Democrats are poised to maintain control of the New Hampshire Senate and House.
With results still being tallied early this morning, Democrats were assured of at least holding on to their 14-10 advantage in the state Senate. And the best that state Republican Party Vice Chairman Wayne MacDonald could hope for at about 10:30 p.m. was a modest gain of 10 seats in the House.
If that materialized, the Democrats still would hold a 250-to-170 advantage over their GOP counterparts.
"Times have been much, much better," MacDonald said. "My hopes and dreams were not realized."
MacDonald had been hoping to gain majority control of the House and cut into the Democrats' lead in the Senate.
He thought the unpopularity of the sitting president and recent economic woes ultimately scuttled a better showing by the GOP at the state level.
Late last night, Ray Buckley, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said he expected to hold on to a majority in both House and Senate.
He said the strength of Democratic candidates at the top of the ticket was helpful, but did not tell the whole story.
"I really think it was the quality of the leadership of the governor working with the Speaker of the House and Senate president," Buckley said.
The chairman pointed to the historic quality of the victory. In 2006, it was the only time since the 1870s that the Democrats held the majority in both houses of the Legislature. Two years later, the Democrats repeated the feat.
University of New Hampshire political scientist Dante Scala said the results of the state races are indicative of where the state stands politically, leaning Democratic.
"In 2006, the Republicans were in free fall and now they have hit the floor," he said.
Scala noted that yesterday was a good night for Gov. John Lynch, "but that was to be expected."
Lynch was re-elected easily, beating out Republican contender Joseph Kenney by more than a 2-to-1 margin.
It appeared that voters were content with the balance of power at the state level.
"Within the state, the voters are pretty happy with the status quo," Scala said. "That may change with the deficit in Concord."
