THE BATTLE FOR CONGRESS
Comment The Battle for Congress WiihdltrieiciciisontrieraoeiDrtrieFtesid?nc^trieviialcDntEstsiDr thecortroloftheHouseatnltheSeraehavegone underre-ported. In die few remaining days before die...
...Tauzin wants to hand the seat over to his son, Billy the Third, who is regional affairs director of Telecom...
...Burr didn't help himself when he bragged that he was taking the gloves off and that it was time for "skin to rip and blood to flow...
...A poll in late September put Salazar up 52-40...
...In die few remaining days before die election, and on election night, here are some of the races you might want to keep an eye on...
...It would be a huge step forward for the entire world if Tom DeLay could be retired from his leadership position by a Democratic majority in the House," says Steve Cobble...
...Louisiana The race in the Third Congressional District is another one that Frank points to, noting that a longtime Republican wheeler-dealer, Billy Tauzin Jr., is retiring...
...Should Kerry win, he would need the majority in at least one chamber to get anything accomplished legislatively...
...To win the seat outright, one of the candidates must receive more than 50 percent of the vote...
...Thune and his campaign have preyed on Daschle's comment in 2003 expressing sadness that Bush had "failed so miserably at diplomacy that we're now forced to war...
...Flummer acknowledges that Coburn did save her life when she was bleeding from an ectopic pregnancy in 1990...
...Louisiana This race is to replace Democratic Senator John Breaux, and it pits Republican Congressman David Vitter against two Democrats, State Treasurer John Kennedy and Congressman Chris John...
...North Carolina Erskine Bowles, the nerdy, flinty former chief of staff for Bill Clinton, appears to be running ahead of five-term Congressman Richard Burr for John Edwards's seat...
...The Republicans have put up a kooky rightwing physician and former Congressman named Tom Coburn to take on Congressman Brad Carson...
...Daschle's opponent, former Representative John Thune, got out the branding iron and all but called Daschle a traitor...
...The odds are the Republican majority will expand rather than contract," says Sabato, who calls the chances ofthe Democrats taking over "a near-impossible feat...
...Martinez Alan Keyes ls exPected to boost the Latino vote not only for himself but for Bush...
...A statewide poll on September 26 showed Daschle with a 50-45 percent lead...
...The leading Democrat in this open race is Charlie Melancon, who has large corporate credentials of his own...
...On the Republican side, eleven are solidly Republican, three are tossups, and Illinois is a gift (Barack Obama will vanquish Alan Keyes...
...And if, God forbid, Bush should win the election, it would be very nice to have a Democratic Senate majority to have some check over the legislative process...
...Renzi has a reputation as an arch-conservative...
...Democrats may benefit from the bad blood in the Louisiana Republican Party over the nepotism charge...
...Babbitt, former mayor of Flagstaff, has been trailing in the polls...
...Not everyone sees it that way...
...Currently, Republicans hold a 51-48 advantage, with one independent, Jim Jeffords of Vermont...
...And thirteen-term Democrat Martin Frost, who was in the Twenty-fourth District, moved to the Thirty-second and is in a fight for his political life against Representative Pete Sessions...
...Amazingly, Bush appointed him to be co-chair of the President's AIDS council, even though Coburn derides condom use and claimed at one point that "the gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power...
...The outcomes in the House and Senate could be nearly as momentous as the result in the Fresidential race...
...Now the lock may be picked...
...The result may be a defeat for Democratic Congressman Nick Lampson in the Second Congressional District...
...The Democrats have fielded a strong candidate in Ken Salazar, who was the state's leading vote-getter in his two successful runs for attorney general...
...We have outma-neuvered, outrecruited Republicans...
...Otherwise, there will be a runoff...
...Here are a few of them: Arizona House freshman Republican Rick Renzi faces offagainst Paul Babbitt, the brother of Bruce, who was a former governor of this state and Secretary of the Interior in Clinton's cabinet...
...But Corzine said, "Louisiana has never elected a Republican Senator, and this isn't the year they will...
...He's running only on his daddy's name...
...This is the most expensive House race in the country, with almost $6 million raised in total by September 20...
...The chairman of the state Republican Farty wrote a fundraising letter saying that Daschle had "brought shame to the honor of his office, concern to our men and women in uniform, and comfort to America's enemies...
...Florida As long as Bob Graham held this seat, the Democrats had a lock on it...
...Oklahoma When Republican Senator Don Nickles retired, Democrats had a glimmer of hope here...
...John faces Greg Walch-er, who was the former director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources...
...Otherwise, he would be left to wield the veto pen on all the backward bills that land on his desk...
...Tom Coburn sterilized me without my consent...
...The more this election is seen as a referendum on Republican misrule the better the chances that the citizens will vote out the Republicans," says Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future...
...in Georgia is a goner...
...Thune is also attacking Daschle for opposing a constitutional amendment banning flag desecration...
...Mel Martinez, Bush's former head of Housing and Urban Development, is running against former Florida Education Commissioner and former State Senator Betty Castor...
...I would rather jump from a bridge than back the younger Tauzin," said Collette Vizier, who resigned as deputy chair of the Republican Party State Central Committee...
