Views > March 17, 2006

GOP Trashed in Special Elections

By Hans Johnson

A drumbeat of corruption, deficits and war dead has begun to haunt Republican candidates as they hit the campaign trail. The macabre cadence is playing more widely than just federal races: Since November, it has become the background music in a series of state special elections.

Democrats are winning, often overwhelmingly, in districts and states that have backed Republicans in recent elections. The results show that state-level progressive candidates are better poised than at any time in the past 14 years to benefit from a defection of moderate conservatives and a slight left turn in the electorate.

In central Texas, nurse and former school board member Donna Howard beat Ben Bentzin in a Feb. 14 special state House race in suburban Travis County, outside Austin. Howard’s win signaled that Democrats can stand tough even in Republican-tilted districts imposed by “the DeLay-mander,” a revamping of federal districts now under scrutiny by the Supreme Court.

“People were receptive to the idea that someone was willing to talk about going into the legislature and actually making hard decisions, rather than following in lockstep with the failed leadership,” Howard told the Austin American-Statesman. Like other Democratic triumphs of late, her 58 to 42 percent victory came in a district that broke for the GOP in ‘04.

The same day in Kentucky, in a race that drew media attention and doorknockers from three states, Perry Clark, a veteran and Boy Scout volunteer, took the 37th state Senate seat. He won 54 to 46 percent in a district that snakes inland from the Ohio River on the southwest side of Louisville. It too was carried by the GOP in 2004.

Labor households were galvanized by recent Republican efforts to undermine Kentucky unions through a “right-to-work” law. In addition, Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher is under investigation for filling state jobs with cronies in violation of rules on merit-based hiring. Both dynamics boosted Clark.

Next door in Virginia, Mark Herring took a state Senate seat in the D.C. suburbs that Democrats hadn’t even contested in 2002. The landslide 62 to 38 percent win on Jan. 31 sent shockwaves through the GOP, already reeling from a blow just three weeks earlier. In Jerry Fallwell’s stomping ground of Lynchburg, Shannon Valentine rode to a 58 to 42 win for a seat that also hadn’t drawn a Democratic challenger last time around.

Missouri, a battleground that rates as the best bellwether of presidential elections, has seen Democratic victories in conservative districts as well. In February, down in Ashcroft Country, the state’s southwest corner, Charles Dake claimed a state House seat, 56 to 44 percent, that his party hadn’t even sought in 2004.

Jane Bogetto got the ball rolling Nov. 8, beating the widow of the previous seat-holder in a district west of St. Louis. Bogetto, an adoptive mother of three who spotlighted her family in all her campaign mailings, faced smears trying to link her to late-term abortion and same-sex marriage. She prevailed 58 to 42 percent in a district the GOP had held for a generation.

“The hate stuff fired up the people working in my campaign, and it backfired. It just really turned off a lot of moderate Republicans,” Bogetto told the Webster-Kirkwood Times.

“I never thought I’d see a Democrat elected to the legislature,” local political analyst John Pohlmann told the Times. “A lot of suburbs all over the country are starting to trend to the Democrats, mainly because of women voters.”

That trend held in Minnesota. On Nov. 22, Terri Bonoff won a race for the 43rd state Senate seat in the collar communities west of Minneapolis. Once again, her 54 to 46 percent win was a reversal from the previous result, in 2002, favoring the GOP. Then, on Dec. 27, Tarryl Clark took a Senate seat in working-class St. Cloud, another turnaround from the ‘02 outcome. In both races, a novel coalition of environmental, housing, low-income, pro-choice and gay-rights activists used their lists and shoe leather to get out local voters. Their win not only put a hitch in right-wing plans to ram an anti-same-sex-marriage amendment through the legislature and onto the ‘06 ballot; it also produced a blueprint for an even better collaborative program this fall, when a U.S. Senate seat, U.S. House seats, the governor’s mansion and the state House are all up for grabs.

Finally, over the past three months in New Hampshire, where GOP activists still face charges for jamming opponents’ phones during the ‘02 campaign, candidates John Robinson, Penn Brown and Jim Aguiar won special elections for state House seats in districts that were swept by the GOP just a year earlier.

Between general elections in 1992 and 1994, then-Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour ballyhooed Republican wins in disparate states during the period and proclaimed a grassroots mandate against the Clinton administration. The trend foreshadowed huge GOP gains in November ‘94. Now this pattern is playing out again—for the other side.

