alternatehistory.com

To look back on how the Democrats won their current position of strength in the Congress, one must begin with Martin Luther King¨s mention of the District of Columbia lack of congressional representation in the Ï have a dream speech. The issue then took a prominent place on the civil rights agenda. Finally in 1975, Democratic controlled state legislatures ratified the 27th amendment that gave the DC a voting member of the House of Representatives and two Senators.
The DC Senators provided the Democrats margin of control after the 2000 election, a majority that grew to 53 on the day a week later when Vermont Republican Jim Jeffords joined the Democratic caucus.
Two years later, the 2002 elections provided Democrats with a complete record of success. The Enron scandal that forced Commerce Secretary Ken Lay to resign helped Democrats win close Senate races in New Hampshire, Missouri, Georgia and Colorado.
That year, Democrats also benefited from other mistakes of their political opponents. Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura got into an angry argument with hecklers outside Paul Wellstone´s funeral. The governor left, boycotting the memorial service. Media coverage focused on the Governor´s insensitivity to the late Senator´s family. Ventura´s walkout avoided a display of hostility on the part of the partisan mourners that might have turned Minnesota voters against the Democratic party and perhaps prevented Walter Mondale´s election to the Senate. Republican Larry Craig also helped, a week before the election, with his arrest for playing footsie in an airport restroom.
In the next Congress, the 57 to 45 majority in the Senate and allowed Joseph Biden Chair of the Senate Foreign Policy Committee and Carl Levin of Senate Armed Services to hold a series of hearings on the Bush Iraq policy. The combative tone of administration witnesses especially Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield chiseled away at the public support for George Bush.
In 2003, while the Democratic Senate pressured the Republican administration, Democrats scored a victory in the most high profile election of that year. California voters choose Dianne Feinstein as their governor during the recall election.
The following year, provided mixed blessings for Democrats. In January , John Kerry´s decision to run negative ads in Iowa against Howard Dean sent sent enough caucusers to John Edward's to start him on the road to the nomination. Edward would lose the popular vote by one percent. After the Supreme Court ruled against him in Bush vs Edwards and stopped the Ohio Recount, he lost the electoral college 264 to 274.
Despite losing the White House, Democrats expanded their hold on the on the Senate. While he carried neither state, Edward's appeal in both North Carolina and South Carolina won him more votes than other potential Democratic candidates and helped Democrats win those two Senate´races. In addition to the new Democratic Senator from Kentucky, Majority Leader Tom Daschle was able to narrowly hold his seat. Oklahoma Democratic Candidate Brad Carson gained credit for his victory by refusing to use information that his opponent, physician Tom Cardin, had performed an abortion. Disgruntled aides leaked the information the day before the election, which did not allow Cardin time to explain that abortion had saved the mother´s life.
Senate Democrats also benefited from Republican mistakes such as Arlen Specter's remark that President Bush should appoint pro choice Federal Judges. Energized Christian Conservatives defeated him in the Republican Primary This triumph of the Religious Right inspired a successful challenge to Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski. The Republican nominees in both Pennsylvania and Alaska lost that fall. Louisiana Republican David Vitter´s appearance on a New Orleans escort service client list doomed his efforts to win another seat to the GOP.
In 2005, the expanded 60 to 42 Democratic majority in the Senate brought a continuos struggle on the between the Upper Chamber, the administration and the 225 to 211 Republican House. (The U.S. House was enlarged to 436 members because of the voting member from the District of Columbia)
The Republicans drew more fire that year when President Bush fired every single. U.S. Attorney and invoked the clause in the Patriot Act that exempted the replacements from Senate confirmations. The high number of Regents Law School grads did not escape notice as did the many new voter fraud charges filed against Democrats as well the shocking number of grand juries that refused to issue indictments sighting lack of credible evidence. In September 2006, these embarrassments returned to the headlines when Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers was revealed to be the author of the plan to eliminate all the Federal Prosecutors.
The Republican cause suffered even more after the sharp criticism of FEMA´s response to Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans and Western Louisiana.
Katrina, by diverting funds that could have gone to untouched Mississippi, had another effect. That and the new deadline for lobbying one´s colleagues passed as the part of ethics reform, inspired Trent Lott to resign in late 2005.
In the following year, many other Republicans would leave Congress, unlike Lott, they would not go of their own free will. Public anger over these events swelled the Democratic ranks. ( The new state of Puerto Rico´s two Senators and six House members also helped grow the Democratic caucus. ) Voters reacted with particular vengeance against the 21 formerly safe Republicans who were involved in questionable voter fraud cases during that year´s election. Democrats won a 297 to 145 majority in the House. (The 442 member U.S. House had been expanded again because of Puerto Rican statehood ) The 70 to 34 Democratic majority in the Senate came as Democrats not only won competitive seats in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, Ohio, Missouri, Montana, and Arizona but in Mississippi, where former Governor Ronnie Musgrove easily defeated an extreme right wing candidate who won a crowded primary.