...According to the National Journal, "In 2003, Representative Renzi voted more conservative on social policy issues than 95 percent of the Representatives...
...Coburn denies the charge, saying Flummer had requested that her tubes be tied...
...A former patient, Angela Plummer, has come forward alleging that "Dr...
...Melancon is president ofthe American Sugar Cane Association...
...Castor was up 51-45 in a CNN/ USA Today poll in mid-September...
...There is a clear path to the majority," said New Jersey Senator Jon Corzine, head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee...
...Says Steve Cobble, who was an adviser to Dennis Kucinich's Presidential campaign...
...But Republican money is pouring in...
...And because of the hanky-panky that Tom DeLay engaged in to redistrict Texas for Republicans, they are likely to pick up four or five more seats in that state alone...
...Now she's facing a tough race against former Governor Tony Knowles...
...That's a tough district," says Barney Frank...
...For a contrast, he's facing Peter Coors, scion of the legendary rightwing beer family, who is tapping the family keg for this one...
...They believe this election affords them an opportunity to consolidate what they seized in 2000 and 2002...
...Geoff Davis, who lost to Lucas last time, is running against Democrat Nick Clooney, a local newscaster who happens to be the father of the actor George Clooney...
...On the Democratic side, according to The Cook Political Report, twelve are solidly in the Democratic camp, five or six are tossups, and one (Zell Miller's seat, no loss there...
...We're going to gain ground," says Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts...
...Kentucky In the Fourth Congressional District, Democrat Ken Lucas gave up his seat...
...If the undecideds break our way, we can take the House back...
...That's right: He appointed Lisa Murkowski to serve out the two years remaining in his term...
...Plus, the presence of Edwards on the Presidential ticket may help Bowles across the finish line...
...A Latino, Salazar may benefit from higher than usual minority turnout in the state...
...He filled it with his daughter...
...Thune himself said, "His words embolden the enemy...
...Republicans are trying to take down Minority Leader Tom Daschle...
...Edwards may not be able to save Kerry but he's likely to save Bowles...
...The last thing this country needs is for Bush to have a mandate for reactionary policies, and the means to carry them out...
...You can't get right of the guy...
...Here are some ofthe most contested battles: Alaska When Republican Senator Frank Murkowski became governor of Alaska in 2002, it was his job to fill his old seat...
...The ambition of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney is to have conservatives control political power for a generation...
...In the House, things look even tougher for Democrats.The Republicans currentlyhold 228 seats to the Democrats' 206...
...Coburn is kind of a cult hero in the conservative portion of our country, not just in Oklahoma," said Kirk Humphreys, who lost to him in the primary...
...According to the Center for Responsive Folitics, more money is being spent here than anywhere else except New York, with $19 million flowing into the race...
...South Dakota This may be the hottest of them all...
...Texas Tom DeLay's fingerprints are all over the redistricted maps here...
...Coburn is in trouble not only for his outrageous statements, however...
...There are thirty-four Senate races this fall, nineteen where Democrats currently hold seats and fifteen where the Republicans are in power...
...Corzine said Knowles will win because "Alaska is a democracy, not a dynasty...
...John is the older brother of Ken, who is running for Senate, so on election night members of the Salazar family can chew the fingernails off of their left hands for John and their right hands for Ken...
...Colorado When Democrat-turned-Republican Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell gave his surprise announcement in March that he would not seek reelection, Colorado all of a sudden came into play...
...Only a fool would predict Knowles to win at this point," cautioned Larry J. Saba-to, who runs the University of Virginia's Center for Folitics...
...Without that check, another four years of George Bush's messianic militarism, corporate giveaways, and civil liberties infringements would be almost too much for this country to bear...
...And while Daschle was a huge disappointment on the USA Patriot Act and other issues, the campaign the Republicans are running against him is disgraceful...
...This one has turned into a soap opera...
...They still do...
...The Republicans play for keeps...
...First, the Senate...
...But there just aren't that many races that are competitive...
...Colorado When Republican Congressman Scott McInnis retired from the Third Congressional District, the Democrats chose State Representative John Salazar to vie for the seat...
...He is a Democrat in a heavily Republican state, and if Senator Murkowski carries a big burden on her shoulders (Dad), Knowles carries an even greater burden (John Kerry...
...Some observers are concerned that the two Democrats will cancel each other out and that Vitter could squeak past the 50 percent mark...
...was not the king, and therefore Billy Tauzin III is not the heir apparent...
...He scored 100 percent from the National Right to Life Committee and the Christian Coalition, and 0 percent from Planned Parenthood and the Leadership Council on Civil Rights...
...Coburn, who says he favors "the death penalty for abortionists," calls this contest "a battle of good versus evil...
...The Third Congressional District is not a kingdom, Billy Tauzin Jr...
...This is shaping up as one of the most important Senate contests in the nation—not just because of the Senate seat, but because of a kind of 'reverse coattail' that could affect the Presidential outcome in Florida and therefore the country," says Sabato on his website, www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball...
Vol. 68 • November 2004 • No. 11
