In looking over the election results, one state really stands out: Missouri. In a Democratic year, the "Show Me" State delivered some rather impressive Republican victories, and the weird thing is that we were supposed to get decimated due the "drag" placed on the GOP by Gov. Matt Blunt. Blunt was supposed to sink Republicans, yet John McCain won the state in a squeaker and the Republicans enlarged their majority in the State Legislature.
The biggest Republican loss in the state was in the Gubernatorial race, where Republican candidate Kenny Hulshof had been trying to distance himself from Blunt. Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Pete Kinder (a Blunt ally) was the only Republican elected to statewide office. And to top off the topsy-turvy night, Democratic State Senator Chuck Graham, who ran a lot of anti-Blunt attack ads, was ousted buy former Blunt aide Kurt Schaefer.
So, it looks like Matt Blunt got the last laugh. Instead of rejecting Gov. Blunt's "establishment", people actually seemed to like the fact that their state had a solid, fiscally conservative leader (The CATO Institute gave Blunt an "A" on their 2006 fiscal report card and a "B" in 2008…which is a pretty darn good record).
The conservative governor was supposed to be an unpopular millstone around the GOP's neck in Missouri, but in the end he helped the party win one of it's few victories on election night..
Well done, Governor Blunt.
Townhall's Adam Brickley contributed to this post.