States where Republicans picked up legislature seats in 2006

[Kevinstat]

I'll agree with Mr. Moderate that the two GOP ME Senate pickups in '06 (they lost one seat for a net gain of 1, or a net gain/loss of 0 from the 2004 election) had nothing to do with Olympia Snowe coattails (although it's tough to rull that out entirely, as I don't know what other voters are thinking when they go to the polls).  But one of the two districts the GOP held had been won by the GOP last time (and may not have been won by a Democrat since the 60s before Senate districts were actually called districts, as counties elected 1 to 4 Senators on a sliding-scale and small-county biassed formula) and only went Democratic after the state Senator switched parties in the December after the election.  That ticked republican activists off big time, and posters saying "Hold the Mayo" with an Xd through "Art Mayo" next to it (Art Mayo was his name, and still is athough Senator is no longer part of it).  Local politics in Maine isn't nearly as agressive I don't think as in many parts of the country, and a bumper sticker targeting an individual state Legislator is pretty rare.  (I'd never seen it before, although I wouldn't be surprised if there had been "Defeat [former 19-year autocratic Democratic House Speaker and now Senate Assistant Majority Leader and perhaps slightly more mellow] John Martin.  Vote [whomever the local Republican candidate was] for State Legislature." back in the 80s and early 90s.)  So the Republicans were really focused on winning back that seat (which isn't nearly as Republican now as it's long streak going with the GOP would indicate, as Mayo had won a close race in 2002 and Democrats held all state House seats in districts overlapping with that Senate district going into the 2006 election although the Republicans picked up one of those seats as well), and according to a Republican lawyer from the district they picked a socially moderate candidate to run for the seat (Mayo had strayed from the GOP on all sorts of issues, and allegedly would actually leak GOP strategy to the Democrats; I wasn't too sad he lost even though I was a Democrat at the time, although I assumed at the time that angry conservatives had gotten a very conservative Republican to run for the seat and I wasn't thrilled about that).

The other state Senate seat the GOP picked up here last fall was my district.  There were multiple factors at play here, from the GOP picking (without visible dissension) its absolute best candidate to what may have been a quid pro quo from two years before on the Democratic side to later Democratic dissentions and an abortive run to an ultimately contested (and surprisingly close) Democratic primary to probably the strongest possible Democratic nominee (a recent state Senator) running for the Republican nominee's state House seat to the Democratic nominee (the 14-year incumbent Mayor of the second-largest municipality and largest city and focal point of the district) losing support in his hometown (don't appear to appease juvenile burglers with a free food program if you're counting on continued political support) which he only ended up carrying by only 6 votes out of almost 2500 cast to the kiss of death of the local paper's endorsement (not good for non-incumbent candidates for the state Senate in this area for whatever reason) to the Democrat being confined to a wheelchair which I hoped (I supported him) would make his door-to-door efforts look even better but may have caused unease among voters.  So, basically a perfect storm, with some rumbles two years before which I won't get into.