U.S. 2006 Midterm Elections

▪ 2007

      In a stinging rebuke to Pres. George W. Bush and his party, voters swung decisively to Democrats in 2006 U.S. congressional and state elections. The Republicans' 12-year control of Congress was abruptly ended, and recent GOP gains in state legislatures and governorships were reversed in a nationwide Democratic surge. On the federal level, Democrats captured 31 new seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, for a prospective 233–202 advantage in the new Congress. More surprisingly, Democrats effectively gained 6 U.S. Senate seats, turning a 55–45 deficit into narrow 51–49 control. That meant that a divided government (one party controlling the executive branch, the other the legislative branch), mandated by U.S. voters for 26 of the past 38 years, would return again in 2007.

      A series of serious ethical controversies bedeviled the Republican majority during the year, allowing Democrats to decry “a culture of corruption” in Washington. Investigations of officials who dealt with convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff led indirectly to the resignation of Tom DeLay, a senior Texas congressman, and a taint on several other Republicans. GOP problems ran even deeper, however. In 1994, when Republicans captured the U.S. House after 40 years in the minority, they relied on a “Contract with America” that promised 10 specific reforms. One was a curb on earmarking, spending on projects pushed by an individual congressman, usually at the behest of a lobbyist who reciprocated with campaign contributions. By 2006, however, many of the reforms had been eroded, and earmarking was back with a vengeance. A second-rank GOP legislator was imprisoned in March for trading earmarks for bribes, and in September a six-term representative, Bob Ney of Ohio, admitted to criminal acts associated with bribes and gift giving. Later that month Mark Foley, another senior Republican, was forced to resign after publication of sexually suggestive e-mails he had written to former House pages. Although some Democrats were accused of ethical improprieties as well, the year's multiple ethics charges only intensified voter demand for change.

      Sen. George Allen of Virginia, a potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate, used the term macaca (the definition of which was variously a monkey, a town in South Africa, or a racial slur against African immigrants) when referring to a Democratic campaign worker of Indian descent who was recording campaign-rally remarks for Internet use. Allen urged followers to “give a welcome to macaca, here.” Although he later apologized, Allen lost a close reelection battle.

      Public dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq topped 65% by year's end, negating President Bush's efforts to assist individual Republican candidates in their reelection bids and spilling into Democratic politics as well. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, his party's 2000 vice presidential nominee and Bush's strongest Democratic ally in the war on terrorism, lost his August primary to an antiwar opponent. He won reelection as an independent in November only with substantial Republican support.

 In contrast to 1994, the out-of-power party did not publish a clear, detailed alternate blueprint for the future, in part because of internal Democratic divisions over key issues. Democrats did promise early action on several relatively uncontroversial bills, including ones to raise the minimum wage and void recent tax concessions to unpopular oil companies. Democrats mainly concentrated on criticizing numerous Republican missteps in Iraq and in their management of Congress. The strategy worked, but the direction that the Democrats would take was anything but clear.

David C. Beckwith

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