Democrats dominate House and Senate, US election 2008

by Tina Kells | November 5, 2008 at 10:02 am

1079 views | 19 Recommendations | 8 comments

The historic win by Democrat Barack Obama in the US presidential race was just the tip of the iceberg for the Democratic party in the 2008 US election. The Democrats dominated in all political arenas; winning the Oval Office, a firm majority in the House, and gaining enough seats to grab a slight majority in the Senate.

The Democrats held on to a majority in the Senate, but not enough of one to break a filibuster, with 54 seats won and 2 seats still too close to call. However, the Democrats did gain a comfortable margin that will allow them to form effective coalitions with liberal-leaning Republicans. While the gains in the Senate were the least spectacular of the evening's events, they were filled with historic footnotes.

Republican Senatorial Committee chairman, John Ensign, compared the hurdles faced by Republican candidates in the 2008 election to the Watergate era singling out scandal riddled Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens in his comments.

“Obviously we expected this sort of night,” Mr. Ensign said. “The political winds, I’ve said for some time, were blowing in our face.”

“We caught a very, very tough cycle,” he added, “tougher than even Watergate was.”

Ted Stevens, the Alaskan Senatorial incumbent and convicted felon, held on to a slim majority to win back his seat, but his battle is not yet over as many in Washington have called for his immediate expulsion. If Stevens does face expulsion hearings it will be the first time since Watergate that this has happened. Since 1789, only 15 Senators have been expelled from office; expulsion requires the support of 67 Senators.

Other historic notes in the 2008 Senatorial race include the election in New Hampshire of former Governor Jeanne Shaheen. Shaheen, the Democratic candidate in New Hampshire was seen as the underdog since that state has been a Republican stronghold for nearly three decades. Shaheen broke that stranglehold to turn the state blue and become the first female Senator ever elected from the state.

In North Carolina a virtually unknown Democratic Senator, Kay Hagan, rose to defeat the very famous Republican incumbent, Elizabeth Dole. Dole was the first female Senator elected from North Carolina, and is the wife of one-time Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole. She has a long history with the Republican party, having served under Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and both George Bush Sr. and Jr.

Democrats expanded their slim control of the Senate to a solid majority on Tuesday when they picked up at least five seats, ousting Republican incumbents in New Hampshire and North Carolina and capturing seats in Virginia, Colorado and New Mexico left vacant by Republican retirements.

Kay Hagan greeting voters Tuesday in the Research Triad area of North Carolina. She unseated Senator Elizabeth Dole.

Al Franken, the former comedian, was in a close race for the United States Senate in Minnesota.

But the Democrats appeared to fall several seats short of the 60-vote majority that would enable them to push bills to a vote by overcoming filibusters. And with Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, clinging to a narrow lead over his Democratic challenger despite a recent criminal conviction, it appeared that Mr. Stevens might face a bitter choice: resign his seat even if he wins, or face expulsion.

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jbradhuss

at 13:03 on November 5th, 2008

US Senator Elizabeth Dole addresses a crowd of 100+ Republicans from Gaston County, North Carolina on 2008 Election concerns. This was a part of her "ElizaBUS Tour."

jbradhuss has contributed a photo to this story.

joey.benton

at 04:28 on November 6th, 2008

Elizabeth Dole addresses those gathers at the Old Depot in Salisbury, NC after first elected to the senate.

joey.benton has contributed a photo to this story.

AlvarezGalloso

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 04:38 on November 6th, 2008

Tina Kells, I like this story. It's good stuff.

eluxzen

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 08:31 on November 6th, 2008

Tina Kells, I like this story. woohoo, go Democrats, go!

Although the Democratic party is in Dutch views still an extreme right winged party (serious, not even our most extreme right winged party dares to stand against same-sex mariages, the death penalty etc.... ), it is far more favorable from Dutch (and European) perspective than the Republicans.... coz those people are extreme right winged zealots in our vision! Though on personal level many of them appear to be nice folks, so no offence!

politisite

at 11:23 on November 8th, 2008

Republicans are not extreme right. When one looks at politics throughout the world, Democrats and Republicans are actually close. Both are right leaning with Republicans slightly right of Democrats. Sure there are extremes in every party... but your assumptions that the GOP is Far right is from the media perspective which leans very left of center. From their view, the GOP is far right. From the middle, the view is quite a bit different.

Look at Hillary Clinton compared to Spector or Rockefeller... They are right on top of one another. Now if you take Obama compared to DeMint, well there is a bit of a gap. Neither extreme is far left or right.

Jordan Yerman

at 11:48 on November 8th, 2008

This is true- if the Democrats moved to the UK, they'd be Tories.

Fairbanks

at 11:40 on November 8th, 2008

those people are

This might be an example of universalization and totalization, both of which are viewed with extreme distaste by some writers and some politicians who have noticed universalization and totalization. No one speaks generally for an entire group since there are no entire groups anymore and perhaps never were.

politisite

at 11:27 on November 8th, 2008

Good write up. My view from the right is that Republican's abused their positions. Many forgot the Goldwater Fiscal conservatism. The GOP deserved a loss. Sometimes a candidate does not win, the other candidate loses. In this case, Obama was very popular and McCain could not overcome his parties folly.