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Obama Vows To Work With Republican Congress

Obama Vows To Work With Republican Congress

Washington (AFP) – U.S. President Barack Obama promised to work with his Republican opponents Wednesday after their midterm election victory and asked them to help him fight both Ebola and Islamic State jihadists.

But he also warned that he would take executive action on immigration before the end of the year, whether or not the new Congress makes progress towards a bipartisan reform bill on the emotive issue.

“Obviously, Republicans had a good night,” he admitted, a day after Republicans seized control of the Senate from Obama’s Democrats and increased their majority in the House of Representatives.

“I’m eager to work with the new Congress to make the next two years as productive as possible,” Obama said, while warning that there may still be some legislation that he would feel obliged to veto.

“That’s natural. That’s how our democracy works,” he said. “But we can surely find ways to work together on issues where there’s broad agreement among the American people.”

Obama said he would ask the new Congress for help in battling the spread of Ebola in West Africa and beyond, and for support for US-led military action against jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

“First, I’ve submitted a request to Congress for funding to ensure that our doctors, scientists, and troops have the resources that they need to combat the spread of Ebola in Africa and to increase our preparedness for any future cases here at home,” Obama said.

That request is for more than $6 billion in emergency funding to fight the deadly epidemic.

“Second, I’m going to begin engaging Congress over a new authorization to use military force against ISIL,” he said, using the White House’s preferred acronym for the Islamic State group.

On immigration, Obama said he would prefer to see Congress agree a comprehensive bill to provide a path to citizenship for deserving undocumented U.S. residents and would-be immigrants.

But he said he would act alone through executive action to make what changes he can if lawmakers continue to stall.

“Before the end of the year, we’re going to take whatever lawful actions we can take that I believe will improve the functioning of our immigration system,” he said.

AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski

Bigger Than 2010

Bigger Than 2010

WASHINGTON — For Democrats, the 2014 election was not the 2010 Republican landslide. It was worse.

Four years ago, the economy was still ailing and a new wave of conservative activism in the form of the Tea Party was roiling politics. This time, the economy was better, ideological energies on the right had abated — and Democrats suffered an even more stinging defeat. They lost Senate seats in presidential swing states such as Iowa, Colorado and North Carolina. They lost governorships in their most loyal bastions, from Massachusetts to Maryland to Illinois.

After a defeat of this scope, the sensible advice is usually, “Don’t overreact.” In this case, such advice would be wrong. Something — actually, many things — went badly for the progressive coalition on Tuesday. Its supporters were disheartened and unmotivated, failing to rally to President Obama and his party’s beleaguered candidates. And voters on the fence were left unpersuaded.

A dismissive shrug is inappropriate.

If Democrats are tempted to seek alibis, Republicans want to read the outcome as a vindication for their strategy of obstruction to Obama’s program and a ratification of right-wing ideology. As The New Yorker’s Jeff Shesol pointed out, leading Republicans from incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to Sen.-elect Cory Gardner to Rep. Paul Ryan all discerned a message from the voters against what Ryan called “incompetent big government.”

To make the argument, they can cite the victories of two of their most ideologically driven governors, Scott Walker in Wisconsin and Sam Brownback in Kansas. Both won re-election despite a backlash against their policies. North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis survived a similar backlash to defeat Sen. Kay Hagan.

Yet the one thing that will save the Democrats and ignite progressives will be a Republican Party that ignores the extent to which its candidates — notably Gardner in Colorado and Sen.-elect Joni Ernst in Iowa — had to tack away from the right to win their signal victories.

The nation plainly did not vote in favor of more gridlock. Republicans will throw away the opportunity they have been handed if they mistake the general dissatisfaction with Obama’s leadership that they exploited for a specific turn to right-wing remedies. Many of Tuesday’s ballot issues were won by progressives. It’s instructive that four deeply red states, Alaska, Nebraska, Arkansas and South Dakota, all voted to raise the minimum wage.

Moreover, as Bill Clinton showed after the Democrats’ 1994 midterm defeat, the surest way to beat conservatives is to confront them when they press for steep cuts in government programs that voters like. Clinton’s mantra defending “Medicare, Medicaid, education and the environment” was revealing and successful. If Republicans move to repeal Obamacare — a cause they used to mobilize their base — the GOP will only remind Americans of the many parts of the Affordable Care Act they want to retain.

