Election Day losses in Virginia and New Jersey have congressional Democrats focused like never before on jobs — their own.And denial is just a river in Egypt.
While the White House and party leaders are urging calm, Democratic incumbents from red states and Republican-leaning districts are anything but; Tuesday's statehouse defeats have left them acutely aware that their votes on health care reform and other major Obama initiatives could be career-enders in 2010 or beyond.
“I should be nervous,” said Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Huntsville, Ala.
Griffith said the Democratic rank and file is “very, very sensitive” to the fact that issues being pushed by party leaders “have the potential to cost some of our front-line members their seats.”
House Democrats, forced to take a tough vote on a controversial cap-and-trade climate change bill in June, may have to vote as earlier as this weekend on the even more controversial health care bill. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team have struggled to get moderates on board for that vote, and Tuesday's results won't make the task any easier.
“People who had weak knees before are going to have weaker knees now,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), a relatively liberal congressman who seemed safe in 2010 but now thinks a Republican challenger might feel emboldened by Tuesday’s election results.
Democratic Sen. Jim Webb — who watched Republican Bob McDonnell and other statewide candidates erase years of Democratic gains in his home state of Virginia — said Tuesday’s results show that Republicans are “energized from what happened last year” but also that “people up here on our side need to get their message straighter, too.”
Party leaders put their best face on Tuesday’s results.
Pelosi, pointing to Democratic House victories in special elections in New York and California, said: “We won last night.”
Haley Barbour, governor of Mississippi and former head of the RNC, remarked on Tuesday night that after big gains in 1993 something like 70% of the Republicans who became the freshman class after winning in 1994 made their decisions to run for Congress. Barbour predicts that GOP recruiting efforts for next year's mid-term elections will be greatly enhanced as a result of Tuesday's election, and good candidates will come forward even in districts previously thought safe for Democrats.
Conservatives have a right to feel emboldened after Tuesday, and I hope they all look to Bob McDonnell's campaign in Virginia as a guide on how to win. He emphasized the pocketbook issues and right now that's resonating with a lot of people. Frankly, at this point we don't need to obsess about abortion or gay marriage of any of the social conservative issues. People want to hear how we'll reduce the size of government, cut taxes, and spur economic growth. That's what mattered to all those independents and moderates who voted for Obama in 2008 and switched to Republicans on Tuesday.
Push the pocketbook issues and our candidates will become incumbents and they'll be in a position to protect the social issues. Push the social issues, like Doug Hoffman did in NY-23, and you may not get a chance to hold office.
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2 comments:
Mrs. Pelosi thinks they won because for her New York and California ARE the United States. None of the rest matters very much.
I don't agree with you about social issues. I think people are sick of Dems on social issues. If you're normal, you can only ask yourself "what next"? Gay marriage --- and after that?
They are "progressives," recall. There's always new levels of hipness to attain.
No politician is safe if they vote for Obama's Health Care Plan. We the Public will do everything in our power to use a big broom in congress and clean house at the next elections.
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