The Republics of California and New York

Looking at the electoral map of the United States is an interesting exercise, especially observing the colors of the governors. The country is covered with red spots — the Republicans’ color. Democrats lead no more than 19 states, after having lost seven, while Republicans govern 29. In the country’s center, only Colorado — wedged between Kansas, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico — gives a little blue to the map.

However, numbers don’t tell the whole story.

The red wave has not succeeded in carrying the two states that are most important by their population, by their number of electors — who, in reality, choose the president of the United States — and by their economic weight: California and New York.

In New York, Andrew Cuomo, son of another governor, Mario Cuomo — elected during the Ronald Reagan era — crushed his Republican opponent Carl Paladino (61 to 34 percent). In California, Jerry Brown — son of another Democratic governor of the ‘60s, Pat Brown — was elected. Even better, Jerry Brown was already governor of the most populous state in the country less than 30 years ago, between 1975 and 1983. The new governor, who does not exactly conform to the usual standards of American politics (interested in Buddhism, Brown for a long time had a beret-wearing French guru follow him everywhere and even live with him), succeeded in beating the Republican candidate, Meg Whitman, who commanded unlimited financial means. She invested more than $150 million of her own fortune in the campaign, a record in the United States. Even better: While the country swung to the right, California elected a Democrat — something that had only happened three times in its entire history. Even the other billionaire, Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard, did not manage to take the Senate seat held by Barbara Boxer — one of the most left-leaning senators in the U.S. — though it was one of the Democrats’ most threatened [seats].

These states have considerable financial weight to raise funds for national campaigns. Wall Street and Hollywood are the two main funding sources. Jerry Brown, for example, greatly benefited from the help of Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founders of the DreamWorks studio (“Shrek”).

These two victories against different — but equally conservative and determined — adversaries shows that outside the rural areas or the South, the tea party’s message is not getting across: Illinois, Connecticut, Maryland and Massachusetts, among others, remained Democratic or swung toward blue, like Vermont. We must see now how long the Republican-tea party alliance in Congress will last. Their respective priorities do not coincide in the least. The next electoral map could have other colors.