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• Reader Comments

  243,000 jobs in February 2006 and 2.1 million jobs created over the past 12 months - and almost 5 million since August 2003. The unemployment rate is 4.7 percent - lower than the average of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

  State Unemployment Rates Fall. As of January, the unemployment rate is now at a record low in five states: Nevada, Florida, West Virginia, Montana, and Idaho. Over the past year, unemployment rates have decreased in 46 states.

  Incomes Increase. Real disposable incomes have risen 2.2 percent over the past 12 months. Since January 2001, real after-tax income per person has risen 8.2 percent. Real household net worth is at an all-time high of $51.1 trillion, and the median net worth of American households rose 1.5 percent between 2001 and 2004.

  Manufacturing Expansion Continues. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM), a private research group, reports manufacturing activity grew for the 33rd consecutive month in February. The ISM’s manufacturing index reading of 56.7 indicates continued sector expansion. According to the Federal Reserve, over the past 12 months total industrial production rose 3.1 percent and manufacturing industrial production rose 4.5 percent, including 0.7 percent in January.
  Inflation Remains Contained. The core Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose just 0.2 percent in January. Core CPI has increased a moderate 2.1 percent over the past 12 months, indicating core inflation remains contained.

  Retail Sales Rise. Nominal retail sales rose 2.3 percent in January and are up 8.8 percent over the past 12 months. In January, real consumer spending posted a solid 0.4 percent gain and increased 3.6 percent over the past year.

  Service Sector Grows. The ISM reports non-manufacturing business activity grew for the 35th consecutive month in February. The ISM’s business activity index reading of 60.1 indicates continued sector growth.

  Productivity Growth Continues. During the past four quarters, productivity has increased 2.5 percent. Productivity has grown at a 3.4 percent annual rate since the business-cycle peak in the first quarter of 2001.

  Housing Starts Reach Highest Level In Over 30 Years. Housing starts in January totaled a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.276 million units - up 14.5 percent from December and the highest level in over 30 years.

  GDP Growth Is Strong. Real GDP increased 3.5 percent in 2005, and growth was revised up from an original estimate of 1.1 percent to a 1.6 percent annual rate for the fourth quarter of 2005. The economy has been growing for 17 straight quarters, and the composite index of leading indicators increased 1.1 percent in January, indicating continued economic growth. In the last five years, the President’s tax relief has helped spur growth by keeping $880 billion in the hands of the American people. The Administration has reduced the growth of non-security discretionary spending every year since 2001, and at the President’s request, Congress cut this spending last year.

  Posted by tina1 on Mar 17, 2006 at 10:59 PM

  I wonder why liberals are not talking about the economy?  Oh ya, because the economy is on fire. 

  Speaking of the economy… it’s kind of strange that the main-stream LIBERAL MEDIA doesn’t cover/report about how strong our economy has been. 

  FOR EXAMPLE:  Wall Street closed on Friday in an ebullient mood as the Dow Jones industrial average finished a strong week hitting a fresh five-year high.  The Dow climbed to 11,279.65, its highest level since reaching 11,301.74 on May 21, 2001.  Broader stock indicators also gained ground. The S&P;500 index rose 1,307.25 — its highest close since it reached 1,309.38 on May 22, 2001

  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,188221,00.html

  FOXNews.com reported this “GREAT NEWS” about economy on it’s front web page.

  CNN.com DID NOT have this story on it’s front page.  They buried it. 

  ABCNews.com DID NOT have this story on it’s front page ... and then look how ABCNews.com reported this story: 

  Dow Closes Up 26, Nasdaq Finishes Up 7

  http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=1739206&business=true

  THIS IS WHY YOU WILL SEE SOME GAINS IN YOUR POLLS.  But come election time, the truth will come out and the GOP will dominate again.

  Talk to me after the midterms ... and lets see how happy you libs are. 

  lol… lmao…

  Posted by tina1 on Mar 17, 2006 at 11:47 PM

  The liberal media only reports the negative numbers on Bush. 

  Why is it that Fox News Channel are the only news channel that reports these numbers. 

  52 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” support “using wiretaps to listen to telephone calls between suspected terrorists in other countries and American citizens in the United States without getting a court order to do so,” compared to 46 percent or “strongly” or “somewhat” oppose.

  75 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” support “promoting the USA Patriot Act, which gives the government greater ability to spy on and prosecute suspected terrorists.”

