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On November 4, voters throughout the country stated their choice not only for the makeup of the federal legislature but numerous state elected offices, as well. The political outcomes of these decisions will shape the state level legislative and regulatory landscape for years to come, and will impact issues important to patient safety and the practice of anesthesiology.
State Legislatures
State legislators have a critical role in advancing patient safety and health care by crafting and voting for legislation that preserves safe delivery of health care. Prior to the November General Election, there were 29 legislative chambers held by Democrats, and 60 Republican-held chambers (99 total chambers since Nebraska has a unicameral legislature). As a result of the recent elections, Republicans will control 69 out of 99 legislative chambers.
Governors
Governors have the authority to sign into law or veto legislation as well as exempt their state (or opt-out) of Medicare’s patient safety requirement that anesthesia be performed by a physician or physician-supervised provider. Before the November 4 elections, there were 21 Democratic governors and 29 Republican governors.
Tuesday’s election determined the outcome of 36 gubernatorial races. At the time of this writing, there will be 31 Republican governors, 17 Democratic governors, and 2 currently undecided gubernatorial seats going into 2015.
Here are the results of the November 4 General Election for Gubernatorial Candidates. An asterisk (*) indicates incumbency, and the winner of each race is underlined below:
Alabama: Robert Bentley, M.D.* (R) v. Parker Griffith (D) (ASAPAC supported Governor Bentley)
Alaska: Sean Parnell* (R) v. Byron Mallott (D) v. Bill Walker (I) (still contested at time of printing)
Arizona: Doug Ducey (R) v. Fred Duval (D)
Arkansas: Asa Hutchinson (R) v. Mike Ross (D)
California: Jerry Brown* (D) v. Neel Kashkari (R)
Colorado: John Hickenlooper* (D) v. Bob Beauprez (R)
Connecticut: Dan Malloy* (D) v. Tom Foley (R)
Georgia: Nathan Deal* (R) v. Jason Carter (D) (ASAPAC supported Governor Deal)
Hawaii: David Ige (D) v. Duke Aiona (R) v. Mufi Hanneman (I)
Idaho: Butch Otter * (R) v. A.J. Balukoff (D)
Illinois: Pat Quinn* (D) v. Bruce Rauner (R)
Iowa: Terry Branstad* (R) v. Jack Hatch (D)
Kansas: Sam Brownback* (R) v. Paul Davis (D)
Maine: Paul LePage* (R) v. Mike Michaud (D) v. Eliot Cutler (I)
Maryland: Anthony Brown (D) v. Larry Hogan (R) (ASAPAC supported Anthony Brown)
Massachusetts: Martha Coakley (D) v. Charlie Baker (R)
Michigan: Rick Snyder* (R) v. Mark Schauer (D)
Minnesota: Mark Dayton* (D) v. Jeff Johnson (R)
Nebraska: Pete Ricketts (R) v. Chuck Hassebrook (D)
Nevada: Brian Sandoval* (R) v. Robert Goodman (D)
New Hampshire: Maggie Hassan* (D) v. Walt Havenstein (R)
New Mexico: Susana Martinez* (R) v. Gary King (D)
New York: Andrew Cuomo* (D) v. Rob Astorino (R)
Ohio: John Kasich* (R) v. Ed Fitzgerald (D)
Oklahoma: Mary Fallin* (R) v. Joe Dorman (D)
Oregon: John Kitzhaber, M.D.* (D) v. Dennis Richardson (R)
Pennsylvania: Tom Corbett* (R) v. Tom Wolf (D)
Rhode Island: Gina Raimondo (D) v. Allan Fung (R)
South Carolina: Nikki Haley* (R) v. Vincent Sheheen (D) (ASAPAC supported Governor Haley)
South Dakota: Dennis Daugaard* (R) v. Susan Wismer (D)
Tennessee: Bill Haslam* (R) v. Charles Brown (D)
Texas: Greg Abbott (R) v. Wendy Davis (D) (ASAPAC supported Greg Abbott)
Wyoming: Matt Mead* (R) v. Pete Gosar (D)
Vermont: Peter Shumlin* (D) v. Scott Milne (R) [Vermont’s legislature will choose the winner in January 2015; since both legislative houses have Democratic majorities, Governor Shumlin will likely be reelected.]
Wisconsin: Scott Walker* (R) v. Mary Burke (D)
Lieutenant Governors
There were 31 lieutenant governor seats up for election this November. One out of four governors first served as lieutenant governor of their state and 21 lieutenant governors preside over their state senate.
Prior to the November 4 General Election, 27 of these important seats were held by Republican lieutenant governors, 16 were held by Democratic lieutenant governors, 2 were vacant seats, and there are 5 states that do not have an office of lieutenant governor. As of the time of this writing, there will be 32 Republican and 13 Democratic lieutenant governors in states across the country going into 2015.
Attorneys General
All 50 states have an attorney general, and in 2014, the states were split with 26 Democratic attorneys general and 24 Republican attorneys general. On the ballot November 4, there were 31 attorneys general seats up for election. After inauguration in 2015, there will be 23 Democratic attorneys general and 27 Republican attorneys general.
ASAPAC supported Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange (R), Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden (D), and Texas Attorney General-Elect Ken Paxton (R).
Please note, as a Federal PAC, ASAPAC may only support candidates in states that make specific legal provisions for candidates to accept Federal PAC contributions.
The Department of State Affairs will continue to monitor the results of races yet to be determined and update accordingly. For more information about the state election outcomes in your state, contact Jason Hansen at [email protected], Erin Philp at [email protected], or Ashli Eastwood at [email protected].
