Midterms
From NBC’s Domenico MontanaroDonald Rumsfeld resigned from his post as Secretary of Defense before Election Day 2006, but it was not announced by
President Bush until afterwards.
Reuters obtained a copy of Rumsfeld’s resignation letter, and it was dated Nov. 6, 2006 -- the day before the mid-term elections, which saw Democrats ride a wave of dissatisfaction with the Iraq war and Republican ethical scandals to take over the U.S. House and Senate.
VIDEO: President Bush announcing Donald Rumsfeld's resignation the day after Election Day.A stamp on the letter indicates President Bush saw the letter on Election Day.
The news “infuriated some Republicans, who,” according to Reuters, “said their party might have kept more seats in Congress and perhaps kept control of the Senate if Rumsfeld had left before the election.”
We will update when we hear comment from the White House.
**** UPDATE **** In response, the White House said: "One of the things the president wanted to avoid was the appearance of trying to make this a political decision. That was very important to him, and the American people can appreciate him not playing politics with such an important decision."
The San Antonio Express writes up Rodriguez’s upset win yesterday over Bonilla. “Andy Hernandez, a political scientist at the University of Texas at San Antonio and a former [DNC] staffer, said Rodriguez's victory was in step with last month's Democratic upheaval. ‘You have to see this as part of the national trend where Republicans lost in swing districts,’ he said. ‘This anti-Republican trend, which Hispanics had a big part in, played out here.’”
As we've written before, voters might have rejected the Republican party in last month's midterm elections, but they weren't exactly giving the Democratic party a ringing endorsement, either. Some pundits who gathered yesterday at a seminar sponsored by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, including Democratic strategist James Carville and Rep. Tom Davis (R), expressed the same sentiments as they conducted a post-mortem of the election.
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The Wall Street Journal looks at Democrats' narrow loss last week when they tried to pass a bill that would recoup royalties from oil and gas companies who drill on federal lands, and says the party continues to face the big question of "how to pay for their initiatives and address significant fiscal problems left behind by outgoing Republicans?"
The Los Angeles Times has a lot of details on Pelosi's coming-out party as the first woman Speaker of the House. "The impending inauguration kicks off the contest over who will define Nancy Pelosi: Republicans who see her as a reckless liberal, or Pelosi herself, who wants to be seen as an American Everywoman, leading her party on a steady course to the center."
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Tomorrow brings the final runoff of the 2006 cycle in a district that could change partisan hands. Recent polls suggest that former Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D) is closing in on Republican incumbent Henry Bonilla in Texas' 23rd district, but as the Jefferson race just showed, turnout is the volatile and key X factor in any special election. The
Washington Post says the close race reflects the downside of former GOP Rep. Tom DeLay's mid-decade Texas redistricting.
The US Election Assistance Commission met yesterday to conduct its post-mortem of the first elections to be held since the full implementation of the Help America Vote Act. According to a panel that testified before the commission, the midterm elections -- which many in the election reform community expected would produce a cornucopia of problems -- went more smoothly than predicted. Deborah Markowitz, Vermont Secretary of State and the president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, said that "predictions of election day chaos... were overblown." However, data on problems encountered across the country is still being collected and analyzed.
There are some issues to watch out for looking ahead to 2008. R. Doug Lewis, executive director of the Election Center, told the commission that poll workers are expected to know and do too much, which is why his group will organize a national task force to train poll workers in the future. Elizabeth Ensley, a local elections official and director of the International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers, added that states may be burdened with having to replace or repair costly election equipment for which they may not have the appropriate funds.
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Christine Jennings (D), who still isn't conceding her congressional race to Vern Buchanan (R), holds a press conference in Sarasota, FL today with hundreds of voters who say they experienced problems registering their votes.
The Saturday runoff for Democratic Rep. William Jefferson's seat in Louisiana may be the state's last December runoff for a congressional seat "thanks to a bill passed this year by the Louisiana state legislature," says The Hill. "The state is departing from its unpredictable nonpartisan open primary system in favor of more traditional closed primaries, allowing it to settle all of its congressional races on Election Day, just like the rest of the country. The change affects only federal races, not state and local ones."
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The race for Florida's 13th district has been called for Republican Vern Buchanan, who appears to have won by 369 votes, but Democrat Christine Jennings "already has filed suit in a Florida circuit court seeking a revote," and "also intends to contest the result with the House Administration Committee... by the Dec. 20 deadline," Roll Call reports. "Filing an official protest with the [committee] will automatically make the Jennings/Buchanan case one of the first indicators of just how partisan the 110th Congress will be... Republicans are concerned that the incoming Democratic House leadership might not seat anyone until the [committee] finishes its review and issues a recommendation on the matter."
USA Today looks at this Saturday's runoff for Democratic Rep. William Jefferson's seat after Jefferson only got 30% of the vote in the primary. After Katrina, "weary voters in the district must decide whether to re-elect a member of Congress after the FBI found $90,000 in marked bills in his freezer."
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In Louisiana’s run off between embattled incumbent Rep. William Jefferson (D) -- he of the $90,000 in his freezer fame -- and challenger Karen Carter (D), Jefferson is up with a TV ad declaring: "I have never taken a bribe from anyone. This is an desperate attempt by an ambitious young woman [Carter], who won't debate me on her codependent relationship with the insurance industry.”
In NORTH CAROLINA, the AP writes, Democrat Larry Kissell conceded to incumbent Rep. Robin Hayes (R) “after the initial phase of a hand recount showed the result was not likely to change.”
So by our count, Democrats now have a 232-202 advantage in the House, with only one uncalled, undecided race that could possibly change hands: the run off in TEXAS between Rep. Henry Bonilla (R) and challenger Ciro Rodriguez (D). Speaking of which, the state of Texas is asking the Justice Department to approve the December 12 date for the run off -- which is being opposed by Latino groups because “Dec. 12 is the Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico and Latin America.”
In FLORIDA, Sarasota County elections officials said they found no malfunctions in their voting machines, which has been the source of controversy in the race between Republican Vern Buchanan and Democrat Christine Jennings. Despite the tests, "there were still no clues about why a high number of voters -- more than 18,000 -- did not have votes recorded in the Buchanan-Jennings race on Election Day... But the tests were already being questioned by the Democratic contender in the race, as well as fellow Democrats in the U.S. House -- which looks more and more likely to get involved."
In NORTH CAROLINA, the recount in the race between incumbent Rep. Robin Hayes (R) and challenger Larry Kissell (D) begins today and will last until Thursday; Kissell trails by 329 votes. “A full hand recount will be ordered if the results in the sampled precincts show that that there is potential for the race's outcome to be reversed.”
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