Earlier this month, Colorado voters elected four new Democrats to the state Senate. All four of these Senators-elect are women, which means that the majority of the Senate majority caucus will be women (13 of 20). This brings the total number of women in the Colorado state Senate to 14 of 35.

Meet the Colorado Senate Democrats’ class of 2011:

Angela Giron (D-Pueblo) was raised in the community she now represents in the State Senate, District 3. In Pueblo, Angela’s 30-year career in public service includes building a premier youth-serving organization from the bottom up and working with two U.S. Senators. Her work to organize and create change is evident in her 20+ year tenure as a precinct chair for the Pueblo County Democratic Party and support of Pueblo’s Colorado Progressive Coalition. As a Latina, Angela knows that the opportunities in her own life are due to the sacrifice of many who came before her and she takes the responsibility very seriously to continue ensuring opportunity for those who will come after. Angela is married to Pueblo City Councilman Steve Nawrocki and has one daughter, Melanie Bravo, who is now the President/CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Pueblo County. Angela has spent her life and career committed to Pueblo.

Lucia Guzman (D-Denver) has lived in Colorado for 30 years. Before serving as your State Senator, she served on the Denver Board of Education for eight years and was a small business owner in Northwest Denver for seven. She is an ordained clergy member with the United Methodist Church, Rocky Mountain Conference. Guzman’s pastoral work has given her a profound opportunity to experience the pain of those who suffer, the challenges of the aging process, the toils and hopes of those incarcerated, the joys of those who overcome severe obstacles in life, and the sadness that befalls us all when a life is taken too soon. Sen. Guzman was elected to serve out the term of Senator Paula Sandoval when she vacated her Colorado state senate seat in May of 2010. The 2011 legislative session will be her first.

Cheri Jahn (D-Wheat Ridge) is a single mother and small business owner from Wheat Ridge. In her eight years as a Representative in the State House, she stood up for those who would not otherwise have their voices heard. She received her paralegal degree from the Community College of Denver while running her business and raising her three children. She has been actively involved with the Stevens Elementary PTA, the Everitt Middle School Accountability Committee, and co-chair of the Jefferson County Schools District Accountability Committee. She also worked as a victim advocate and first pager responder often responding to calls in the middle of the night. Jahn volunteered over 7,000 hours to the Victims Services for several local Police Agencies. In the State House, Jahn used her experience running Colorado Housekeeping Services to bring common sense approaches to small businesses and economic development. She fought to offer incentives to retain and grow small businesses in the state as well as increase tourism dollars. Cheri Jahn understands strong economic development policies create a stronger job market that benefits all Coloradans.

Jeanne Nicholson (D- Granby) has been elected to Senator of Senate District 16, previously held by Senator Dan Gibbs. As a nurse and resident of the district for 39 years, Jeanne Nicholson is a two-term Gilpin County Commissioner and serves on the Gilpin County Board of Health. For 39 years, Nicholson has used a hands-on approach to making her community the best place to live, work and raise a family. Jeanne's priorities include strengthening our economy and getting our citizens back to work, providing access to health care, protecting the quality of our water and fighting for our families in these tough economic times.

Kentucky Democrats and nominee Jodie Haydon are wasting no time at all in a crucial special election in central Kentucky, where Republican State Senator Dan Kelly resigned to accept a judicial appointment. (We noted the typical, classless response from Kelly’s Republican colleagues at the time.)

Haydon was first out of the gate last week with a powerful biographical ad, noting his local roots and sterling record of service:

Meanwhile, an independent group has chimed in with their own biographical ad praising Haydon, as well as a new spot hammering Republican nominee Jimmy Higdon for his anti-family voting record in the legislature. The group helpfully posted both ads to YouTube, for all to see.

Neither Higdon nor the Republican Party of Kentucky, as best we can tell, has joined the media fight with ads of their own - perhaps a consequence of poor fundraising by Higdon. Democrat Jodie Haydon outraised the Republican nominee nearly 4-1 in the opening campaign finance period, $64,855 to $16,405. Higdon also has about $16,000 left from his last State House campaign, but he’ll need to do much better if he expects to keep pace with Haydon.

