As to the Republican Landslide 2014

In 1974, a small group of rightwing state legislators and policy advocates met in Chicago to implement a vision (an idealogical movement) for the U.S.:

Limited Government · Free Markets · Federalism

A product of this movement was the Ronald Reagan’s presidency (1981-1989)

This vision (idealogical movement), led mainly by the Koch Bros was the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) set out to take control of the national political scene in the U.S.A. They decided to accomplish this by taking over state houses and governorships first, which in turn, could control elections that determine who controls Washington. The 2014 election shows that they have done a supremely successful job of doing just that.

Read about this ideology at the following site:
http://www.alec.org/about-alec/history/