A 2008 State Election Forecast with Historical Perspective

by Karl Kurtz

Following closely on Stateline.org's forecast of gubernatorial and legislative election politics in 2008, the venerable former Washington Post White House reporter Lou Cannon has written his own rundown for State Net's Capitol Journal on the 2008 state elections in "The times, they are a-changin'."  (After Cannon complains about how overused the word "change" is in this campaign, is this hackneyed phrase the best headline they could come up with?)  This article is less detailed than the one in Stateline.org, but it has some good quotes from NCSL's Tim Storey and some even better historical perspective on how frequently presidential landslides for one party or another are not accompanied by gains in the states. 

Few reporters can offer the perspective that Lou Cannon, who turned his beat covering Gov. Ronald Reagan in California into a long-term gig covering the White House and five books on Reagan, does.  Capitol Journal has done well to land him as a monthly columnist.