Paul Ryan was whining about how long it was taking for all the votes to be counted in California, primarily because absentee ballots were coming in overwhelmingly for Democrats and after election day, vote counting flipped 4 more Republican seats including one in Orange County and two in the Central Valley that left Ryan allies Mimi Walters, Jeff Denham and David Valadao unemployed. But what Ryan failed to mention is that there are still ballots being counted and recounted all over the country. The Alaska state legislative races are a good example. First Alaska's Republican Senate President Pete Kelly was ousted by Fairbanks state Rep. Scott Kawasaki (D) after a handful of votes were counted a week after the election. But the vote to replace Kawasaki is still in turmoil. On election night Republican Bart LeBon held a 5-vote lead over Democrat Kathryn Dodge but since then, the lead in that race has gone back and forth as ballots have been counted. Control of the House depends on the final outcome! And this week, it came down to whether or not one ballot would be counted! Last Friday, the Division of Elections gave LeBon the win with 2,263 votes to Dodge's 2,262. Yesterday Dodge announced that she's appealing the recount.But, whether decided on election night or a few days or weeks later, the anti-Trump wave was significant in state legislative races almost everywhere in the country. It looks like 393 seats flipped nationally-- give or take a few. That includes 7 chambers that flipped from red to blue (Senates in Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and New York and, quite spectacularly, Minnesota's House.) On top of that GOP supermajorities were broken in state Senates in North Carolina, Michigan and Pennsylvania, while Democrats gained supermajorities in the Illinois, Vermont, Nevada and Oregon state Houses and in the California and Oregon Senates-- while holding onto supermajorities in Senate races in Illinois, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Hawaii and Maryland and in state Houses in New York, California, Maryland, Rhode Island, Delaware, Hawaii and Massachusetts.There were a handful of reactionary, low-education, racist states, mostly in the Old Confederacy (like Alabama and Arkansas), were the GOP made gains, but most of the gains went to Democrats, even in states like Georgia and Texas. In Arizona the Democrats picked up 4 House seats, putting them 2 votes away from grabbing the majority. In California , Democrats picked up 4 Assembly seats and 3 Senate seats, as the state GOP continues to disintegrate. Out of the 80 California Assembly seats, just 19 are in Republican hands, although one seat is still too close to call.These were some of the other highlights:
• Colorado House- Democrats expanded their 36 to 29 seat majority by picking up 5 more seats• Connecticut House- Democrats expanded their 80-71 seat majority by picking up 12 more seats, while breaking the 18-19 Senate deadlock by winning 5 Republican seats• Florida House- Dems picked up 6 seats• Georgia House- Dems picked up 9 seats with 2 more too close to call• Idaho House- Dems picked up 3 seats• Iowa House- Dems picked up 5 seats with 2 more still uncalled• Kentucky House- Dems picked up 3 seats• Maryland House- Dems picked up 6 seats with one still uncalled• Maine House- Dems said goodibye to Paul LePage by picking up 16 seats (while watching their pals in the Senate turn that chamber blue by picking up 4 seats• Michigan House- Dems picked up 6 seats in the super-gerrymandered state• Minnesota House- Dems crushed it-- picking up 20 seats• Montana Senate- Dems picked up 2 seats• North Carolina House- Dems broke the GOP supermajority by taking 9 of their seats, while Dems in the state Senate did the same by winning 6 red seats• New Hampshire- Dems flipped control of both chambers. But the House went from 176 Democrats and 217 Republicans to 233 Democrats and just 167 Republicans• New Mexico House- Dems flipped 9 seats with another seat still not final• New York Senate- Dems flipped 8 seats and took control• Nevada Assembly- Dems created a supermajority by flipping 2 seats that Trump had won• Pennsylvania House- Dems picked up 11 seats• Texas House- Dems flipped 12 seats• Utah House- Dems picked up 4 seats• Vermont House- Dems picked up 15 seats• Washington House- Dems picked up 7 seats• West Virginia House- Dems picked up 5 seats including John Doyle's win over GOP Majority Leader-designate, Riley Moore.