That prompted me to investigate how Norwich voted in 2012:

Romney 3,790
Obama 7,722

A town that voted more than 2:1 for Obama, elected an all-Pub city council three years later. That is impressive. I will conclude that the voters of my home state will have wised up if , upon electing Pubs to office, they vote them back in after Pubs have taken measures to stop the decay of CT- by cutting money from everyone’s favorite government program.

CT had a built-in advantage, being between two high-tax states, NY and Massachusetts. For decades it had the highest per capita income in the nation. CT politicos blew that advantage by assuming that the golden goose couldn’t be killed. Former Pratt and Whitney workers, among others, will sadly inform those politicos, that yes, you can kill the golden goose.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/112624971/Votes-for-President-by-Connecticut-town

This is a change in parties, not process.

For many years, I’ve compared state and local offices to baseball’s farm teams. Their elected officials will move up from one level to the next as they gain political skills and their value to the party increases. Finally, the best get promoted to The Show, campaigning for national office. Occasionally, a really talented player is signed directly to the Bigs without going through the training system.

While the Democrats and Republicans have had their farm system in place for more than a century, the Tea Parties Party (for lack of an official name, the TPP) began a mere 6 years ago. They had no candidates of their own, so they had to have unvetted newbies jump in, or were forced to choose from those already in the pipeline (all Republicans, for obvious reasons).

This has led to betrayals by lots of those they backed (Ayotte, e.g.) and accusations of making poor choices. However, the TPP movement ushered in some 900 new state and local Republican officeholders from 2010-14, a good chunk of whom are solid conservatives. Team TPP will have a lot of their own draft picks to choose from in the near future.

Added to those successes we backed in the past couple elections (Cruz, Lee, Paul, Brat, etc) I believe the TPP will be a force to be reckoned with within the next few elections.

This all assumes that neither Hillary! nor any other Democrat, nor any Republican in favor of amnesty, becomes POTUS in 2016, because if ten million new Democrat voters are legalized and/or we get more leftwingers on the SCOTUS, there will be no way to stop ourselves from slouching towards 1984.

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-local/2015/11/03/Polls-open-at-7-a-m-in-Pennsylvania-voting-pittsburgh-election-day/stories/201511030149

Every ‘establishment’ organization I can think of was against it, including the Dems, Repubs, all ‘major’ newspapers, good-government groups, chambers of commerce, service organizations, police, etc. etc,

The attempt to legalize pot in Ohio was seen by most voters as a shameless money-grab and I’m proud of my state and of the fact that common sense prevailed over the renegades.

However, the rest of the trends are amazing. I do think it is as a result of Trump/Carson mania. People feel hope for real change, and they show that in those local and state elections.

Did you read about the Lt. Governor in KY? She is a black, Tea Party member who grew up in Detroit. Very similar ‘success’ story to Dr. Carson. She sounds AWESOME! Way to go Kentucky!