November 6, 2013

In state and local elections around the United States yesterday, a Republican was re-elected governor of New Jersey and Democrats took the governor’s mansion in Virginia and city hall in New York City.

Moderate conservative Republican Chris Christie was re-elected governor of New Jersey in a landslide. He bested his Democratic challenger, State Senator Barbara Buono, collecting 60.5 percent of the vote, compared with her 38 percent. Christie’s handling of the Hurricane Sandy disaster in 2012 earned him widespread public support. Political analysts noted that the size of Christie’s victory places him at the forefront of possible Republican candidates for president in 2016.

New York City elected a Democrat, Bill de Blasio, as mayor for the first time in 20 years. He won with a resounding 73 percent of the vote, compared with 24 percent for his Republican rival, Joe Lhota. De Blasio, a liberal, promised to address what he referred to as “a tale of two cities,” the growing divide between rich and poor in New York.

In the Virginia governor’s race, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a key ally of Bill and Hillary Clinton, narrowly beat his Republican challenger, socially conservative Ken Cuccinelli, in this pivotal presidential swing state. McAuliffe took a smaller-than-expected 48 percent of the vote, compared with Cuccinelli’s 45.5 percent. Cuccinelli had the support of the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party.

The beleaguered city of Detroit elected its first white mayor, Mike Duggan, since the 1970′s. In the 2010 United States Census, Detroit had a population of 713,777 residents, down from a peak of 1,849,568, in 1950. The state of Michigan took over the city in March 2013, and it subsequently filed for bankruptcy, the only large American city to ever declare itself insolvent.

In an Alabama congressional primary runoff, moderate Republican Bradley Byrne topped his socially conservative opponent, Dean Young, 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent. Analysts characterized the race as a hard-fought victory for the business wing of the highly splintered GOP over the Tea Party wing.

Colorado voters rejected a sweeping school-financing reform measure. The state’s governor, John W. Hickenlooper, had strongly endorsed the measure, promising that it would deliver smaller class sizes, full-day kindergarten, and smarter education spending.

Additional World Book article:

• Tempest in a Tea Party (a special report)

October 17, 2013

Some 800,000 federal employees went back to work this morning after a 16-day shutdown of the United States government. The political stand-off between the Republican majority in the House of Representatives and Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama ended just minutes before a midnight deadline after which the government’s ability to borrow money by selling bonds would have expired.

A bill brokered by Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D., Nevada) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Kentucky) finances the operations of government until Jan. 15, 2014, and raises the nation’s debt limit through the middle of February. The Senate passed the measure last night by an 81-to-18 vote. The House followed suit, passing the bill by a vote of 285-to-144. Eighty-seven House Republicans broke ranks to join a united Democratic caucus in approving the measure.

An attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act by hardline conservatives in the House of Representatives collapsed on October 16, when both houses of Congress passed legislation financing the federal government and raising the debt limit.  (© Brooks Kraft, Corbis)

Passage of the measure ended a stalemate led by hardline conservatives, generally members of the House Tea Party caucus. The caucus pushed their Republican leaders to use the double threat of a shutdown and a default on the national debt to defund the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as “Obamacare.”

Political experts generally agree that pushing the federal government to the edge of a fiscal meltdown for political gain was a major misstep by Congressional Republicans. A Washington Post-ABC public opinion poll taken earlier this week found that 74 percent of Americans disapproved of the way Republicans in Congress were handling the negotiations. A Pew poll taken yesterday found that public approval of the Tea Party was in free fall. Only 20 percent of polled Republicans now support the Tea Party movement. The Wall Street credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s announced yesterday that the shutdown had drained at least $24 billion out of the already fragile U.S. economy.  Conservative radio pundit Rush Limbaugh described the Republican shutdown and subsequent surrender as “One of the greatest political disasters I’ve ever seen.”

Additional World Book articles:

• National budget
• Tempest in a Tea Party (a special report)

September 30, 2013
A shutdown of the U.S. federal government looms, as Democratic and Republican lawmakers remain deadlocked over stopgap legislation to fund government operations. Without passage of a finance bill by both houses of Congress, the government will be forced to close all nonessential federal services at midnight on October 1.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner (above), leads a Republican Party intent upon tying the U.S. budget bill to delaying or denying funding to the Affordable Healthcare Act, passed in 2010. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (above left) has vowed that the Senate will not vote for the House's version of the finance bill (United States House of Representatives).