  56 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” support “making the tax cuts of the past few years permanent.”

  Posted by tina1 on Mar 18, 2006 at 12:14 AM

  TINA1: You are an idiot and unable to see the obvious.

  Statistics can be used all sorts of ways, and you’re cherry picking to make statistics fit your own particular view of reality fit.

  Sometimes “statistical facts” can be disproven using logic and reason and avoiding #’s. IF things were as rosey as you say, then Bush and the Repugs would be enjoying phenomenal #s, and be cruising to a landslide midterm election.

  They are not. The opposite is taking shape. The great job numbers are proven false indicators when you ask people about job security and job quality, disappearing benefits and the downward trend of jobs from skilled and professional to retail and basic services.

  The WAR has been an absolute failure. There is no excusing that trillion $ fiasco.

  The Unemployment #s are artificially low thanks to a series of rules pushed through by repugnicans to not count certain unemployed and count the military (which were never counted before) to pump up the #s.

  Have fun in your number fantasy land. I enjoy seeing yet another particularly stupid and inane repug. who believes that all the repugs have to do is lie lie lie and winning will follow

  The only thing that got the Repugs where they are was 9/11 and the mass hysteria Bush and his team used to work the nation’s nerves and blindly follow their idiocy.

  You can only lie so long. You can only use statistics to mislead so long. No matter how you lie, you cannot convince forever the millions of Americans that things are as rosey as your taylored stats paint things to be.

  After 6 years of Repug stupidity, Americans are waking up to the deteriorating health network in this country courtesy of Repug. neglect.  Americans who happen to have healthcare that is. Millions don’t. Americans are realizing how they Bush and the Repugs. committed this nation to spend a trillion $ in a pointless war, while claiming there was NO money to solve the real every day issues of Americans. Problems formerly hard to find are more visible; childhood malnutrition, environmental distruction to obtain a few weeks worth of oil, or coal; and fighting to worship as they want or don’t want to all over again.

  The list of things the Repugs have neglected is much longer than these few items. They got away with it thanks to three things <b> a right-wing press that parroted the Gov’t. and is afraid to challenge any official Gov’t. inforation. A well-oiled lie machine that fed the press stories to print and keep them in circulation via marketing and manipulation of 9/11 hysteria.

  Now people are realizing that the fear of terror is yet another fraud, they are looking at the rosey pictures fools like you try to prove exists. A picture that is in stark contrast with their lives and they are saying everywhere NO MORE Repugnican B**LSH*T.

  Please though I encourage you continue. Please keep blowing your horn in regards to how wonderful and successful this Repugnican ruled world is. Now that the blinders are off, I am eager to see more Americans respond appropriately as they have been recently.

  Posted by johnnyincentx on Mar 18, 2006 at 2:03 PM

  What Tina also fails to report is that Republicans in the Senate just voted to raise the debt ceiling to nearly $9 trillion.  The “good economy” is analogous to shopoholics who go on spending sprees, unwilling or unable to exercise any kind of restraint.  Republicans have reduced tax rates on the richest Americans, leading to this wonderful, exhilarating experience of never having to pay for services.  Meanwhile, our infrastructures are crumbling, and we are rapidly moving toward a split society between those who have plenty --and those who have no safety net when times turn bad.  The government can’t even pay for the war in Iraq or for the necessary safeguards to increase security against those who really DO wish us harm.

  This WILL catch up with us at some point.  Times will turn bad, probably after President Bush has left office.  At some point, the U.S. will HAVE to pay off its debts.  As it is, in 2005, we spent $352 BILLION dollars paying interest on that borrowed money.  Interest rates have to rise.  In the long run, our economy will suffer and may even implode.  All this for some short-term “stimulus” that the President wants to make permanent.

  Question for Lisa:  The NEXT time there is an economic slowdown or recession, should we cut taxes again?  How about the time after THAT?  And the one after THAT?  We don’t need taxes at all, right?  After all, we can just keep borrowing and spending and well, as every Republican will tell you, “taxes are BAD!”

  Sigh.  The GOP trumpets that it is the “party of ideas”. Riiiiiiiiiight. 

  “Taxes are too high.” And how exactly does one DETERMINE the “right” tax rate if it isn’t based on what we need to spend?

  “Cutting taxes” isn’t a policy. 

  It’s a gimmick.

  Posted by linguist on Mar 18, 2006 at 4:10 PM

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