5 3
Idaho 1 1 Virginia 6 5 Pennsylvania 12 7
Oklahoma 1 4 Florida 10 15 Oregon 4 1
Alaska
1 Colorado 5 2 Michigan 8 7
Nebraska
3 Ohio 10 8 Washington 6 3
North Dakota 1
Nevada 2 1 New Jersey 8 5
Kansas 1 3 Iowa 3 2 Maine 2
Alabama 2 5 New Hampshire 2
Delaware
1
Texas 12 20 New Mexico 3
California 34 19
South Dakota 1



Illinois 12 7
Kentucky 2 4


Connecticut 5
Mississippi 3 1


Maryland 7 1
Montana
1


Vermont 1
South Carolina 2 4


New York 27 2
Louisiana 1 6


Hawaii 2
Indiana 5 4


Rhode Island 2
Arkansas 3 1


Massachusetts 10
Georgia 6 7





Tennessee 5 4





West Virginia 2 1





Arizona 5 3





TOTAL 54 76 TOTAL 53 43 TOTAL 150 59

As you can see, there are only 226 seats in all of the red states and purple states put together. Since there are Democrat pockets even in the red states, let alone in the purple ones, there is no way that the Republicans can win all 226 seats. Even if they could, that gives them control by a 226 to 209 margin. However, there are Republican pockets in the blue states but electing a "true blue" conservative is hard to do there. As the Democrats found out, the only way to get a sizable majority is to get some seats in the red states and those are not going to be "true blue" liberals or they cannot get elected. The point is that neither party can govern from the left or the right because they need folks from the center to have a majority.

Since the Republicans have been reduced to nothing but the heavily red pockets, guess where the extra seats are going to come from? To illustrate this political fact of life, here is a table showing where the seats will come from in order of the size of the gain for the Republicans using our Vulnerable Democrats by State ratings.
RED STATES PURPLE STATES BLUE STATES
State +20 +40 +60 +80 +100 State +20 +40 +60 +80 +100 State +20 +40 +60 +80 +100
UT





NC


1 3 4
WI

1 1 1 2
WY





MO




1
MN


1 1 1
ID
1 1 1 1 1
VA
1
2 3 3 4
PA
1
3 3 8 8
OK





FL
1
1 3 3 3
OR



1 1
AK





CO

2 2 2 3
MI
1
2 3 3 3
NE





OH
2
3 3 5 6
WA


1 2 2
ND

1 1 1 1
NV
1
1 1 2 2
NJ

1 1 1 1
KS
1
1 1 1 1
IA


1 2 3
ME


1 1 2
AL
1
1 1 1 1
NH
1
1 2 2 2
DE





TX
1
1 2 2 3
NM


1 1 2
CA

1 1 1 1
SD

1 1 1 1






IL

1 1 3 4
KY




2






CT

1 2 2 3
MS


1 1 1






MD
1
1 1 1 2
MT











VT




1
SC











NY
3
4 6 8 10
LA
1
1 1 1 1






HI




1
IN
1
2 3 3 3






RI





AR
1
2 2 2 2






MA


1 4 4
GA

1 2 2 2












TN
1
1 1 1 2












WV

















AZ

2 3 3 3












TOTAL
8
15 20 20 24
TOTAL
6
10 17 23 30
TOTAL
6
15 23 37 46

Now you can see the problem because as the Republicans capture more and more seats, the number coming from purple and blue states goes up rapidly. The foot totals on the red states says that only 20 of the 40 needed to gain control of the House are going to come from there and they will not supply the last four unless the Republicans gain more than 80 seats. By the time you get to gaining 40 seats, the blue states are already supplying as many seats as the red states. While different analysts would produce somewhat different results, the proportions coming from the three groups would be pretty much the same as shown here.

The bottom line is that this business of no RINO's allowed needs to stop. If you want seats in those blue states then you are going to get a Scott Brown type Republican. Since those seats are absolutely necessary for Republican control, learn to live with moderate Republicans. Just remember that they are better than any Democrat. Every last Republican in both houses voted against the final health care bill including the 59 House members from the blue states. How many of the 150 Democrats from there voted no? Only a very small handful did and even then only those already in danger of losing this fall with the exception of Rep. Lynch from Massachusetts.