Republicans need to remember: The electorate that turns out at midterms is demographically narrower than the pool of voters who elect presidents. To claim a sweeping mandate now will get in the way creating a real one in 2016.

Ironically, perhaps, the party’s potential presidential candidates — particularly Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — will be pushing the party rightward. This could help individual Republicans, especially Cruz, in the 2016 primaries, but endanger the party as a whole in the fall.

Yet Democrats and Obama can’t simply blame defeat on an inevitable falloff in their midterm vote. They failed to give the faithful enough reason to cast a ballot.

Amy Walter of National Journal cited a Republican operative: “You can’t win on turnout if you are losing on message.” The clarity of the GOP’s anti-Obama battle cry, as Washington Post columnist Steve Pearlstein wrote, was not matched by a sustained Democratic argument about the dangers of a Republican victory or a broad defense of a progressive approach to government.

Democrats had pieces of an economic message. But they need a comprehensive and more ambitious answer for voters angry about stagnating incomes. They took out their rage on the party in the White House.

For Obama, there is no escaping the urgency of restoring energy to his administration and confidence in his leadership. He should begin by focusing on the travails of Americans — including blue-collar whites as well as traditional members of his coalition — for whom neither the economy nor the government seems to be working. They’re the ones who keep sending Washington desperate messages, both by voting and by staying home.

E.J. Dionne’s email address is ejdionne@washpost.com. Twitter: @EJDionne.

Photo: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker thanks supporters as he wins another term over challenger Mary Burke during a rally at the Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center in West Allis, WI, on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014. (Rick Wood/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MCT)

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GOP Surge Crushes Democrats’ Hopes Of Taking Governors Races Nationwide

GOP Surge Crushes Democrats’ Hopes Of Taking Governors Races Nationwide

By Lindsay Wise, McClatchy Washington Bureau (MCT)

WASHINGTON — Democrats’ hopes of ousting a number of beleaguered Republican governors on Tuesday were crushed by the GOP wave that also flipped control of the U.S. Senate.

Democratic governors from Connecticut to Colorado were at risk of losing their jobs, too, adding to the party’s Election Day woes.

Democrats had aimed to win many of the 14 toss-up gubernatorial races, out of a total of 36 nationwide. By late Tuesday, they had prevailed in just two.

In deep-blue Massachusetts, Republican businessman Charlie Baker defeated state Attorney General Martha Coakley, a Democrat, in a race to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick.

Republicans also captured Democratic-held governor’s mansions in Arkansas, where Rep. Asa Hutchinson beat out Blue Dog Democrat Rep. Mike Ross; in Illinois, where Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn lost to Republican Bruce Rauner, an investment banker; and in Maryland, where Republican businessman Larry Hogan upset Democratic Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown.

Democrats did manage to pick up a governorship in Pennsylvania, where Republican Gov. Tom Corbett lost to Democratic businessman Tom Wolf. Corbett is the first incumbent governor in the state’s history to fail to earn a second term. His chances for re-election were damaged by his handling of the Penn State sex-abuse scandal, as well as his support for big cuts to public education funds.

Pennsylvania turned out to be a rare bright spot for the Democrats.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, the subject of early buzz as a possible presidential candidate in 2016, had to battle to keep his job after deep tax cuts he championed were followed by projections of a big budget shortfall. But in the end, the Republican governor defeated Democrat Paul Davis, the state House minority leader.

In Wisconsin, Democrats had targeted Republican Gov. Scott Walker for defeat after he clashed with the state’s labor unions over collective bargaining rights. Walker hung on Tuesday to win a tougher-than-expected race with Democratic candidate Mary Burke.

Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder also had made himself a target of the unions when he signed right-to-work legislation in 2012. But Snyder fended off his Democratic rival, Mark Schauer, a former congressman, to win re-election.

Florida voters, deluged by negative ads in a bitter race that smashed records for campaign spending, elected Republican Gov. Rick Scott for a second term, edging out Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor who was trying to return to office as a Democrat. Crist’s campaign lost a bid to keep polls open late in heavily Democratic Broward County.

Nathan Deal, the Republican governor of Georgia, secured re-election against Democrat Jason Carter, a state senator and grandson of the former president, Jimmy Carter.