The importance of this race cannot be overstated. The Republican-controlled Senate has been the chief roadblock to Democratic Governor Steve Beshear’s deficit reduction and job creation efforts, and a Haydon win in the conservative-leaning 14th District would give the chamber 18 Democrats, 19 Republicans, and an independent who caucuses with the Republicans. If Haydon can pull it off, rumors are already flying that Gov. Beshear would cross the aisle again and name another Republican Senator to his cabinet, setting up a final showdown for control of the chamber.

Democratic candidate Robin Webb has built a dominant fundraising advantage in a key Senate special election contest in Kentucky.

Webb, a state representative from Grayson, reported raising nearly $236,000 for the Aug. 25 special election while Ditty, a Greenup County dermatologist, took in more than $134,000.

Both candidates filed their 15-day pre-election reports late Monday with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance.

They are running to fill a vacancy in the 18th Senate District that was created this summer when Republican incumbent Charlie Borders of Grayson resigned to accept an appointment by Gov. Steve Beshear to the Public Service Commission.

The cash-on-hand disparity for the two candidates is even wider, with Webb holding a 7-to-1 lead over the Republican.

In addition to offering Democrats a chance to narrow the Republican advantage in the Senate, many observers consider the race a referendum on Senate Republicans and their effort to block video lottery machines at Kentucky racetracks. The machines would provide vital new revenue for the state’s well-respected horseracing industry, which has suffered during the recession. Democrats have mostly favored the idea.

While a fundraising advantage is always a good sign, money doesn’t guarantee victory in politics, and there’s still a week’s worth of hard campaigning before Monday’s election.

If you live in Kentucky or want to learn more about Robin Webb, you can visit her website at robinwebbforsenate.com.

After their failed coup attempt brought New York’s legislature to a standstill, it’s no surprise that State Senate Republicans aren’t exactly beloved by New York voters. Apparently, their desperate flailing has earned them a rebuke from donors as well, with Democrats out-raising Senate Republicans by nearly 3-1:

While Senate Democrats raised $6.9 million, Republicans raised just $2.5 million. That $4.4 million gap is the second-largest between the two parties since 1999, when the State Board of Elections introduced electronic filing.

The Democrats’ haul was more than twice what they raised during the first half of 2007, the last year without statewide elections. The Republicans’ total was just half of what they raised during the same period in 2007.

The big difference between the parties could hamper Republicans’ plans for retaking control of the Senate next year and underscores how much power is wielded by the dominant party in Albany, even though the Senate Democrats hold a majority of just two votes.

These early numbers are a sharp reversal from previous cycles, when Republicans routinely held a dominant fund-raising edge over then-minority Democrats. Without the millions of dollars that kept them in power for decades in such a left-leaning state, Republicans will have a tough time preventing more Democratic gains – let alone retaking the chamber – in 2010.

The most-watched legislative special election of 2009 might be in Michigan’s 19th Senate District, centered in Jackson and Calhoun Counties. We’ve mentioned our interest in the race from time to time, and there are many good reasons why this race has taken on such prominence in a year with dozens of state House and Senate special elections:

• The Stakes: With 30 open seats and only 4 incumbent Republicans running in 2010, there might never be a better opportunity to win a Senate majority and guarantee control over 2011 redistricting. If Democrats hold SD-19, we only need 4 more seats to accomplish this. If Republicans win it, they earn some extra breathing room for 2010.
  
  

• The Candidates: The leading Democratic and Republican candidates are well-respected State Representatives (one currently serving, the other forced out by term limits last year) who both represented districts inhospitable to their respective parties. Few special elections this year have featured this much talent on both sides.
  
  

• The Timeline: District 19 has been vacant since Mark Schauer won his US House seat, but the special general election won’t be held until this November 3rd. By then, the parties and candidates will have had nearly a year to campaign and fundraise.
  
