This election was supposed to be too close to call in Republicans’ efforts to retain control of state government in Wisconsin and in states where Republicans were trying to win Senate races to take over the U.S. Senate.

Never mind.

It is hard to see how this election could have gone much better for Republicans. Gov. Scott Walker was reelected. Brad Schimel was elected attorney general. The candidate who pledged to work to eliminate the state treasurer’s office won, replacing the candidate who made the same pledge four years ago and then changed his mind.

Walker won because of a combination of enough voters thinking he’s doing a good job as governor, and enough voters thinking Mary Burke wouldn’t be an improvement. Schimel ran on not being a partisan, which is refreshing in our hyperpartisan days, because (contrary to what Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm thinks) justice shouldn’t have a D or R tag on it.

The Republicans gained a seat in the state Senate, replacing Sen. Dale Schultz, the leader of the Dale Schultz Party, with an actual fiscal conservative (and a CPA), Rep. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green). That was despite Schultz’s efforts to anoint a successor not named Marklein, who committed the unpardonable sin of running against his own party’s incumbent.

Marklein touted himself as being an independent, which seemed a stretch. So did opponent Pat Bomhack, which was a ridiculous assertion given that state Democratic Party leadership (if that’s what you want to call them) recruited Bomhack (getting Bomhack, who had never won an election before, to switch races, in fact) to run against a candidate that wasn’t raising sufficient money and, perhaps, seemed as if he might not do everything Senate Democrats wanted him to do.

The winner list definitely includes U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, who seemed to me too conservative to win in the Sixth Congressional District, which does include some Democratic parts. So does the 17th Senate District, where Marklein won. Since I don’t live in the Sixth anymore, I neglected to find out the last time it sent a Democrat to Congress, but it’s been quite a while. The 17th, meanwhile, has elected exactly two Democrats since statehood. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) is in the majority party in the Senate, and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) is not.

Sometimes, elections aren’t about who wins, but who loses. That certainly includes Burke, whose campaign was summed up in four words: I’m Not Scott Walker. Burke showed nothing, and neither did anyone on her behalf, that demonstrated her ability to be governor. The loser list also includes Democratic attorney general candidate Susan Happ, who showed that she apparently doesn’t run her office very well, and gives plea bargains to people who don’t deserve them.

Who else lost last night? Barack Obama, beyond question. Iowa now has two Republican U.S. senators, with military veteran Joni Ernst replacing pottymouth Tom Harkin. Obama’s home state, Illinois, will have a Republican governor. Union thug Richard Trumka predicted that Burke would defeat Walker. Wrong again.

Schultz lost, though he was not running, because his sort-of-endorsed would-be replacement lost. Schultz hates the tea party (which means he apparently hates a lot of people who voted for him), and yet didn’t present himself as an alternative to too-conservative Republicans and too-liberal Democrats by running for governor as an independent.

Not everything went well, but it never does. U.S. Ron Kind (D-La Crosse) was reelected despite his achieving nothing in Congress. Secretary of State Douglas La Follette was reelected despite his doing nothing on taxpayer expense. The latter can be explained by Republican opponent Julian Bradley’s refusal to advocate to eliminate the office, which meant voters had no actual choice. Voters did have an actual choice in the state treasurer race, and look how that worked out.

People who don’t like last night’s results will blame them on big money, or stupid voters. Both are the Lament of the Loser. As for the money complaint, too much money is spent in getting and keeping office because the stakes are too high in elections, both in Wisconsin and nationally. The answer is not campaign finance “reform”; it’s cutting legislative pay and staff and reducing the size and scope of government at every level.

Politics is like sports except that the season never ends, and therefore there is no final winner. Ads for the 2016 presidential race will begin in 5 … 4 … 3 …