(U.S. Senate)

The key point of contention in the political stalemate is the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s landmark health care legislation. A number of Republicans in the House of Representatives—in particular the Tea Party caucus—demand that the law be repealed or stripped of funding as a condition for keeping the government running. The House passed its latest version of a stopgap funding measure on September 28. The bill included a year-long delay in the implementation of what has come to be called “Obamacare.” It also included a measure that would permanently eliminate a medical-device tax that was designed to partially fund the new health care system. Legal experts point out that eliminating the tax would essentially cripple the act. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has vowed that his Democrat-led chamber will reject the House bill, and in fact, the Senate failed to go into session on September 29 despite the political crisis.

A government shutdown would place more than 700,000 federal employees on unpaid leave, with no guarantee of receiving back pay once the deadlock is over; Social Security, federal pension, and veterans’ benefit checks would be delayed; Medicare and Medicaid payments would be disrupted; and many government facilities, including immigration services  and passport and visa offices, would be shut down; the national parks and Smithsonian museums would also close.

President Obama emphasized today that the simple solution to the standoff is for House Republicans to pass the budget that was passed by the Senate on September 27. Of course, the Senate legislation does not gut the Affordable Care Act. Political experts note that the Senate bill, if brought to the House floor by Speaker John Boehner, would almost certainly pass, largely with Democratic votes. However, they suggest that if Boehner were to bring the Senate bill to a vote in defiance of the Tea Party caucus his action would likely cost him his position as speaker of the House.

Major portions of the Affordable Care Act, which a Democrat-controlled Congress passed in 2010, are due to go into effect tomorrow. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the act was constitutional in 2012.

Additional World Book articles:

• Congress of the United States 2010 (a Back in Time article)
• Health Care Reform–What’s in it for You? (a special report)
• Medicaid in Distress (a special report)
• Tempest in a Tea Party (a special report)

May 9, 2012

In a landslide primary vote, Republican United States Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana lost his bid for a seventh term to state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who was backed by Tea Party activists and other highly conservative groups. Lugar, who had maintained a solidly conservative record since first being elected to the Senate in 1976, was highly regarded for his knowledge of foreign policy and international affairs.

Lugar proved vulnerable to Mourdock’s charges that he was not conservative enough on cutting federal spending and on immigration and had compromised with Democrats, particularly President Barack Obama. Mourdock had been particularly critical of Lugar’s vote for the federal rescue of the auto industry, which has plants in Indiana. Lugar, who has a home near Washington, D.C., suffered as well from an extended debate about whether he was still an official resident of Indiana. Political experts noted that Lugar had also failed to recognize the seriousness of Mourdock’s challenge and to forcefully counter his opponent’s attacks.

Richard G. Lugar of Indiana. (U.S. Senate)

After the results of the primary were announced, Lugar released a statement that was highly critical of the country’s polarized political climate, especially in Congress. It said, in part, “I also knew from the races in 2010 that I was a likely target of Club for Growth, FreedomWorks and other Super Pacs dedicated to defeating at least one Republican as a purification exercise to enhance their influence over other Republican legislators.” Lugar also accused Mourdock of promising a “rigid opposition to the actions and proposals of the other party. This is not conducive to problem solving and governance.” In addition, Lugar praised bipartisanship (working with political opponents) and predicted that, “unless [Mourdock] modifies his approach, he will achieve little as a legislator.  Worse, he will help delay solutions that are totally beyond the capacity of partisan majorities to achieve.”

Additional World Book articles:

• Republican Party 2010 (Back in Time article)
• Tempest in a Tea Party (a special report)

April 24, 2012

Utah Republicans denied U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch an outright nomination for re-election by a few dozen votes at a convention with nearly 4,000 delegates in attendance on April 21 in Sandy, Utah. He will face former state Senator Dan Liljenquist, a Tea Party favorite, in the primary election in June. The primary challenge is Hatch’s first in many years. He is Utah’s longest-serving senator, having been in the Senate for six terms.

Orrin Hatch (U.S. Senate)

Richard G. Lugar (U.S. Senate)

FreedomWorks, part of the Tea Party movement, spent more than $700,000 through a super PAC to defeat Hatch, who it claimed is insufficiently conservative. The Tea Party movement solidified its presence as a force with Utah’s Republican Party in 2010 when it helped orchestrate the defeat of three-term Senator Bob Bennett, who Tea Party activists claimed was too cooperative with Democrats.

Tea Party activists are also trying to unseat another long-time incumbent Republican–Richard Lugar of Indiana, who has also served six six-year terms. Considered an expert on foreign policy and international affairs, Lugar is accused of paying insufficient attention to his Indiana constituents.

Additional World Book articles:

• Republican Party 2010 (Back in Time article)
• Tempest in a Tea Party (a special report)