A well known prognosticator recently pointed out “the last time a Democrat lost a special election for a U.S. House seat, George W. Bush was still president and gas was almost $4 a gallon. It was way back on May 3, 2008 when Hillary Clinton was still battling Barack Obama tooth-and-nail for the Democratic presidential nomination.”  A Republican held that seat, so it left the balance of power the same.  “The last time a Democratic seat was lost in a House special election, George W. Bush had only been in office for five months.”

As we all know by now, the Democrat’s special election streak in the U.S. House is over.  The national Democrats’ House campaign apparatus deserted their candidate in Hawaii several weeks ago, Republican Charles Djou ran on a campaign of commonsense conservative values and the GOP won the day.

As Republicans, such news should elicit great excitement.  President Obama carried this congressional district, in the state he grew up in, with 70 percent of the vote.  However, this development is not the first sign of Republican momentum affecting the make-up of the Congress.  On a state level, Republicans have won 57 state legislative special elections since President Obama was elected in 2008.  And thirteen of those victories are seats that had been held by a Democrat.