2009.11.03
Analysis: Are sweeps common or rare in Virginia?
Republicans tonight have won a great sweep of the state's top three offices.
Is a straight-ticket win the norm, or not?
As always, let's consider that the state's modern political history began in 1969, when Republican Linwood Holton of Roanoke ended the state's one-party system. He didn't pull in any ticketmates, though.
Didn't happen in 1973 or 1977, either.
It took until 1981 before a sweep happened, when Charles Robb led a Democratic sweep. After that, the Democrats were on a roll, taking all three statewide offices in 1985 and 1989. Three-for-three three years in a row.
George Allen led the Republicans back into office in 1993, but he didn't pull off a sweep -- Democrat Don Beyer won re-election as lieutenant governor over home-schooling advocate Michael Farris.
Four years later, though, in 1997, the Republicans did pull off their first sweep, with Jim Gilmore. That was something of a surprise, because Democrat L.F. Payne had been considered a much stronger contender for lieutenant governor, but Gilmore's coattails pulled in John Hager.
Democrats came back in 2001 with Mark Warner, but it wasn't a sweep. Democrats had a weak candidate for attorney general, and Republican Jerry Kilgore captured the office.
The Democrats stayed in the governor's mansion with Tim Kaine's victory in 2005, but arguably the party lost ground, because this time Republicans captured not one but two lower-ballot offices -- thus setting the stage for tonight's big victory. (We'll deal more with that in an upcoming post.)
So, the scorecard: We've now had 11 governor's races in the modern era. Of those, five produced sweeps, six produced split-tickets.
Of the five sweeps, three went to Democrats, two went to Republicans.
Coming next: Why Democrats lost this election in June, not November.
-- Dwayne Yancey, senior editor
OTHER ELECTION ANALYSIS:
* Analysis: The most expensive governor's race ever
* Analysis: Where we'll be looking tonight
* Analysis: How many House seats will change hands tonight?
* Analysis: The biggest winning margin since . . .
* Analysis: The polls close; here's what's coming . . .
* Analysis: The saddest sight I've seen in politics
* Analysis: The first precinct reports in
* Analysis: An early return from Henrico County
* Analysis: A closer look at McDonnell's lead
* Analysis: McDonnell winning places that Democrats did four years ago
* Analysis: Henry County flips to McDonnell
* Analysis: Deeds running weaker in Northern Virginia
* Analysis: How Deeds did it -- a counter-factual look at McDonnell's victory
* Analysis: Three reasons why Obama hurt Deeds
* Analysis: Three reasons why Obama didn't matter
We have complete results here.
