Part 66.5: The Choice 2006
Part LXVI Continued
The Choice 2006
The midterm results unfolded, as at last, the close-cut campaign came to its close, determining control over the House, Senate and Governor's mansions from coast to coast.
Going into the home stretch predictions were varied but most pointed to the Republicans making gains, hoping to flip control of the House by taking at least 10 seats and hopefully a handful of Senate seats, maybe even the 5 necessary to flip the chamber completely, buoyed by their aggressive campaign strategy against the Presidents domestic spending initiatives.
However commentators had been wary (as they had been every election since 2000) to prematurely crown a winner, and Democrats had plenty to point to for a possible upset in their favour, including numerous Republican party scandals and the President's generous approval ratings, not to mention the beginning of coalition military action in Sudan, that some posited could serve to bolster Democrats turnout or weaken Republicans, with a final poll by Pew pointing to a generic survey showed Americans slightly favouring Democrats over Republicans.
“The American people are coming home, they're looking in their pocketbooks and understand the real choice in front of them," said Ken Melman the GOP chairman, as opposed to the Democratic party Chairman Rahm Emanuel who said that “It’s tight, but we are confident that the scare tactics won’t work … The American people know who’s keeping them save and secure”.
(Left to Right) GOP chairman Melman, a voting machine and Dem chairman Emanuel
No group seemed especially confident, as the party's heavy hitters hit camping trails to defend incumbents in some of the most watched states and Senate races.
With the ambition of taking both chambers, Republicans needed to flip at least 5 seats a lofty goal, but plausible given the number of close races with their best hopes in Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey and North Dakota, winning them would certainly be a sweep for the party. But the GOP couldn’t count its chickens without having to defend its own in close races from Democrats in Ohio, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania where the union reforms and party infighting threatened to unseat Republicans.
Slowly state by state, hopes of strong GOP gains faded, and Democrats seemed to be holding their own, even where Republicans most expected a pickup. North Dakota's Kent Conrad, Florida’s Bill Nelson, Missouri’s Jean Carnahan and Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow all saw off their tough Republican challengers despite rough last-minute polling, victories owed by pundits to strong ground organization.
Democratic Incumbents Conrad, Nelson, Carnahan and Stabenow
Closer elections were called in Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey where both parties faced hurdles. Minnesota where Democratic Senator Mark Dayton known for his erratic behaviour in Congress (earning himself the nickname 'the blunderer'), managed to survive his election against Congressman Mark Kennedy aided in part by the vote-splitting Reform party.
While Ohio and Pennsylvania Republicans Mike DeWine and Rick Santorum (both unpopular incumbent senators) were caught in hair-splitting races that ended in DeWine’s defeat to Representative Sherrod Brown and a recount that kept Santorum breathing.
The biggest surprises of the election were on the East Coast. In New Jersey incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine was engaged in a brutal election against centrist Republican Thomas Kean, which included allegations of mob ties, illegal spending and interventions both by President Edwards and Governor Chris Christie that was eventually won by the Republicans who focused heavily on taxation, a major victory that commentators believed showed the firmly Blue state might have turned purple.
(Left to Right) Democrats Mark Dayton and Sherrod Brown, Republicans Rick Santorum and Thomas Kean
The hard-to-parse results of the House were eventually unravelled, but it confirmed pundit suspicion that voters across the country had not strongly repudiated the party of the President as by the end of the night, despite gains, there remained no viable path for the Republicans to take the House majority, with little comfort in the knowledge that they had gained a half dozen seats, managing to reduce the Democrats to a minuscule 3 seat majority, the smallest majority since 1916 guaranteeing that the President would keep party control over congress albeit by a weaker and much harder to wrangle caucus. With the Republican leader Roy Blunt (himself under criticism due to lobbying scandals) put on a strange faux victory speech as the returns came in. “This was a long campaign about a lot of individual issues, and we don’t know what the final result will be, but regardless we are in this to the finish”
2006 House elections WIkibox
However, there were still shocks for the party and not all bad ones. In solidly blue Maryland conventions were upended when one of the only open Senate seats was bitterly fought between the Democratic former representative and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and the GOP state chairman Michael Steele, a race that ended in a narrow victory for Steele the first statewide victory for the party since George H W Bush in 1988, and providing a serious moment of comfort for Republicans. The election quickly became controversial as Democrats alleged that black voters were discriminated against at the polls, confused by misprinted ballots and deceived in a widescale disinformation campaign.
