Election Results: GOP Govs Win Big, Dems Take California, Oberstar Ousted

The biggest news from last night, of course, is that the GOP won control of the House of Representatives. That means Republicans now control all the House committees, and Ohio’s John Boehner — a believer in wider highways — will wield the Speaker’s gavel. The Democrats hung on to the Senate, though, and pundits are forecasting two years of gridlock.

Streetsblog has mainly been profiling races for governor where transportation issues had a high profile. Here are some results with big implications for smart growth and sustainable transportation.

Governor Results

California: Jerry Brown (D) 54 percent – Meg Whitman (R) 41 percent
Whitman would have said no to high speed rail, Brown has a record of curbing sprawl and fighting highway expansion.

Colorado: John Hickenlooper (D) 50 percent – Tom Tancredo (AMC) 37 percent – Dan Maes (R) 11 percent
The GOP hangs on to major party status by a hair after bike-paranoid Maes costs them the election. Hickenlooper is a bike and transit advocate who really gets it.

Florida: Rick Scott (R) 49 percent – Alex Sink (D) 48 percent
Scott has said he’ll kill high speed rail, giving back federal dollars. Sink is a transit supporter who said bike infrastructure could improve street safety.

Georgia: Nathan Deal (R) 53 percent – Roy Barnes (D) 43 percent
Barnes has environmental concerns about a highway expansion project Deal supports. Barnes wanted to “unclog Atlanta” through transit.

Maryland: Martin O’Malley (D) 56 percent – Bob Ehrlich (R) 42 percent
Incumbent O’Malley will move forward with building a light-rail Purple Line expansion of the D.C. Metro. Ehrlich said he favored bus rapid transit but some thought he was just trying to cause delays.

Ohio: John Kasich (R) 49 percent – Ted Strickland (D) 47 percent
The winner says high speed rail is the dumbest idea he’s ever heard. Incumbent Strickland has tried to green the industrial state.

Tennessee: Bill Haslam (R) 65 percent – Mike McWherter (D) 33 percent
Haslam has gained some praise for his bike policy but he’s not friendly to transit, which McWherter supports.

Texas: Rick Perry (R) 55 percent – Bill White (D) 42 percent
Will the Trans-Texas Corridor mega-project go through? It’s likely, now that Perry won an unprecedented third term.

Wisconsin: Rick Scott (R) 52 percent – Tom Barrett (D) 47 percent
Another race where the Republican pledged to kill high speed rail projects underway. Barrett promoted transit as a way to reduce wear and tear on highways.

House Races

Minnesota: Chip Cravaack (R) 48 percent – Jim Oberstar 47 percent
This is a huge blow to shifting away from the transportation status quo. Oberstar, the chair of the Transportation Committee and architect of the reauthorization bill, was a strong ally of transportation reformers.

Oregon: Peter DeFazio (D) 54 percent – Art Robinson (R) 45 percent
After a closer-than-expected contest, transit supporter DeFazio stays to fight another day.

Senate Races

California: Barbara Boxer (D) 52 percent – Carly Fiorina (R) 42 percent
The Environment and Public Works Committee chair had the fight of her political life against the Hewlett Packard exec, but she’ll stick around. And with the Democrats keeping control of the Senate, EPW will remain under her leadership.

Stay tuned… later today we’ll be taking a look at how the 29 transportation-related ballot initiatives fared.