Nov. 5, 2014
Mid-term Election a Nightmare for Democrats
Major comeback predicted in 2016
By Hazel Trice Edney
Despite get out to vote efforts by civil rights groups, Democrats badly lost the Nov. 4 election. PHOTO: Afro American Newspaper
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The worst election nightmare of African-American civil and voting rights leaders has happened. Democrats lost their 55-45 majority control of the U. S. Senate on Tuesday, to the Republican Party, which in the past has failed the NAACP legislative report card nearly 100 percent of the time.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus immediately piled on, issuing a statement that all but guarantees two years of blocking and tackling any agenda set forth by President Obama.
"The American people have put their trust in the Republican Party, sending a GOP majority to the U.S. Senate. I want to congratulate all our candidates tonight," said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. "Our party's principles and message resonated with voters across the country. This was a rejection of President Obama's failed polices and Harry Reid's dysfunctional Senate."
Though a few races were still too close to call at deadline, early reports from the Washington Post Wednesday were that the GOP had taken control of seats in Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia, giving Republicans seven additional senators when they only needed six to win control for the first time since 2007.
On the other hand, political scientists predict the Republican leadership of both Houses of Congress will be shortlived.
"Come 2016, the Republicans are going to have their butts handed to them," said David Bositis, former senior researcher for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
Bositis said the Republican sweep was not about America's disenchantment with Obama. Rather, he said, it was really about the fact that key states up for Senate re-election were anti-Obama states in the first place. "The terrain right now, favors the Republicans," he said. "The places where there [were] contested Senate seats are almost exclusively in states that Obama lost."
Bositis, once the Joint Center's leading researcher on Black voter turnout, also described a 2016 situation in which Hilary Clinton will create excitement as the first woman Democratic nominee, rejuvenating the Democratic base, which is predominately Black. Clinton has not said whether she will run, but she remains the Democrats' most popular prospective candidate.
Meanwhile, civil rights leaders had set up Election Protection hotlines and poll watchers across the country with hopes to overcome any lost votes because of new voting laws that could disparately affect African-Americans. The 866-OUR-VOTE hotline, staffed by more than 2,000 legal and grassroots volunteers, had received "more than 18,000 calls, a nearly 40 percent increase from 13,000 calls received in 2010," said a statement issued from the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law shortly after 8 pm Tuesday.
"That’s a discouraging, but not surprising, increase because today marked the first national Election Day in 50 years where voters went to the polls without some of the important protections provided by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The VRA’s critical Section 5 provision was gutted by the Supreme Court in the regrettable 2013 Shelby v. Holder decision," the statement said.
Leadership in the House and Senate is all but set. Republican majority leader Mitch McConnel (R-Ken.), who won a ranchorous race against fiesty contender Alison Grimes is expected to become Senate majority leader. Rep. John Boehner will likely continue as speaker of the House.
In other key races and balloting around the nation:
- In Washington, DC, African-American Muriel E. Bowser won the mayoral race against challengers David Catania and Carol Schwartz. Her loss would have meant DC getting a White mayor for the first time in history.
- In Maryland, Republican businessman Larry Hogan defeated Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown in heavily Democratic Maryland in their contest for governor. Brown would have been only the third African-American elected governor of a state.
- Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu and Bill Cassidy will face a runoff in Louisiana Dec. 6 since neither candidate received 50 percent of the vote.
- In Oregon and Washington, D.C. voters passed laws that would legalize use and growth of marijuana, a move that some civil rights leaders argue could stop racially disparate arrests of Blacks on harsh drug laws. At a late October press conference, the State of the Black World - 21st Century held a press conference quoting the ACLU as saying that DC's "black residents are eight times more likely than non-blacks to be arrested for marijuana possession. It also says that between 2010 and 2013 more than 90 percent of all marijuana arrests in DC were of African-Americans. While DC’s marijuana arrest rates are twice the national black rate, by comparison, the white arrest rate in the District is below the national rate."
- Voters in four states passed referendums to raise the minimum wage, an issue for which President Obama has long fought. They are Arkansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Alaska.
President Obama was scheduled to make a statement and hold a press conference Wednesday afternoon. He was expected to extend an olive branch and promise to find common ground on which to work with Republicans the best he can. However, he may be forced to escalate his use of executive orders to get around Republican bottleneck on some issues.
The statement from GOP Chairman Priebus is clear that Republicans see themselves with the upper hand.
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"Republicans have been given the opportunity to lead the country in a better direction and the Republican House and Senate are ready to listen to the American people. We hope President Obama will too. It's time to get to work on creating jobs, expanding American energy development, pursuing real healthcare reform, reducing spending, reining in the federal government, and keeping America safe." |