  

• The District: Obama won this district by about 7% - similar to his national margin but also significantly under-performing his statewide margin of 16%. That makes this one of the truest “swing districts” to come up for special election this year.

This combination of high stakes, prominent candidates, months of hard campaigning, and an expected close finish make this Michigan special election one to watch. On that last point, the geographical features of the district, we highly recommend a newly-posted introduction to SD-19 over at SwingStateProject – complete with interactive maps, election histories, and anything else you’d want to know about the 19th Senate District.

We feel very good about our chances in this race, and we know state and local Democrats in Michigan are leaving nothing to chance. They’re working hard to win this election and put themselves in the best possible position to win back the Senate in time for 2011 redistricting.

Last month, when a prominent Alabama blog published election race rankings for every state legislative seat in the state, we noted that other state-wide rankings might be in the works. On Thursday, a Swing State Project contributor published rankings and summaries for every Michigan State Senate Race.

The cycle is still early in Michigan (primaries are August 3rd, 2010, with a May 11th filing deadline), but the senate landscape is slowly starting to take shape. One interesting pattern is that there will be almost no incumbents on the ballot for Michigan Senate races in 2010. Because of term limits, and barring any unexpected retirements, voters will fill 30 open seats while only 8 incumbents run for reelection (including the winner of an upcoming special election in District 19).

This year's special election is one we at the DLCC will watch very closely. Democrat Marty Griffin -- a former House member -- has announced his intention to run for the open seat.

Also, these rankings include presidential election results by district, and it’s pretty shocking to see how badly the Republican gerrymander broke down in Michigan last fall. Some of the most Republican senate districts in the state, even some ranked “likely Republican” by the author, were won by Obama. Between those results and the huge number of open seats, Michigan Democrats have to feel optimistic about gaining the 4 seats they need to take a majority.

The New York State Senate has been in the news lately after Republicans attempted to seize control of the chamber in mid-session. We still don’t know how that struggle will play out, but a demographics expert at Queens College has studied long-term trends and come to an inescapable conclusion: no Republican majority is likely to survive 2010 redistricting.

“There is a very large population growth downstate in New York City and Westchester and a very large decline upstate,” said Andrew A. Beveridge, a demographer at Queens College, who conducted the analysis for The New York Times. “Basically, this is a rerun of 2000.”

(…)After the 2000 census, the Republican majority was able to minimize the impact of population losses in its upstate base in two ways, both of which survived legal challenges.

Generally, districts’ populations are not supposed to deviate by more than 10 percent. Inventive Republican mapmakers maintained their party’s edge in the 2002 election because when they redrew the district lines, they placed all the underpopulated districts upstate and most of the overpopulated ones in the heavily Democratic New York City metropolitan area. So they were able to cram more sparsely populated districts upstate.

In other words, faced with huge demographic shifts that favored Democrats, Republicans stretched their Senate gerrymander as far as they could in 2000 – and Democrats still took control by 2008. Ten years later, the very same demographic shifts still favor Democrats, but Republicans have run out of options for protecting their seats. Even if they regain control of the Senate, there simply isn’t a map that would keep them in power.

And with New York State investing millions of dollars to ensure an accurate Census count in the state (unlike in 2000, when urban centers like New York City suffered from chronic undercounting), it will be even more difficult for Republicans to cram Democratic voters into urban districts.

Republicans right now are doing everything they can to prove they’re out of touch. Case in point?

A Republican state senator in Arkansas has demanded the repeal of the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution. Specifically, he claims that popular elections have somehow made senators “less responsive to the people,” as the Associated Press described his comments.

For those unfamiliar, the 17th Amendment requires the direct election of U.S. Senators (prior to ratification in 1913, senators were chosen by their respective state legislatures). Amazingly, the Arkansas Republican who proposed repealing the amendment is also a rumored US Senate candidate. And since Arkansas Democrats hold leads of 72-28 in the State House and 27-8 in the State Senate, repealing the 17th Amendment would just about end any chance of anyone from his party winning a U.S. Senate seat.

