Dave Johnson, Speak Out California.

There are a few lessons to take away from last night’s elections.  The main one is that Democrats should act like Democrats if they want Democrats to show up and vote.  Low-turnout elections are base elections: you have to turn out your base or you will lose.

Virginia: The Democrat didn’t act like a Democrat and Democrats didn’t show up and vote.  Deeds told people he was against having a public option in the health care reform bill!  He went so far as to say that he would take Virginia out of the public option!  So why would any Democrats want to show up and vote for that?  Meanwhile the Republican comes out of the Pat Robertson religious-right machine, and they did show up and vote.

New York: Democrats won a seat that has been Republican for over 100 years.  The far-right takeover of the Republicans is an opportunity.  Democrats should be working in every single district in the country because no “solid” Republican seat is safe anymore.

New Jersey: Independents voted Republican and Dems didn’t turn out.  I have no idea yet why this happened and need to see the exit polling.  The Democrat previously had been Chairman of Goldman Sachs, and that may well have been a significant factor.

Maine: This was a terrible disappointment.  The national Democratic Party didn’t help.  The OFA organization didn’t help and even asked their members in Maine to come to New Jersey. Democrats had best not expect any fundraising success from LGBT after this.

Click through to Speak Out California.