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POLITICS-US: Obama’s Momentum Carries Congress

Ali Gharib

WASHINGTON, Nov 5 2008 (IPS) - When U.S. president-elect Barack Obama takes his historic oath of office on the steps of the Capitol at his inauguration in January, he can know that the building he’s standing before will be filled with allies.

An estimated 125,000 people gathered in Chicago's Grant Park to hear Obama's acceptance speech Tuesday night. Credit: Wendy Piersall

An estimated 125,000 people gathered in Chicago's Grant Park to hear Obama's acceptance speech Tuesday night. Credit: Wendy Piersall

Propelled by a broken Republican Party brand and a resoundingly successful political star in the presidential slot, the Democratic Party had a good day down ticket Tuesday, securing stronger majorities in both houses of Congress and winning several key battles for progressive – a euphemism for liberal – stances on ballot initiatives across the country.

“The American people have given all of us – Democrats, Republicans and Independents – a simple mandate: to work together find big solutions to the big challenges facing our country,” said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.

Mostly, however, it appears that the Democrats got the best of the day. In the Senate, Democrats picked up at least five seats, and are still holding out for the possibility of taking three more races which have not officially been called, though Republicans hold slim leads in all three.

The gains put the Democrats comfortably in the majority, but likely leave them two votes shy of the majority of 60 seats needed to overcome procedural blocks to legislation known as filibusters.

As a result, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, who fought off his toughest re-election battle since he first entered the upper house in 1984, suddenly became very important as the Senate minority leader responsible for putting filibusters together.


But Democrats, though falling short of that 10-seat margin, managed to hold all of their seats and pick off GOP seats in Virginia, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Colorado and New Mexico.

In New Hampshire, a popular Republican incumbent with a political pedigree and corresponding name recognition, John Sununu, lost his senate seat to Democratic challenger Jeanne Shaheen.

Another close – and as-yet uncalled – Senate race is ongoing in Georgia, where an apparent victory for Saxby Chambliss will likely go to a run-off because the incumbent conservative failed to reach 50 percent of the vote.

In Minnesota, in what was regarded as one of the most expensive and nastiest affairs this fall, it appears that incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman will edge out challenger and comedian Al Franken. Late in the election cycle, Coleman was embroiled in a controversy over himself and his wife having received improper gifts and payments from a wealthy donor.

The most embattled Democratic incumbent, Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, held off her challenger, Republican John Kennedy.

In the House of Representatives, the Democrats look likely to pick up 20 seats, bringing them about a 70-seat advantage, according to the Politico website.

While the Democrats failed to achieve their lofty goal to gain about 30 seats in the House, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi declared that “It’s the night we have been waiting for. This will be a wave upon a wave.”

Republican Chris Shays lost his bid for reelection to Democrat Jim Simes, taking away the last GOP House seat in New England.

His exit from Congress, along with Sununu’s, represents the downfall of moderate Republicans who had at times thrived by being independent-minded in largely mixed moderate Democratic and Republican areas.

But some liberal issues did take a hit, such as with the passage of several ballot initiatives that effectively ban gay marriage in Florida and Arizona.

A stratospherically expensive battle over such a ban in California – Proposition Eight – remains too close to call as of Wednesday morning, with votes for the ban narrowly edging out the opposition. If the lead holds, thousands of same-sex couples who have been married since California courts legalised their unions will have their marital status thrown into limbo.

In another ballot initiative considered an attack on gay families, Arkansas voted to ban adoption for unmarried couples. Since gay marriage is not legal in Arkansas, the initiative essentially means that gay couples cannot adopt in the state.

While gay rights activists saw setbacks, however, another set of progressives, women’s rights activists, did score two victories.

An attempt to use a ballot initiative in South Dakota to force a Supreme Court showdown over the Roe versus Wade precedent that legalised abortion in most cases failed.

The initiative would have taken dramatic steps to effectively ban abortions, though not going as far as a similar initiative in 2006 which did not make exceptions in cases of rape and incest.

The new bill, said opponents, also did not go far enough with its exceptions. Rape victims would need to identify their attackers and confirm paternity with DNA tests in order to obtain an abortion.

In Colorado, a measure that would have defined human life as beginning when the egg is fertilised, and thus laid the groundwork for an eventual abortion ban, was also defeated.

Two states, Massachusetts and Michigan, relaxed their marijuana laws in measures that addressed the growing liberalisation of drug laws and which have been viewed by activists as a repudiation of the so-called war on drugs.

Massachusetts passed the nation’s first marijuana decriminalisation measure while Michigan became the 13th state to pass a rule allowing the use of medical marijuana.

According to a release from the Marijuana Policy Project, Obama has said he will stop federal raids against medical marijuana providers and caregivers.

By a ballot initiative, Washington became the second state, along with its neighbour to the south, Oregon, to allow doctor-assisted suicides for terminally ill patients.

In San Francisco, California, a measure to decriminalise prostitution was defeated.

 
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