and i think the occupy wall street crystalized that and ting election results in 2012 showed what can happen when democrats unite and turn out to vote. looking ahead, as a democratic pollster, is there a particular result or a particular state profile or results from last night that seems like a bellwether for you for next year s election? something that democrats should be looking to for particular lessons? i think that the ohio vote was really a lesson in the sense that voters across the board thought that the kasich message would hurt jobs, hurt health care, hurt their state s budget, hurt their state s education system. they saw this as a very broad economic hatchet job taken to their state, and they rejected it. and you know who rejected it first? women voters and union voters. and that s a very powerful combination for the 2012 elections.
commission. and so his defeat is a domino effect. and many people in this state are going to have to reconsider that they can t use those same politics, those anti-immigrant politics to cover up the fact that there s a legacy of failure. so i think the people in arizona are looking for solutions, they re tired of the rhetoric, it hasn t worked, and they re tired of the reputation this state has acquired as a consequence of people like russell pearce and the policies that he promoted, and unfortunately got passed through this legislature. u.s. congressman raul grijalva, democrat of arizona. thanks very much for joining us tonight, sir. thanks for being here. thank you, rachel. appreciate it. right after this show on the last word with lawrence o donnell, lawrence will be breaking down tonight s republican presidential debate. lots to talk about there. and here among other things, yesterday s elections were also sort of gay. yeah, i know, but i m telling you, it s true. that stor
up later in the show tonight. so the democrat won that race in iowa. the democrats, there, hold on to the state senate in iowa. and the genius republican plan by the genius republican governor there is foiled. that happened in iowa. even though there was national focus on ballot measures in a few different states last night, off-the-radar places like iowa and new jersey and kentucky had some pretty striking results. in kentucky, a number of statewide office holders were up for election, and it was nearly a clean sweep for the democrats, in kentucky. democratic governor steve bashir and abramsome won re-election by a 20-point margin. the state auditor s race and the attorney general s race, despite some big national guns weighing in on that attorney general race on behalf of the republican, people like mike huckabee, rudy giuliani, sarah palin, the republican in the ag s race just got creamed. and in fact, in all of those other races.
public a view of the world, in which every voice proclaims the equality of the races, the inner rant nature of the, quote, jewish holocaust tale, the wickedness of attempting to the halt the flood of non-white aliens pouring across our borders. russell pearce sent that out to his supporters in arizona, then later half-apologizing, saying that he didn t really know what it was. and he s also been assailed by his relationship with this neo nazi. but now as one of the most powerful republicans in the state with a huge amount of money, he outspent his opponent three to one and created a fake democratic opponent to try to split the vote against him. russell pearce has been recalled to office and replaced with a guy who s kind of a normal republican. the only thing that is harder to believe than the fact that russell pearce is gone now is that he was there in the first place. that somebody that radical could be that powerful in a state like arizona. joining us now is democratic
coner arizona.e1 thank you very much for your time tonight. why do you think that russelr pearce was recalled? i think at some point, the e1 basic decency of the people in arizona and certainly i.!;rráhfá district came to force. excellent work on the part of many people to organize, certainly the now-elect senator lewis put together a wonderful team. people like randy paris, falcone did afá lot of work to energize build a coalition of people that were wanted decency returned to our policy making.e1 russell pearce has been a power in this state. he s now gone. and so his defeat sends a ripple effect not only across the state, but i think across the nation. because many people have tried % to mimic what he does and use t( ¤4q5)(p&iper to keep