Elsewhere, two strange races played out in Rhode Island and Vermont that witnessed two 3-horse races. One in Vermont to succeed the Independent Senator Jim Jeffords between Democratic 5-term Governor Howard Dean, Republican businessman Richard Tarrant and Vermont's 9-term Representative and self-described ‘socialist’ Bernie Sanders. Polling was incredibly tight between the three especially as Tarrant spent millions of his own money to attack while Dean and Sanders vigorously campaigned in the state's most expensive election in history, which saw Sanders eke out Dean by only a few hundred votes.
In Rhode Island, the Yankee Republican Lincoln Chafee was forced off the GOP ticket by Steve Laffey the mayor of Cranston, who saw Chafee as a Republican In Name Only and was widely disgusted by party activists after he attempted to primary President Bush in 2004. Breaking party ranks Chafee ran as an Independent candidate under the 'Keep Chafee Party' and given his strong approval rating managed to win over 40% of the vote and keep his seat. “I didn’t leave the Republican Party, the party left me,” he said welcoming the returns.
With no other surprises or twists in store, despite flipping two Democratic seats in Maryland and New Jersey, Chafee’s rejection of the party meant that the Republicans had overall failed to gain any Senate seats.
(Left to Right) Michael Steele ML(R), Lincoln Chafee RI (I) Bernie Sanders VT(I)
2006 Senate elections WIkibox
Then there were gubernatorial elections right across the country, although the night brought considerably fewer (though still some upsets) as the GOP overall swung three states in their favour taking overall state control 27-23. Including taking and holding more southern states, like hardcore (some would call extreme) Christian candidates Ralph Reed and Roy Moore winning in Georgia and Alabama. And other notable races included small-town mayor Sarah Palin usurping longtime incumbent Frank Murkowski in Alaska. the GOP managed to hold on to power in New York where billionaire Michael Bloomberg succeeded longtime governor George Pataki meaning Republicans won a 4th term in the historically Democratic state and put up tough fights to incumbents across the country including deep blue Illinois and California where scandal-prone Rod ‘Blago’ Blagojevich and media prone Arianna Huffington survived spirited challenges, in their states.
(Top Left to Right), Governors Reed, Moore and Palin
(Bottom Left to Right), Governors Bloomberg, Blagojevich and Huffington
2006 Gubernatorial elections WIkibox
The polling had largely been defied, or at least straddled the edge of the margin of error, as by the skin of their teeth Democrats had held on to both houses of Congress despite losing seats in a strong performance not seen by a first-term President in a long time. Data analysts gave differing opinions citing the growing economy, military action in Africa, the President's overall approval, and ongoing Republican party scandals all played a factor in the upset, combined with an opposition message that despite East Coast upsets failed to connect with most voters
The President welcomed the outcome, despite losing seats, his face and words made it seem like a great victory. “Looking at all the results” he said, “They paint a picture of overall approval, to all the naysayers, The American people care about poverty, about their communities, their children and their futures, and I hope everyone can understand that now”.
Meanwhile, the GOP quietly fumed over their failure to put the President in the corner. And in the corridors of Congress blamed their leadership for a ‘malaise’ “There were factors obviously, they are telling me over the phone” said conservative commentator and former congressman Joe Scarborough “Jack Abramoff, Darfur, Terri Schiavo, that hurt Republicans, but what really hurt them was the lack of message, in 94 they had the ‘Contract with America’, but in this election, it was the President’s plan vs the Republicans and they came up with nothing … they’ve really got to get their act together or come 2008 they’ll get another nasty shock.”.
The President speaks following midterm results
The Washington Post, November 8th, 2006
… Somewhere in Chad
It was a clear, blue day, 20 kilometres west of the Sudanese border, right where they were ready to punch through. There was no set date, but the bombs were dropping round the clock, and final manoeuvres were being made. ‘The final lubrication before we fuck 'em’ was how Sandman put it. 60,000 coalition troops ready to pour into this god-forsaken country. The scale of the task ahead was unfathomable, mountains of munitions, oil drums and crates lying in the open, like some great machine. A machine that destroyed buildings, cars, trucks and people, and looking around it was a behemoth of a machine.
Temperatures plunged in the night, and it was the cold where the bitching started.
“You got a fleece I can borrow, you know till the wars over” said Hardy.