In addition to providing Democrats success at the polls, 2006 also saw the beginning of the events that would make 2008 another good Democratic year. It was during that campaign season, Barrack Obama found a few minutes to chat with voters before one of his many speaking engagements. In that conversation, he expressed his concerns over the results of economic dislocations on the of the psyche of the nation´s heartland. An astute alternative historian with an interest in obscure figures from the Franklin Roosevelt administration cautioned the Senator against describing guns and religion as a sign of bitterness.
Toward the end of the primary season Obama seemed to coast to victory. Hillary Clinton´s narrow win in Pennsylvania stood as the turning point. The press even downplayed Clinton´s 58 % win in West Virginia and her 52 % victory in Kentucky because the margins were lower than initial polling. Likewise her 60 % victory in Puerto Rico brought her little help. The Democratic contest came to end, when Clinton conceded defeat, after Obama´s victory in the Florida and Michigan caucuses on June 11.
In the fall, Democrats had the benefit of both party unity and the weakest Republican candidate. In late 2007, Rudi Giuliani began his successful drive to the nomination by abandoning his normal practice of traveling around New Hampshire in motorcades and instructing his audiences to remain in their seats during his departure. He began devoting considerable time to shaking hands on street corners. On primary day he would come in second with 24 % to Romney´s 29 %. Third place finisher John McCain would withdraw after losing South Carolina and another third place finish in Florida. After that point, Romney, Giuliani and Huckabee fought fiercely for their party´s nomination. Eventually Social Conservatives deserted Romney but the multimillionaire's self financed campaign continued despite charges of spoiler thrown by Huckabee forces. Romney finally dropped out after finishing with only single digits in the Kentucky primary. At the Republican Convention, Giuliani won enough released Romney delegates to put him over the top as the Virgin Island cast the last votes of the first ballot.
After Giuliani´s victory a number of vocal socially conservative delegates stormed out of the convention hall. Huckabee´s acceptance of second place on the Republican ticket did not soothe the tempers of the discontented religious right. Most press reports noted the many empty seats and the heckling during Giuliani´s acceptance speech.
Many stories also noted that while both Huckabee´s sons and his daughter stood with him on the platform. Giuliani´s children, however, were nowhere to be seen.
While the albatross of his missing offspring burdened Giuliani throughout the general election campaign, he earned a new round of bad press by giving up courting voters to cheer on the New York Yankees against the Saint Louis Cardinals in that year´s World Series. Media attention focused on the contrast between the G.O.P. candidate comfortably sitting in box seats, while his rivals and his running mate stumped around the country. The Obama campaign quickly introduced an ad with the tag line, who will be there to answer the 8:30 PM call? The commercial featured a voiceover saying: President Giuliani can´t be disturbed. He is at the game. After a New Madrid fault tremor forced the delay of game three to the same night as the final debate, many news stories surfaced, credited to anonymous sources in the Giuliani campaign, saying that the Republican candidate wanted his last face off with Obama to be postponed until after the series was completed. The ensuing storm of controversy forced him to reluctantly return to the campaign trail. So determined was he to show his dedication, that Giuliani only made a brief appearance at the Yankee victory celebration.
While Giuliani´s arrogance and complicated family life probably cost him votes, his his tow most obvious problems was his loyalty to George W. Bush during a time of economic collapse and the defection of much of the Republican core. Polls showed that somewhere around 7% of people who had called them selves likely voters earlier in the year failed to cast ballots, These abstainers tended to be right wing Republicans. A noticeable number of social conservatives cast protest votes. This was evident in Bob Barr´s 5 % margin and when Alan Keyes earned 2 %.. Giuliani´s embarrassingly low 35 % stands as the third lowest percentage of any Republican nominee except for John Fremont´s 33 % and William Howard Taft´s 23 %. Even Alf Landon., did slightly better with 36%.
While the Republican nominee did poorly in the popular vote, the electoral college, as it so often does, exaggerated Obama´s 57% victory- He carried 46 states and won the votes of 517 erectors, earning the third highest total after only Ronald Reagan in 1984 and Richard Nixon in 1972. Giuliani only carried Alabama, Oklahoma, Wyoming, ´Idaho, Utah and Alaska., earning only 31 electoral votes.
The G.O.P. did also did poorly in the Senate. Democrats won new seats in Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico Oregon, and defeated scandal plagued, Ted Steven's of Alaska. and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Republicans failed to prevent three reelection of Senator Cleland of Georgia The G.O.P.´s only consolation was their victory in Idaho., but was it small comfort for the 28 Republican Senators out numbered by 76 Democrats.
Republicans did make gains in the House by turning out Democrats swept in by scandal two years earlier, but the net gain of 18 only reduced the Democratic margin to 279... President Obama could look forward to a friendly Congress.
Top