Election Returns Are A Mixed Bag
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2004 – The deep hues of red and blue that fell across the nation’s electoral map late Tuesday and into Wednesday morning will mean vastly different things for members of Maine’s congressional delegation when they return for the 109 th Congress in January.
While the exact balance of power in the Senate depends on the last votes to be counted in races nationwide, Maine’s senators will have increasing power in the Senate, both because of their party’s control and their ability to relate to Democrats and Republicans alike.
It appeared late Wednesday that the GOP would pick up four seats in the Senate, for a total of 55 seats. This will mean that both Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins will have more Republicans on the committees they chair. Snowe also said bills she and other Republicans sponsor will stand a better chance in the new Senate.
Though resistance to President Bush’s agenda has weakened in both houses, Snowe said the President will still depend on bipartisan cooperation.
Unlike in the House, at least 60 votes are needed to end debate on a bill in the Senate. “You need 60 votes to get anything done,” Snowe said. “He will still have to build some bridges.”
As one expert put it, the need for moderate Republicans who can “cross the aisle” and work with Democrats will be critical, especially now that some of the more moderate Democrats – like John Breaux of Louisiana and Fritz Hollings of South Carolina — have been replaced with more conservative Republicans.
“I don’t think those five are going to be easy to find,” said Sandy Maisel, who is the director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College, referring to the difference between the number of Republicans and the number needed to end debate.
Sen. Snowe chairs the Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship and Sen. Collins chairs the Governmental Affairs Committee. Neither were up for reelection.
Collins, who said that she was happy with the election results but had hoped Bush might carry Maine’s Second District, stressed the need for compromise in both houses of Congress. She pointed to the intelligence reform bill, which she sponsored and which the Senate passed 96-2, as an example of bipartisan success.
“It can be done,” she said, and added that she, like Snowe, would continue to bridge the two parties in the Senate. “It’s a role I relish.”
Democrats in the House fell farther into minority status, as the Republicans picked up as many as six seats for a total of 233 out of 435.
Rep. Thomas H. Allen, D-Maine, said he was pleased with his win over Republican Charlie Summers in the First District but disappointed with the way things went nationally. “The Northeast – from Maryland to Maine – is out of step with the national Republican Party right now.”
Rep. Michael H. Michaud, D-Maine, also easily won reelection in the Second District.
Allen went on to say that it would be just as hard – if not more so – getting Democratic-friendly bills on environmental and health care issues addressed in the new Congress.
“The House isn’t going to be any more bipartisan” after an election in which they gained additional seats, Allen said. “That’s for sure.”
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