“It hasn’t even fucking started yet you pussy” said Anders
Artillery struck in the distance, continued explosions supposedly on the Sudanese positions, the crackle of the short-range radios picking up the BBC came on, with more updates on coalition military flights, the elections back home and something about Britney Spears. Looking out in the pitch blackness from your hole you felt underwater, everything was so distant.
After nearly an hour of chilly rest, we were ordered to get into our vehicles, load our rifles and prepare to move out. So this was what war felt like then.
The Choice 2006
The midterm results unfolded, as at last, the close-cut campaign came to its close, determining control over the House, Senate and Governor's mansions from coast to coast.
Going into the home stretch predictions were varied but most pointed to the Republicans making gains, hoping to flip control of the House by taking at least 10 seats and hopefully a handful of Senate seats, maybe even the 5 necessary to flip the chamber completely, buoyed by their aggressive campaign strategy against the Presidents domestic spending initiatives.
However commentators had been wary (as they had been every election since 2000) to prematurely crown a winner, and Democrats had plenty to point to for a possible upset in their favour, including numerous Republican party scandals and the President's generous approval ratings, not to mention the beginning of coalition military action in Sudan, that some posited could serve to bolster Democrats turnout or weaken Republicans, with a final poll by Pew pointing to a generic survey showed Americans slightly favouring Democrats over Republicans.
“The American people are coming home, they're looking in their pocketbooks and understand the real choice in front of them," said Ken Melman the GOP chairman, as opposed to the Democratic party Chairman Rahm Emanuel who said that “It’s tight, but we are confident that the scare tactics won’t work … The American people know who’s keeping them save and secure”.
(Left to Right) GOP chairman Melman, a voting machine and Dem chairman Emanuel
No group seemed especially confident, as the party's heavy hitters hit camping trails to defend incumbents in some of the most watched states and Senate races.
With the ambition of taking both chambers, Republicans needed to flip at least 5 seats a lofty goal, but plausible given the number of close races with their best hopes in Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey and North Dakota, winning them would certainly be a sweep for the party. But the GOP couldn’t count its chickens without having to defend its own in close races from Democrats in Ohio, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania where the union reforms and party infighting threatened to unseat Republicans.
Slowly state by state, hopes of strong GOP gains faded, and Democrats seemed to be holding their own, even where Republicans most expected a pickup. North Dakota's Kent Conrad, Florida’s Bill Nelson, Missouri’s Jean Carnahan and Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow all saw off their tough Republican challengers despite rough last-minute polling, victories owed by pundits to strong ground organization.
Democratic Incumbents Conrad, Nelson, Carnahan and Stabenow
Closer elections were called in Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey where both parties faced hurdles. Minnesota where Democratic Senator Mark Dayton known for his erratic behaviour in Congress (earning himself the nickname 'the blunderer'), managed to survive his election against Congressman Mark Kennedy aided in part by the vote-splitting Reform party.
While Ohio and Pennsylvania Republicans Mike DeWine and Rick Santorum (both unpopular incumbent senators) were caught in hair-splitting races that ended in DeWine’s defeat to Representative Sherrod Brown and a recount that kept Santorum breathing.
The biggest surprises of the election were on the East Coast. In New Jersey incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine was engaged in a brutal election against centrist Republican Thomas Kean, which included allegations of mob ties, illegal spending and interventions both by President Edwards and Governor Chris Christie that was eventually won by the Republicans who focused heavily on taxation, a major victory that commentators believed showed the firmly Blue state might have turned purple.
(Left to Right) Democrats Mark Dayton and Sherrod Brown, Republicans Rick Santorum and Thomas Kean
The hard-to-parse results of the House were eventually unravelled, but it confirmed pundit suspicion that voters across the country had not strongly repudiated the party of the President as by the end of the night, despite gains, there remained no viable path for the Republicans to take the House majority, with little comfort in the knowledge that they had gained a half dozen seats, managing to reduce the Democrats to a minuscule 3 seat majority, the smallest majority since 1916 guaranteeing that the President would keep party control over congress albeit by a weaker and much harder to wrangle caucus. With the Republican leader Roy Blunt (himself under criticism due to lobbying scandals) put on a strange faux victory speech as the returns came in. “This was a long campaign about a lot of individual issues, and we don’t know what the final result will be, but regardless we are in this to the finish”
2006 House elections WIkibox
However, there were still shocks for the party and not all bad ones. In solidly blue Maryland conventions were upended when one of the only open Senate seats was bitterly fought between the Democratic former representative and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and the GOP state chairman Michael Steele, a race that ended in a narrow victory for Steele the first statewide victory for the party since George H W Bush in 1988, and providing a serious moment of comfort for Republicans. The election quickly became controversial as Democrats alleged that black voters were discriminated against at the polls, confused by misprinted ballots and deceived in a widescale disinformation campaign.