But despite the Republican’s obviously flawed logic, the 17th Amendment is a source of some interesting academic debate –- particularly for us at the DLCC. Following our success in the 2008 elections, Democrats had complete control of 27 state legislatures and controlled one legislative house in another 8 states. If US Senators were chosen by legislators in the same proportion, Democrats would hold a 62-seat majority (a rough count, to be sure, as an exact estimate would involve many more variables than simple chamber control).

In a more abstract sense, some have argued that the 17th Amendment irreversibly undermined federalism by severing the only direct link between state governments and federal policymaking. Senators would be less likely to preempt state laws, for instance, if lawmakers back home could fire them at the end of their terms. At the same time, popular elections are a much more transparent process for choosing such powerful officials.

A series of independent polls this month have shown Democrats with wide, double-digit leads on the generic ballot question of which party New Yorkers want to control the State Senate.

The latest numbers come from Siena College, which shows State Senate Democrats strongly favored (PDF) among New York registered voters, 57%-31%.
(May 18-21; N=622; MOE=3.9%)

These results largely confirm a Quinnipiac poll from two weeks ago, which gave the Democrats a 21-point lead on the question, 56%-35%, among registered voters.
(May 5-11; N=2828; MOE=1.8%)

Wading into the cross-tabs of the Quinnipiac poll, (which I feel comfortable doing because of the large sample size) we see that Democrats led the generic ballot in every region of the state, including traditional Republican strongholds in rural areas upstate.

12. Democrats took control of the state senate this year for the first time in decades. Would you like to see them continue control in 2010?

.......UpState Urban...UpState Other...UpState Total...NYC......Suburbs

Yes...........52%...............47%...............48%........71%........47%
No............35%...............41%...............40%........21%........45%
DK/NA.......13%...............12%...............12%..........7%.........7%

Ultimately, the only poll that matters is the 2010 elections, but these results indicate that despite the state’s tough budget choices in response to the recession, New Yorkers appreciate the important progress Democrats are making on key issues like improving transparency, shutting down the Senate Republicans’ taxpayer-funded political machine, and securing New York’s fair share of federal tax dollars. There’s a lot of work to do before 2010, but polling like this puts Democrats in an enviable position as we approach the campaigns.

On Monday, a unanimous Democratic Senate Caucus joined most State Senate Republicans in passing a landmark program to establish Texas as a world leader in solar energy production.

The $500 million incentive program, funded by a monthly utilities surcharge of $0.20 for residential customers, would provide tax rebates to homeowners and businesses -– as well as commercial energy producers -– who install solar cells on their property. Over five years, analysts expect the program could nearly double the entire solar energy production capacity of the United States.

"These new bills would bring [Texas] into the forefront of states that have solar incentives and possibly help make them a leading producer of solar electricity," said Glen Andersen, who tracks renewable energy for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The bill now moves to the State House for consideration.

Despite its history as a major oil producer, Texas has long been a leader in energy conservation and alternative energy development. Existing laws to incentivize wind energy have already made Texas the nation’s preeminent wind energy production state, generating 2.5 times more than the #2 state (Iowa) and making Texas the 6th biggest wind energy producer in the world. Earlier this decade, Texas also led the way in mandating tough energy-efficiency standards in new home construction.

The State Senate’s solar energy plan also uses state building codes to make solar power more accessible, requiring developers of large-scale subdivisions to offer solar-cell installation for home buyers.

Around the world, other countries have already demonstrated the effectiveness of using building codes to support alternative energies. In Spain, which in 2006 went even further than the Texas plan by requiring installation of solar cells on all new and renovated buildings, solar power production nearly tripled in 2008, firmly establishing Spain as the second-largest solar power producer in the world.

Texas legislators are hoping for similar success. If all goes well, their program will prove yet again that states like Texas can also lead the way on progressive priorities like clean energy.