Posted: Oct. 1, 2015

THE ERA OF BIPARTISAN POLITICS IS OVER

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

The myth persists that Delaware could be a model for D.C. Forget about it.

Instead, the ways of Washington won here. As the country's politics turned more and more partisan, so have the state's.

Voting a straight ticket has emerged as the rule of the land and the practice at home.

It seems somehow un-Delawarean, after years and years of consensus politics, but in the Internet age, the borders are gone, and so the partisanship is here, there and everywhere.

It prevails around the country in voters' choices from the White House to the statehouse, as Alan Abramowitz and Steven Webster, a pair of political science professors at Emory University, observed in a presentation in April for the Midwest Political Science Association.

"To a greater extent than at any time in the post-World War II era, the outcomes of the elections below the presidential level reflect the outcomes of presidential elections," the political scientists wrote.

"The famous comment by the late Tip O'Neill that 'all politics is local' now seems rather quaint. In the 21st Century United States, it increasingly appears that all politics is national."

Delaware used to be different. The voters were famous for hop-scotching their way down the ballot during the last decades of the 20th Century.

They companionably sent Joe Biden and Bill Roth, one Democrat and one Republican, to the U.S. Senate together for nearly 30 years. They kept control of the General Assembly divided between the Democrats in the state Senate and the Republicans in the state House of Representatives for just about a quarter-century.

Bipartisan politics looked like it had reached something close to enshrinement in 1992, when the voters went along as willing co-conspirators to a job swap that made Mike Castle the Republican congressman and Tom Carper the Democratic governor.

Year

# of districts voting D

for president & state rep

# of districts voting R

for president & state rep

# of districts

splitting the vote

2000 12 12 17
2004 14 14 13
2008 23 7 11
2012 26 12 3

All it takes is a look at what has happened to the state House of Representatives to know the days of bipartisanship are no more.

As the century turned, it became apparent that Delaware was shedding its identity as a swing state and morphing into a Democratic blue state. The most dramatic evidence was the U.S. Senate election in 2000, when the voters ousted Roth and replaced him with Carper.

The partisan transformation trickled down the ballot. Once it was no big deal for people to vote for different parties for president and state representative. Among the 41 state House districts, the number splitting the vote for president and state representative dropped from 17 districts in 2000 to three districts in 2012.

Geography became destiny. The representative districts upstate in New Castle County, where the bulk of the population is, went almost entirely Democratic. The districts downstate in Sussex County went almost all Republican. The districts in between in Kent County split.

It was the state House Republicans who paid the price for the change. The upstate moderates who kept the Republicans in the majority steadily disappeared, many of them either losing at the polls if they showed any vulnerabilities or scared into retiring after a close call.

The state House went Democratic in 2008 as Barack Obama carried Delaware with a considerable assist from Joe Biden. It could stay that way for a long, long time.

# # #

TRACKING THE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICTS:

District

2000 vote

2004 vote

2008 vote

2012 vote

1

Gore/D.P.Williams

 Kerry/D.P.Williams

Obama/D.P.Williams

 Obama/Potter

2

Gore/A.Plant

 Kerry/H.Plant

 Obama/H.Plant

 Obama/Bolden

3

Gore/A.Scott

 Kerry/Keeley

 Obama/Keeley

 Obama/Keeley

4

Gore/DiPinto

 Kerry/DiPinto

 Obama/G.Brady

 Obama/G.Brady

5*

Gore/Keeley

 Kerry/George

 Obama/George

 Obama/George

6

Gore/D.Ennis

 Kerry/McWilliams

 Obama/McWilliams

 Obama/Heffernan

7

Gore/ W.Smith

 Kerry/W.Smith

 Obama/B.Short

 Obama/B.Short

8*

Gore/D.Brady

 Kerry/Hall-Long

 Obama/Q.Johnson

 Obama/Q.Johnson

9

Gore/Cathcart

 Kerry/Cathcart

 Obama/Cathcart

 Obama/Walker

10

Gore/Valihura

 Kerry/Valihura

 Obama/D.E.Williams

 Obama/D.E.Williams

11**

Bush/Lavelle

 Kerry/Lavelle

 Obama/Lavelle

 Romney/Spiegelman

12

Bush/Hudson

 Kerry/Hudson

 Obama/Hudson

 Romney/Hudson

13

Gore/Van Sant

 Kerry/Van Sant

 Obama/Mitchell

 Obama/Mitchell

14*

Gore/DiLiberto

 Bush/Schwartzkopf

 Obama/Schwartzkopf

 Obama/Schwartzkopf

15

Gore/Reynolds

 Kerry/Longhurst

 Obama/Longhurst

 Obama/Longhurst

16

Gore/Houghton

 Kerry/J. Johnson

 Obama/J.Johnson

 Obama/J.Johnson

17

Gore/Mulrooney

 Kerry/Mulrooney

 Obama/Mulrooney

 Obama/Mulrooney

18

Gore/Spence

 Kerry/Spence

 Obama/Barbieri

 Obama/Barbieri

19

Gore/Gilligan

 Kerry/Gilligan

 Obama/Gilligan

 Obama/K.Williams

20**

Bush/Roy

 Bush/Roy

 Obama/Manolakos

 McCain/Smyk

21

Gore/Maier

 Kerry/Maier

 Obama/Ramone

 Obama/Ramone

22

Bush/Miro

 Bush/Miro

 Obama/Miro

 Obama/Miro

23

Gore/Boulden

 Kerry/Schooley

 Obama/Schooley

 Obama/Baumbach

24

Gore/Oberle

 Kerry/Oberle

 Obama/Oberle

 Obama/Osienski

25

Gore/Ulbrich

 Kerry/Ulbrich

 Obama/Kowalko

 Obama/Kowalko

26

Gore/Viola

 Kerry/Viola

 Obama/Viola

 Obama/Viola

27

Gore/Lofink

 Kerry/Lofink

 Obama/Jaques

 Obama/Jaques

28

Gore/B. Ennis

 Kerry/B. Ennis

 Obama/Carson

 Obama/Carson

29

Bush/Thornburg

 Bush/Thornburg

 Obama/Thornburg

 Obama/Paradee

30

Bush/Quillen

 Bush/Outten

 McCain/Outten

 Romney/Outten

31

Gore/Wagner

 Kerry/Wagner

 Obama/D.Scott

 Obama/D.Scott

32

Gore/Stone

 Bush/Stone

 Obama/E.B.Bennett

 Obama/A.Bennett

33 Bush/Caulk  Bush/Caulk McCain/Walls  Romney/Peterman
34 Bush/Buckworth  Bush/Buckworth Obama/Blakey  Romney/Blakey
35 Bush/Ewing  Bush/Ewing McCain/Wilson  Romney/Wilson
36 Bush Carey  Bush/Carey McCain/Carey  Romney/Kenton
37 Bush/Schroeder  Bush/Booth McCain/Booth  Romney/Briggs King
38 Bush/Price  Bush/Hocker McCain/Hocker  Romney/Gray
39 Bush/Fallon  Bush/Fallon McCain/D.Short  Romney/D.Short
40 Bush/Lee  Bush/Lee McCain/Lee  Romney/Dukes
41 Bush/West  Bush/Atkins*** McCain/Atkins  Romney/Atkins

 

Democrats in blue and Republicans in red

*District moved because of redistricting in 2002

**District moved because of redistricting in 2012

***Atkins ran as a Republican until 2006 and a Democrat afterwards

 

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