Republicans have controlled the federal government most of the last eight years and the country largely blames them for the mess we currently are in. They will be trying to hold some positions this election, but are sure to have less power after Nov. 4.
The 2008 election has lost some of its excitement at the top of the ticket, with just about everyone not named Sarah Palin knowing the election is already over.
There are still critical issues to watch with the Democrats looking for a filibuster proof Senate and other critical votes across the country.
The U.S. Senate currently has 49 Republican and 49 Democratic Senators, with Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders, VT. and Independent Joe Lieberman, CT, caucusing with the Democrats.
There are 35 seats up for vote this Nov. 4 (33 up for terms expired, two up in special elections.) A total of 23 of these seats are currently held by Republicans, 12 by Democrats.
Should the Democrats get up to 60 Senators they will be able to control the Senate, giving them enough to override any potential filibuster. The minority Republicans will have little reason to show up in the Senate.
A strong opposition, regardless if it is Republican or Democratic, is important in our government and could be sorely missed should the Democratic Party realize the gain of nine more seats.
According to the some of the latest polling, there are six states considered potential tossups: Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi (the second seat), New Hampshire, North Carolina and Oregon.
If you count Sanders and Lieberman as Democrats, and concede the Democrats winning new seats in Virginia, Alaska, Colorado and New Mexico, then the Democrats would need five of the six tossups to get to 60 Senators.
One critical race to watch is North Carolina, where Lizzie Dole is running for reelection, but most polls have her behind Democratic challenger Kay Hagen.
Dole, who was once talked about as potentially the first female President, has gone beyond the Lee Atwater/Karl Rove stlye, calling her Sunday-school teaching opponent “godless” and using a female voice to leave the impression it is her opponent saying “there is no god.”
Minnesota is another race that is much closer now than it was a few weeks ago.
Republican incumbent Norm Coleman is facing a tough challenge from former Saturday Night Live writer Al Franken. Coleman looked like the clear favorite until the economy collapsed.
It looks like Coleman is the best Republican hopes amongst the tossups, but you never know in Minnesota, which elected Jesse “The Body” Ventura governor less than 10 years ago.
Another interesting race on Nov. 4 is the Senatorial race in Alaska. Sen. Ted Stevens was found guilty at the end of October of seven counts of failing to report gifts. Since then he has refused to withdraw from the race and challenger Mark Begich has taken a small lead in the polls.
Should Stevens win he would probably remain in the Senate while his case is appealed. Should he fail on appeal, he could be booted out of the Senate, and the governor of Alaska would appoint an interim Senator until a special election could be held.
Gov. Sarah Palin could appoint herself to the seat to keep in the national spotlight until 2012 or 2016. It would be a gamble, since if she would then lose the special election she would be jobless.
All of the 435 House of Representative seats are up for re-election, with Democrats, who already control the House, playing offense and Republicans playing defense.
Locally we have a couple interesting races with Dan Lungren (R) facing off against Bill Durston (D) and Charlie Brown (D) and Tom McClintock (R) fighting for John Doolittle’s seat.
One congressional seat this reporter will be watching is a Congressional race is Minnesota.
Incumbent Republican Michele Bachmann is in her first term representing Minnesota’s 6th district. On MSNBC Bachmann recently claimed Barrack Obama “may have anti-American ideas,” and the media should look into her fellow congress people to see who else might have un-American ideas.
Bachmann was the clear favorite prior to her call for renewed McCarthyism. Her opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg raised $1.8 million since her appearance and has moved the race toward a tossup.
The final race to watch this Tuesday is the California vote on Proposition 8, the initiative to change the California Constitution to eliminate same-sex marriage. For most of the campaign cycle this looked as if it was going down to defeat, but a late influx of cash has resulted in only a slight edge to No on Prop.8 side.
Both sides are well aware of the old quote, “as goes California so goes the nation.” Should Prop. 8 fail the gay rights movement will move out from California. If Prop. 8 passes it will set back the gay-rights movements a couple years.
After Nov. 4 the Democratic Party will be taking control of both the executive and legislative branch of the government. If the Democrats aren’t careful it could result in a future blowback much like the Republicans are facing this fall.
1 comment:
I liked this enough that I borrowed one video for my own election-day piece.
Well-thought out, and the part about the GOP becoming an irrelevant party, well, that was explained quite nicely.
It was also good to hear why that might not be such a hot idea for the nation.
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