Anyone else noticed how Democrats in red states tend to use bipartisanship in actual governance?
- Montana's new Democratic governor Brian Schweitzer ran with a Republican lieutentant governor. Has anyone else seen the articles about how Montana Democrats won the governorship, both houses and most statewide offices, all this year in a state that still went overwhelmingly for Bush?
- As I remember, Kansas governor Kathleen Sibelius has a Republican lieutentant governor.
- What inspired me to write this: I just pulled up the Anchorage Daily News, only to find out that in the 40-person Alaska state house, 13 House Republicans defected to form a coalition with the 12 House Democrats -- something the Repub governor and Senate aren't going to be thrilled about. A combination of corruption, petty backstabbing and refusal to do anything about the state's fiscal situation contributed, as best I can tell -- but the 13 Republicans are nobody's liberals.
Is this something we should start pushing in more conservative states? I was never a fan at all of, say, McCain for VP, but I'm curious what everyone else thinks about these kinds of things.
Two good articles about Montana: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/politics/14montana.html and http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0412.sirota.html
The Anchorage Daily News article: http://www.adn.com/front/story/5779359p-5712761c.html
P.S. If I've broken any of the diary mores, please let this newbie know!