Paul LePage, the Republican governor of Maine, won a three-way competition with independent Eliot Cutler and a Democratic challenger, Rep. Mike Michaud.

In Alaska, Republican Sean Parnell took over as governor when Sarah Palin quit in 2009. Now he’s running against a fusion ticket made up of independent candidate Bill Walker for governor and Democrat Byron Mallot as lieutenant governor. Palin has endorsed Walker and Mallot.

Colorado’s first-term governor, John Hickenlooper, a centrist Democrat, was locked in a tight battle with his Republican opponent, former Rep. Bob Beauprez. Hickenlooper had hoped he could eke out a victory if voters credited him for the state’s economic recovery. But Hickenlooper was vulnerable. He suffered a backlash from both Republicans and Democrats after he signed gun control laws last year, only to apologize in remarks to law enforcement officials this summer. He also took criticism for granting a temporary reprieve to a convicted killer on death row.

The gubernatorial race in Vermont was among those close to call early Wednesday as Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin of Vermont clung to a thin lead over Republican Scott Milne.

Although most Democrats had kept their distance from Obama this election cycle, the president traveled to Connecticut on Sunday to rally voters in a last-minute attempt to boost the prospects of Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy. Malloy was locked in a close race with Republican opponent Thomas Foley, a former private-equity executive.

In South Carolina, incumbent Republican Gov. Nikki Haley handily defeated Democrat Vincent Sheheen; in Ohio, Republican John Kasich won re-election as governor. Alabama Republican Gov. Robert Bentley also was re-elected, as were Republican Govs. Bill Haslam in Tennessee, Dennis Daugaard in South Dakota, Terry Branstad in Iowa, Matt Mead in Wyoming, Jim Risch in Idaho, Brian Sandoval in Nevada and Susana Martinez in New Mexico.

The GOP also won easily in Texas, where Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott beat state Sen. Wendy Davis; in Oklahoma, which re-elected Gov. Mary Fallin; in Arizona, where Doug Ducey won; and in Nebraska, where Republican Pete Ricketts was elected governor.

Among Democrats, New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan triumphed in her bid for another term, beating Republican businessman Walt Havenstein, and Rhode Island Democrat Gina M. Raimondo, the state’s treasurer, defeated Republican opponent Allan W. Fung, the mayor of Cranston.

The odds look good for Democrats in Hawaii, where state Sen. David Ige is expected to defeat Democrat-turned-independent Mufi Hannemann.

Democrats also won re-election in Minnesota and Oregon, and Democratic incumbents coasted to victory in California, where Gov. Jerry Brown won a fourth term and in New York, Andrew Cuomo swept to re-election by a large margin.

(Lesley Clark of the Washington Bureau contributed to this article.)

Photo: Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback waves to a cheering crowd in Topeka , Kan., on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014, after he was re-elected. (Travis Heying/Wichita Eagle/MCT)

GOP Wave? What To Watch For Tuesday Night

GOP Wave? What To Watch For Tuesday Night

By David Lightman, McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Sure looks as if it’s going to be a Republican night.

Polling, history and lots of anecdotal evidence are on the Republicans’ side as voters go to the polls Tuesday. A president’s party usually loses congressional seats in his sixth year. The latest averages of new polls show Republicans ahead in seven of the country’s 10 tight Senate races. And surveys show Republicans far more enthusiastic and engaged.

Turnout is expected to be low even by depressed midterm election standards. That’s generally bad news for Democrats, who are struggling to get their most loyal constituencies, notably blacks, Hispanics and unmarried women, to the polls.

“Like most midterms, the 2014 election is a backlash against the party that holds the White House. The president is unpopular, and his party pays the price,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a nonpartisan political website.

Tuesday’s biggest prize is control of the U.S. Senate, where 36 seats are at stake, 21 of them now held by Democrats. Republicans need a net gain of six for a majority, a goal well within range, though the outcome may not be clear for weeks.

If no one gets a majority in Louisiana or Georgia, which polls say is likely, the top two finishers in each would vie in runoffs. Republicans may need to defeat Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., on Dec. 6 to get to six. They also would need to hold Georgia a month later.

Republicans are more secure in the House of Representatives. The party has a 34-seat edge, a margin that’s likely to grow.

