WASHINGTON (BP)–Republicans gained a majority in the Senate and expanded their advantage in the House of Representatives in the Nov. 5 election to set the stage for potential pro-life and other conservative advances at the federal level.
The GOP surprisingly gained at least two seats in the Senate and at least three in the House to give pro-life and pro-family advocates hope that proposals they have promoted in recent years might finally become law. The more conservative House has approved legislation in the last 18 months that has gotten nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate, including a comprehensive ban on human cloning and a partial-birth abortion prohibition. President Bush supports both bills.
The election results also provided supporters of conservative judges with optimism that a Republican Senate will approve Bush’s nominees who have been bottled up by the Democratic leadership.
By noon Nov. 6, the election had produced a breakdown of 51 Republicans, 46 Democrats and one independent in the Senate, according to CNN’s website. CNN still had not called the race in South Dakota for incumbent Sen. Tim Johnson, a Democrat, even though he led Rep. John Thune by about 500 votes with 100 percent of the precincts reporting.
Louisiana’s unorthodox election had yet to produce a winner. Democratic incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu failed to gain a majority, meaning she will face a run-off election in December.
In the House, the GOP held a 226-204 margin, with four races still undecided, according to CNN. There is one independent in the House.
The voting proved a win especially for Bush, who campaigned throughout the country for Republican candidates in order to have a congressional majority to back his proposals. The congressional results marked only the second time a first-term president’s party gained seats in a mid-term election, according to The Washington Post. In 1934, the Democrats made gains in President Franklin Roosevelt’s first term.
Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public-policy entity, called Bush a “conviction politician” who “was willing to risk his historically high job approval ratings by going to the country to appeal for allies in the struggle to implement his policy agenda.”
The election’s greatest mark historically may be its impact on the judiciary, said Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
“The scores of highly qualified Bush judicial nominees who have been waiting in political limbo as a result of Tom Daschle’s and Patrick Leahy’s obstructionist tactics will now get a hearing before the full Senate,” Land said. “I expect that an overwhelming majority of these nominees will be confirmed within a short time.
“President Bush will now have what he should have had since January 2001 — a right to a full Senate hearing for judicial nominees who reflect his judicial philosophy,” Land said. “The Daschle-Leahy-Edwards reign of judicial terror in the Senate is over, and seldom will justice have been better served.
“Given the role the federal judiciary plays, desired or not, in modern society, the impact of the election, in terms of beginning to remake the federal judiciary in George W. Bush’s pro-life, pro-family, limited-government philosophy, may well be revolutionary,” Land said.
Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota is the majority leader, and Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont is chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Sen. John Edwards is a member of that committee. The committee has rejected two Bush nominees to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals this year and refused to permit a floor vote for them. The panel also has failed to hold votes on some nominees who were submitted as much as 18 months ago.
Ken Connor, president of Family Research Council, called the election a “significant victory for our pro-family issues. Pro-family and pro-life forces in the House and Senate were strengthened, and President Bush emerged from the evening as a potent political power.”
Connor warned, however, “there will still be plenty of heavy lifting to do in the Senate, where Democrats can be expected to exploit the rules to block pro-family legislation.”
It also remains to be seen whether Republican senators will stay together to pass some of the more controversial proposals.
Some of the biggest wins for Republicans came in Georgia, Minnesota and Missouri. Rep. Saxby Chambliss defeated incumbent Max Cleland in Georgia, while Norm Coleman surprised former Vice President Walter Mondale in Minnesota. Mondale replaced the late Sen. Paul Wellstone on the ticket after the Democratic senator, his wife and daughter died in a plane crash less than two weeks before the election.
In Missouri, pro-life challenger Jim Talent edged Sen. Jean Carnahan, a Southern Baptist. Since it was a special election, Talent will be sworn in as soon as the results are certified. If it occurs in time, Talent’s takeover will give the Republicans a majority in the Senate during a lame-duck session before the end of the year.
Carnahan had served nearly two years after being appointed to the seat following the 2000 election. Her husband, former Gov. Mel Carnahan, died with their son in a plane crash about three weeks prior to the election but won posthumously.
Democrats, however, also dethroned an incumbent. Arkansas Attorney General Mark Pryor defeated Republican Sen. Tim Hutchinson, one of the leading social issues conservatives in the Senate. Hutchinson clearly was hurt by his divorce from his wife of nearly three decades and his marriage to a former staff member.
The Republicans lost some governorships but will maintain a majority. With five races still undecided Nov. 6, according to CNN, the GOP had 26 governors and the Democrats 19.
Southern Baptist Mike Huckabee, a Republican, staved off a challenge from state Treasurer Jimmie Lou Fisher to gain re-election as Arkansas’ governor. Huckabee led Fisher, 53-47, percent, with 97 percent of the precincts reporting, according to CNN.
Pro-life and pro-family advocates lost at the statehouse level as well, however. Former Republican Congressman Steve Largent lost in Oklahoma after holding a big lead early in the race. Three-term Congressman Bob Riley, a Republican and Southern Baptist, apparently lost to incumbent Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman by barely 3,000 votes.
The election marked by far the most costly political advertising ever on television. According to the Campaign Media Analysis Group, $900 million was spent on TV advertising from Jan. 1 to Nov. 1 this year, far beyond the $771 million spent in 2000, a presidential election year, The Wall Street Journal reported.
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Dwayne Hastings contributed to this article.
