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News

Dems gain control of House after 12 years

by KELSIE HAHN
The Daily Cougar

The event Democrats have been anticipating and Republicans dreading for the past 12 years has come to pass -- the GOP is no longer the top party on the Hill as Democrats claimed control of the U.S. House of Representatives with a 23 seat gain in Tuesday's election as of press time, well over the necessary 15.

As of press time, Republicans still maintained control of the Senate, holding the Democrats at a gain of only four seats, two seats short of majority status.

"Tonight is a great victory for the American people," Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who is in line to become the first female Speaker of the House, told CNN on Tuesday.

In the days leading up to the election, CNN reported predictions that as many as 36 House seats could have been lost by the Republicans to the Democrats, well above the 15 needed for the former minority party to regain the majority.

UH political science graduate student Jonathan Fuentes said foreign policy was this year's hot-button issue. 

"All eight years that (President Bush) will be in office, we will be focused on the Iraq war, we will be focused on the way he has dealt with foreign policy," Fuentes said. "We look at the way many countries have reacted towards our policies and people are really taking note of it."

Despite the shift in power, things at the Capitol will stay much the same, political science junior Joshua Wendell said. 

"There might be a different set of people in the majority party, but it's not going to affect what all is getting done or not getting done up in Washington, D.C.," he said.

In Texas, Tom Delay's former seat was one of three tight House races with no incumbent advantage for the GOP after being abandoned by their respective Republican candidates. The other two were Bob Ney of Ohio's and Mark Foley of Florida's seats. 

Ney said in a statement on his Web site in August that he would "think of (my family) first" and not seek re-election.

Foley and DeLay resigned under pressure from their party, with Delay's resignation leaving the Texas Congressional District 22 up for grabs by the Democrats.

After a more distant race than predicted, DeLay's former seat went to Democratic candidate Nick Lampson with 54 percent of the vote as of press time. Write-in Republican candidate Shelley Sekula-Gibbs garnered 40 percent, while Libertarian Bob Smither trailed in last with less than 10 percent of the votes.

The seat was left open when DeLay resigned earlier this year in the face of indictments for embezzlement and accepting bribes. 

Even prior to final returns, Wendell said Sekula Gibbs' loss would come as no surprise.

"You can take (UH political science professor Richard Murray's) class in political marketing and learn that if your write-in candidate's name is Shelley Sekula-Gibbs you're not going to win," he said.

"It has nothing to do with her political abilities, it has nothing to do with her character, her ideas, anything," he said. "When you have a prominent Democratic politician, or any party politician like Nick Lampson running against someone that has to have their name written in the ballot that's hard to spell … just by the nature of the process Nick Lampson's gonna win." 

As of press time, Republican Henry Bonilla was still hoping to pull off a victory of a majority in Texas congressional District 23 primary election to avoid a run-off against one of his seven opponents for the seat. CNN predicted Ciro Rodriguez to clinch the nomination for the Democratic Party from among the six other candidates in a possible run-off election in December. 

Bonilla took the Republican nomination for the seat unopposed, though whether or not the vote-splitting among the six Democratic and one Libertarian candidate for the seat would block Bonilla from winning the seat outright was too close to call as of press time.

The primary election comes after the Supreme Court struck down the 2004 redistricting of Congressional District 23 in August, citing a disadvantage to Hispanic voters, The New York Times reported in October.

The final of the three predicted close races in Texas ended with an incumbent victory. 

As analysts expected, Democratic incumbent Chet Edwards successfully defended his Texas District 17 seat against Republican Van Taylor and Libertarian Guillermo Acosta, clinching Edwards for his fourth term as U.S. representative.

Republican Kay Bailey Hutchinson also maintained a strong 62 percent of voter support as of press time to retain her seat in the Senate against Democratic candidate and UH alumna Barbara Radnofsky and Libertarian Scott Lanier Jameson.

One notable exception to Democratic success nationally was an independent upset in Massachusetts in favor of Sen. Joe Lieberman, who lost the Democratic nomination in August. Lieberman was able to regain popularity by distancing himself from the War in Iraq and portraying his competitor Ned Lamont, who he called "Negative Ned" during the campaign, as a one-issue candidate CNN reported Tuesday. 

"I will believe that, if this works out and I win, it is because people wanted me to be their senator for a lot more reasons than Iraq," Lieberman told CNN prior to Tuesday's election.

-- With additional reporting by John-Michael Haines

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