The least predictable races involve governors. Thirty-six statehouses are up, 22 held by Republicans and 14 by Democrats. At least eight Republicans and four Democrats are vulnerable. Also in play are open seats in Massachusetts, Arkansas, Arizona, and possibly Hawaii, Maryland, and Rhode Island.

Tuesday night’s results could take two paths. One would be a kind of wave that develops for one party. Three of the last five midterm elections were waves, as voters elected dozens of new congressional Republicans in 1994 and 2010 and Democrats in 2006.

The more likely scenario is a mixed result that boosts Republicans but barely alters the status quo. Should Republicans gain only a slight Senate edge or Democrats maintain Senate control, the parties probably will spend the next two years engaging in more partisan squabbling and gridlock.

Tuesday’s votes are hard to predict, largely because voters are so disgusted with most incumbents, regardless of party.

“Candidates are not offering voters much of a positive agenda to move us forward. It’s tough to mobilize voters,” said Susan Carroll, a senior scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at New Jersey’s Eagleton Institute of Politics.

Here’s how to follow Tuesday’s results, time zone by time zone:
EARLY STATES (Eastern time zone)
— Is there a Republican wave starting? Watch New Hampshire, North Carolina and Georgia, three of the earliest poll closings.

In New Hampshire, Democrats until very recently thought Sen. Jeanne Shaheen was safe. But the latest University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll had her in a virtual tie with former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, the Republican. A Brown win would be the first GOP pickup of the night and a bitter loss for the Democrats.

In North Carolina, Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan has been slightly ahead of Republican Thom Tillis. Should she lose, it would suggest that close races were breaking for the Republicans.
And in Georgia, Republican David Perdue was fighting to hold a GOP seat — without a runoff — against a challenge from Democrat Michelle Nunn, who was gaining.

— A big wave? Check Maryland and Connecticut, two reliable Democratic states. If the party’s gubernatorial candidates face trouble, that’s a strong clue Republicans are in for a huge night. A win by Connecticut Republican Tom Foley in the governor’s race would be notably galling to President Barack Obama, who campaigned Sunday for Democrat Dannel Malloy.

— Who’s showing up to vote? Keep an eye on black voter turnout in the South and Hispanic turnout in the Northeast and Colorado. If it’s way down from 2012 levels, Democrats are in trouble.

THE MIDDLE (Central and Mountain time zones)
— Five states whose polls start closing at 8:30 p.m. EST — Kansas, Colorado, Iowa, Arkansas and Louisiana — could determine Senate control. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said last week that a win by Republican Joni Ernst in Iowa would give that party Senate control. All five races could be tight, with results not clear Tuesday night.

Will voters throw incumbent governors out? There’s a long list of vulnerable Republicans, notably Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, Michigan’s Rick Snyder and Kansas’ Sam Brownback, as well as Democrats Pat Quinn of Illinois and John Hickenlooper of Colorado. All are in jeopardy; if all or most fall, the story line becomes a voter rejection of incumbents, regardless of party.

— Can Democrats cut into the big Republican House majority? Democrats hold most of the competitive seats, and three Arizona races will provide strong hints about the party’s fate. Watch the races involving Reps. Ron Barber, Kyrsten Sinema and Ann Kirkpatrick, all Democrats. Sinema and Kirkpatrick won last time with 49 percent. Barber barely won, and only after it took 12 days to count all the votes.

— Personalities. Midwestern voters like their politicians plainspoken, free of Washington-speak. Wave or no wave, that could mean trouble for Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, Colorado Sen. Mark Udall, and Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley. They all have personable Senate opponents who relate easily to voters: Ernst, Kansas’ Greg Orman, and Colorado’s Cory Gardner.

LATE STUFF (Rest of the country)
–Senate control could come down to Alaska, a state notoriously hard to forecast thanks to its independent and largely rural nature. Because many cities are so remote, it’s even hard to predict when the count in the battle between Sen. Mark Begich, a Democrat, and Republican Dan Sullivan will be final.

–Middle-of-the-night stunners? An upset in the Oregon Senate race? Minnesota? Five tossup House seats in California, now held by Democrats, all going Republican, even as Democrats sweep statewide offices? Could a Republican become governor of Hawaii?

Photo via WikiCommons

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