LANSING ? Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm will return to office in January in a political environment completely different than that she inherited in January 2003 as Democrats will control the House and have greater influence in the Senate.

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) will go back to Washington, D.C., also in different environment than what she found in 2001 with Democrats winning control of the U.S. House.

Final unofficial results in two late-counting Senate districts show Republicans maintained their majority at 21-17 over Democrats, just one seat less than in the current Legislature. Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer said recounts may be requested in both.

Given the size of the Democratic victory, what was surprising was the ease with which Proposal 2006-2, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, passed. The proposal constitutionally bans the use of affirmative action on the basis of race and sex in universities and governments. Michigan is now the third state to constitutionally ban affirmative action on the basis of race and sex after California and Washington.

Republicans still had good news out of Tuesday’s otherwise Democratic triumph as Secretary of State Terri Land won re-election (meaning, if nothing else, Republicans will still be the first named candidates on Michigan ballots) and Attorney General Mike Cox, who won a cliff-hanger in 2002, won by a far more comfortable margin.

But there was no sugarcoating the level of defeat for Republicans. While final results in the Senate were still uncertain, several Republicans said Tuesday’s results were the worst the party suffered in literally a generation, since the Watergate election of 1974.

“This is a tsunami. There is no way you can poll for this,” said Ed Sarpolus of the Lansing firm of EPIC/MRA. “The Republicans did not expect this. This is a phenomenal, phenomenal night. And the Republicans have to look at their micro-targeting and say why didn’t we see this?”

The results in Michigan were partly attributable to Democratic success nationwide, he said. But the overall margins clearly showed that Granholm had coattails and DeVos’ candidacy actually hurt the overall results.

For Democrats, this year is on a par with the Republican sweep of 1994.

It has been 20 years since a Democrat gubernatorial candidate came out of the election with at least one legislative house under that person’s party control, when former Gov. James Blanchard won a crushing re-election with the House in Democratic control.

The implications for the upcoming session in 2007 and for the lame duck session beginning on Thursday could be immense as the state must develop a replacement for the Single Business Tax and Granholm could have an easier road in implementing her agenda on health care and education issues.

Michigan will also prove to be a major player in Washington politics once more, as at least two U.S. House members will assume committee chairs, and if the U.S. Senate goes Democratic U.S. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Detroit) will become chair of the Armed Services Committee.

In fact, what is puzzling is how well Proposal 2 fared when the Democrats did so well and defeating Proposal 2 was a major focus of the Democratic campaign.

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