2006 - U.S. Senate
Since the 1980 election cycle, inclusive, the Democrats have lost a grand total of 24 Senate seats in connection with open races. On the other hand, during that period the GOP has lost merely 9 seats in connection with such races.
That disparity in comparative electoral achievements has come despite the pro-Democrat union cabals, the non-voting conservative blocs, the partisan-Democrat media outlets, the left-wing academia cabals, and the Democrat corpse, felon, ghost, family pet, and phantom voter blocs.
Freshman incumbents?
They win more often than they lose. But it’s certainly not uncommon for them to be defeated.
Multi-term incumbents?
Ah, yes.
{ahem}
That’s the dirty little political secret the MediaCrats figured out eons ago. But it’s a political secret about which many conservatives and Republicans – on the heels of being out of power for most of their lifetimes, and having been bludgeoned into states of political depression by the Pravda-Media and by academia– still are coming to grips.
Following in the wake of the epochal landslide in favor of Ronald Reagan – so, in other words, beginning with the 1982 election cycle – multi-term U.S. Senators have won bids for re-election at 80-100 percent ratios.
And those re-election ratios have prevailed over the whole of the past 22 years. Regardless whether the salient elections have occurred within presidential cycles, or in mid-term cycles, and irrespective whether the former resulted in a landslide, a close contest, or a third-party plurality affair. Notwithstanding major scandals (ABSCAM, Iran-Contra, the S&L’s, Whitewater), or natural disasters, wars, economic recessions, economic booms, a stock market crash, bull markets, a real estate crash, a wealth mania, a ghastly bear market, impeachment but then acquittal, 9/11, Scalia, Bork, Doug Ginsburg, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Breyer.
Nothing has changed.
Multi-term incumbent Senators rarely if ever lose re-election bids.
That was the case in 1982 – the worst economic recession since the Great Depression.
It was the case in 1992 – the worst job market since the early-1980’s.
And it was the case in 2002 – the worst job market since 1992, the very height of the Enron and Worldcom scandals, and the worst bear market since the collapse of the “nifty fifty” back in the 1970’s.
And every election cycle in between.
Just keep all that in mind when next September and next October roll around, and the usual suspects begin hyperventilating that the MediaCrats are poised to re-take the Senate.
— Jayson