Congressman-elect Perriello

Late yesterday the DCCC contacted their friends, supporters and… me to tell us that Democrats had just been certified winners in two more seats, MD-01, where Blue Dog Frank Kratovil beat a lunatic fringe wingnut, and VA-05, where Blue America candidate Tom Perriello came from behind and won a slim, hard fought, grassroots victory against one of Congress’ worst members, corrupt bigot Virgil Goode, a former conservative "Democrat," not unlike Mr. Kratovil, who eventually, after voting with the GOP for years, crossed over to the Dark Side.

Today we’re going to top the DCCC big time with another visit by one of our Progressive Majority friends, Dean Nielsen. On Wednesday I blogged about how our two Blue America guests, Matt Patten (D-OH) and Fred Clark (D-WI) had each won their uphill election battle and had each been part of turning their state legislature from red to blue. Today Dean is going to talk with us about why this is crucially important to the Democratic Party and for the progressive movement within the Democratic Party.

Dean begins his Blue America report for us here:

The message couldn’t be any clearer: voters wanted progressive change. They elected a new president. They put Democrats solidly in control of the Congress. And, they elected at least 84 great Progressive Majority candidates to state and local office! We expect that number to increase as votes continue to be counted.

The state and local champions Progressive Majority helped elect Tuesday will ring in a new era of leadership committed to our progressive values– and they will be a formidable ground force to enact the change we need.

Progressive Majority is the only national organization focused solely on recruiting and electing progressive majorities at the state and local levels. As the premier candidate recruitment operation for the progressive Democratic movement, we paved the way for many of Tuesday’s victories. We took control of the Wisconsin Assembly and the Ohio House of Representatives. We elected a veto-proof super-majority in the Washington State House. We increased our ranks in the Minnesota State House, Arizona Legislature and California Assembly, held onto Democratic majorities in the Colorado and Pennsylvania Houses, and we flipped control of at least six local governments.

While many races are still too close to call, we’re thrilled with these key victories. In all, we put progressive Democrats in control in six of the eight states we’re in! We made gains in every state where we work. We showed that progressives can win in the toughest districts in the toughest states in the country.

In a year when pundits predicted Democrats could only gain control of a few new state legislatures, Progressive Majority was key to winning two: Wisconsin and Ohio.

Wisconsin was decidedly a "toss up" state right up until Election Day. Yet, we out-organized our opponents and helped 13 Progressive Majority candidates score stunning victories to take control of the Wisconsin Assembly. This victory was the culmination of Progressive Majority’s five-year strategy to take control of both chambers of the Wisconsin Legislature and put Democrats in control of redistricting.

This included Fred Clark, who was featured on Blue America in October. You can see all the Wisconsin results here.

Progressive Majority emerged victorious in Ohio, another "toss up" state where the state races were overshadowed by the national elections. A remarkable seven, and possibly eight, of our candidates won and secured the Democratic takeover of the state House of Representatives.

This included Matt Patten, who was featured on Blue America in October. And here are all the Ohio results.

So far, 84 Progressive Majority candidates in our eight states have won outright a handful are in races still too close to call. You can see all the Progressive Majority results from Tuesday at the link.

We continue to elect majorities where they matter most– school boards and city councils, mayoral positions and statehouses. In just five short years, Progressive Majority has helped flip control of six state legislatures, 36 local governments and three statewide positions, and we’ve helped put more than 350 progressives in office.

But our work is far from finished. We can count on conservatives to retreat, regroup, and then come back swinging. We can’t let our guard down for a moment. That’s why we’re already focused on recruiting, training and electing the progressive leaders of 2009, 2010, 2011 and beyond.

So as we all celebrate the stunning victory of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and we look forward to the possibilities of a Democratic Congress, we must remember that the progressive movement is not a top down one. It begins at the grassroots, the state and local offices where political careers are born and where decisions are made that affect voters’ quality of life. Progressives took a big step forward on Tuesday. Progressive Majority aims to carry that momentum into every state and local office across the nation, and build a lasting progressive movement that will survive and grow beyond the next four years, beyond the next eight years, into a rock-solid foundation from which the next generation of national progressive leaders will emerge.