Elsewhere, two strange races played out in Rhode Island and Vermont that witnessed two 3-horse races. One in Vermont to succeed the Independent Senator Jim Jeffords between Democratic 5-term Governor Howard Dean, Republican businessman Richard Tarrant and Vermont's 9-term Representative and self-described ‘socialist’ Bernie Sanders. Polling was incredibly tight between the three especially as Tarrant spent millions of his own money to attack while Dean and Sanders vigorously campaigned in the state's most expensive election in history, which saw Sanders eke out Dean by only a few hundred votes.
In Rhode Island, the Yankee Republican Lincoln Chafee was forced off the GOP ticket by Steve Laffey the mayor of Cranston, who saw Chafee as a Republican In Name Only and was widely disgusted by party activists after he attempted to primary President Bush in 2004. Breaking party ranks Chafee ran as an Independent candidate under the 'Keep Chafee Party' and given his strong approval rating managed to win over 40% of the vote and keep his seat. “I didn’t leave the Republican Party, the party left me,” he said welcoming the returns.
With no other surprises or twists in store, despite flipping two Democratic seats in Maryland and New Jersey, Chafee’s rejection of the party meant that the Republicans had overall failed to gain any Senate seats.
(Left to Right) Michael Steele ML(R), Lincoln Chafee RI (I) Bernie Sanders VT(I)
2006 Senate elections WIkibox
(Top Left to Right), Governors Reed, Moore and Palin
(Bottom Left to Right), Governors Bloomberg, Blagojevich and Huffington
2006 Gubernatorial elections WIkibox
The polling had largely been defied, or at least straddled the edge of the margin of error, as by the skin of their teeth Democrats had held on to both houses of Congress despite losing seats in a strong performance not seen by a first-term President in a long time. Data analysts gave differing opinions citing the growing economy, military action in Africa, the President's overall approval, and ongoing Republican party scandals all played a factor in the upset, combined with an opposition message that despite East Coast upsets failed to connect with most voters
The President welcomed the outcome, despite losing seats, his face and words made it seem like a great victory. “Looking at all the results” he said, “They paint a picture of overall approval, to all the naysayers, The American people care about poverty, about their communities, their children and their futures, and I hope everyone can understand that now”.
Meanwhile, the GOP quietly fumed over their failure to put the President in the corner. And in the corridors of Congress blamed their leadership for a ‘malaise’ “There were factors obviously, they are telling me over the phone” said conservative commentator and former congressman Joe Scarborough “Jack Abramoff, Darfur, Terri Schiavo, that hurt Republicans, but what really hurt them was the lack of message, in 94 they had the ‘Contract with America’, but in this election, it was the President’s plan vs the Republicans and they came up with nothing … they’ve really got to get their act together or come 2008 they’ll get another nasty shock.”.
The President speaks following midterm results
The Washington Post, November 8th, 2006
… Somewhere in Chad
It was a clear, blue day, 20 kilometres west of the Sudanese border, right where they were ready to punch through. There was no set date, but the bombs were dropping round the clock, and final manoeuvres were being made. ‘The final lubrication before we fuck 'em’ was how Sandman put it. 60,000 coalition troops ready to pour into this god-forsaken country. The scale of the task ahead was unfathomable, mountains of munitions, oil drums and crates lying in the open, like some great machine. A machine that destroyed buildings, cars, trucks and people, and looking around it was a behemoth of a machine.
Temperatures plunged in the night, and it was the cold where the bitching started.
“You got a fleece I can borrow, you know till the wars over” said Hardy.
“It hasn’t even fucking started yet you pussy” said Anders
Artillery struck in the distance, continued explosions supposedly on the Sudanese positions, the crackle of the short-range radios picking up the BBC came on, with more updates on coalition military flights, the elections back home and something about Britney Spears. Looking out in the pitch blackness from your hole you felt underwater, everything was so distant.
After nearly an hour of chilly rest, we were ordered to get into our vehicles, load our rifles and prepare to move out. So this was what war felt like then.
