Elections & Political Parties

With Democrats winning control of the House by a decisive margin in yesterday's election, and the Senate still up for grabs, the political landscape is dramatically altered. New America experts are available to offer concise commentary about the impact of yesterday's results -- and what they mean for the country in the coming months and years. 

Experts who are able to comment on the meta-narrative about the future relationship of bipartisan politics in this country and the reasons behind the Democratic sweep are:

(WASHINGTON, DC) – Problems and technical glitches are emerging across the country as tens of millions of voters go to the polls using new voting equipment for the first time. Part of this is expected in any election the size and scope of that conducted in the United States. But the fact is the United States continues to use a decentralized hodgepodge for election administration -- over 3000 counties and 9000 townships, scattered across the country -- with very few national standards or uniformity to guide election officials.

The big winner this Election Day will be ... the Reagan Democrats. One can say this with confidence because the Reagan Democrats are decisive in just about every election -- even if they tend to lose out in the postelection.

All across California, millions of voters didn’t wait for election day. They didn’t hear any of the last-minute appeals from the candidates. They made up their minds weeks ago and filled out their absentee ballots in the comfort of their living rooms or at kitchen counters.

Many political scientists and commentators hail the convenience of absentee voting as a milestone in democracy, with the potential to boost voter turnout. The absentee ballot allows voters to vote "at their own pace," said Mark Baldassare, director of research at the Public Policy Institute of California.

Imagine that the transportation bond measure on Tuesday’s ballot, Proposition 1B, signifies a return to the golden era of California, when the state’s future was on the drawing board.

This is the dream the measure’s backers, including legislators, local officials and the coterie around Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, would like us to believe. In its endorsement of the proposition, one newspaper crowed that "for the first time in nearly 50 years, California is on the brink of building for the future."

Note: Post-election versions of this op-ed also appeared in the Nov. 24 Providence Journal and the Nov. 28 San Jose Mercury News.

Regardless which party controls Congress after Election Day, the new leaders’ agenda should highlight policies designed to improve democracy and elections in the United States.

With less than a week to go until the 2006 elections, the campaign trail is as muddy as ever. Conservatives claim a Democrat-controlled Congress would cut and run in Iraq, raise taxes at home, and engage in partisan payback across the board. Liberals warn of Rove-ian schemes and election-day dirty tricks. And campaign ads from both sides have alleged everything from racism and corruption to womanizing and smutty writing. Yet when the votes have been counted, and a new Congress convenes in January, there's the very real chance that Washington might actually accomplish something.

Governor Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders want voters to approve more than $37 billion in bonds to shore up the state’s aging transportation system, provide more affordable housing, finance school improvements, and address flood concerns.

This Nov. 1 event, co-hosted in Sacramento by the New America Foundation and the Public Policy Institute of California, provided a provocative discussion to help California voters understand the stakes and issues involved in the bond referenda on the November 7th ballot.

A consistent political pattern has emerged over the past four decades: The left wins in the courtroom, and the Democrats then lose at the ballot box.

The New Jersey Supreme Court, ordering action on equal rights for gay couples, provides the latest incident of judicial activism. And while the ideological left cheers such legislating from the bench, ordinary Democrats, trying to win elections, become wary. Because once again, a pro-conservative, pro-Republican backlash is being set in motion.

As the major political parties fall further out of vogue with new voters in California, Republican and Democratic candidates are finding it difficult to call on the party loyal for support on Election Day.