Woke up this morning thinking “wow, the nation is heading in the right direction even though NY is totally fucked” because it looked like Democrats would hold on to the state senate.
Now it looks like Republicans will take back the NYS Senate. Thompson is only up by 258 votes and the two districts in Erie County that haven’t reported are on Grand Island. According to some blog post YNN (that Time Warner news channel) is reporting Grisanti took those two Grand Island districts by 600 votes, giving him a 350 vote lead. No way Thompson will make that up with absentee ballots.
Republicans won 60 seats in the US House of Representatives. That’s the largest gain since 1948.
What it means.
Democrats can no longer talk about being bi-partisan while simply ignoring anything the Republicans have to say.
Cap and trade is dead.
If Obama wants to accomplish anything in the next 2 years he’s going to have to reach into the Clinton playbook and realize ultra left is no longer an option. If he wants something to pass there is going to have to be something in it for both the left and the right. This has not been the case on anything since his 08 win.
Nancy Pelosi is out as speaker of the house. Republican John Boehner is likely the new speaker.
Republicans made gains in the US Senate but Democrats retained control.
What it means:
Filibuster is entirely back on the table. No more ramming through stuff that only one side wants.
Conservative district Democrats up for election in 2012 are going to have a hard time backing the president knowing what political suicide it turned out to be. Everywhere Obama campaigned (OH, PA, IL) the Democrats he was stumping for lost.
NY State Politics:
Assembly, basically unchanged. A few seats gain but Sheldon Silver retains his vice like grip on the state.
Governor’s race, Cuomo. Big surprise there.
Senate:
Republicans very likely to have a 32 seat majority. Looking more likely to be 33.
What this means:
The districts will be redrawn based on the latest census. Had the Republicans not taking back the state senate it like would have been the end of the Republican party in NY. This is one of the few states with an entirely political redistricting model, so the party in power can guarantee it remains in power by drawing it’s district lines around party strongholds. This redistricting only happens every decade.
No more 3 Democrats in a closed door room crafting the state budget. What did that get us this year, first time it’s happened in over a decade? The largest tax increase in NY history.
Prospective bill must pass both house and senate before being sent to President for his approval/veto.
Each state gets 2 reps in senate.
Each state gets # of reps in house based on population of state.
Filibuster = Majority party want to pass a bill…minority party doesn’t want it…during debate, minority party gets the “floor” and will not relinquish it until majority party crys “uncle”.
Basically the Dems held the Presidency, Senate & House so they could do anything they wanted (as long as all the Dems agreed and all voted the same, which didn’t always happen.)
Now they hold the Presidency and Senate while the GOP has the House. That means that the GOP actually has a say in what goes on other than just making a lot of noise.
