U.S. Mid-term Elections 2010: Not a Tsunami But the Tide Is Turning

While Democrats retained control of the Senate, they lost six seats to Republicans who needed to gain 10 seats for control. The House will look very different, however, in the next term from the Speaker of the House on down as Republicans gained a majority. In addition, the governorships in 10 states also shifted from Democrat to Republican. Far from gloating over their mid-term victory, Representative John Boehner (R-OH) said that this is not a time to celebrate but a time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. And for the work of pro-life, the tide is really turning.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - While watching the election returns on television, the large amount of red on the United States map told a different story than the one two years ago. In 2010 I wrote that the political landscape had dramatically shifted. Today it shifted again.

Representative John Boehner (R-OH) who retained his seat and will most likely become the next Speaker of the House set the tone for the Republican tidal wave early in the evening.

"We have got a lot of work to do and this is not a time for celebration," Boehner said in his acceptance speech. "This is a time to roll up our sleeves. time to build a better future for our children and grandchildren." 

Boehner went on to say that this election is about a repudiation of Washington.  The American people are looking for something new out of Washington. Assuring his hearers that the new agenda included spending cuts and smaller government, he declared that the new victorious candidates were not the winners, the American people were.

"When small businesses are hiring again, we can start celebrating."

Republican gains in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, the South and the Midwest were particularly significant both in Congress as well as for state executives.

Republicans took over the governorship of several states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Kansas, Tennessee, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Senator Sam Brownback, who ran unsuccessfully for Republican presidential nomination in 2008 primaries, won in a strong showing as the new governor of Kansas. His strong pro-life stand will certainly change the prevailing winds in his home state which has become a major battle ground concerning the rights of the unborn and infirmed.

For those who stand for life, the issue is not necessarily partisan. Former Democratic governor Joe Manchin of West Virginia is strongly pro-life and will add his voice to others who believe that "a person is a person no matter how small" as the newly elected senator from that state.

Some long-term legislators, including Ike Skelton of Missouri, will be heading home. Others, such as Barnie Frank (D-MA) and Charles Rangel (D-NY) have held on for another term.

With the West Coast results are now conclusive, projections confirm that Democrats in California and Nevada will be able to retain a number of their present seats, including Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer in the Senate along with Nancy Pelosi in the House.

The new governor of California is Democratic candidate Jerry Brown, who defeated former eBay CEO Meg Whitman in a hard-fought campaign.

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Republicans gained leadership in 10 states while Democrats retained their governorships in New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, Arkansas and Colorado.

The balance of power in the House will now shift to the Republicans while the margins in the Senate will be much narrower than before. After the mid-term elections, many of those who aligned strongly with White House initiatives over the past two years will be cleaning out their offices.

One of those who will be going home is retiring Representative Bart Stupak from Michigan's 1st District. A strong pro-life legislator, Stupak was seen as buckling under partisan pressure when healthcare reforms were considered by the House and silencing his voice for the unborn. He did not run again. His replacement is a pro-life physician Dan Benishek a Republican who defeated his pro-life Democratic opponent.

President Obama's former Illinois senate seat also turned red on Tuesday with Republican Mark Kirk defeating Alexi Giannoulias. Other significant elections included Marco Rubio's strong win in Florida over Charlie Christ, running as an Independent and Kendrick Meek along with Pat Toomey's victory over Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania and Rand Paul in Kentucky. Democratic candidate Sestak had defeated Republican-turned-Democratic Senator Arlin Specter in the primaries then lost to Toomey for the seat.

The Senate has a large number of new pro-life voices coming to Washington. These include Rand Paul (R-KY), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Joe Boozman (R-AR), Dan Coats (R-IN), John Hoeven (R-ND), Rob Portman (R-OH), Jerry Moran (R-KS) and former Governor Joe Manchin (D-WV).

Pro-life senators David Vitter (R-LA) and Richard Burr (R-NC) both kept their seats.

In the House, eight Democrats who identified themselves as pro-life lost their bids for re-election due to their position on healthcare. This includes Kathy Dahlkemper, Chris Carney, Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania; Alan Mollohan of West Virginia; Baron Hill of Indiana; and Charlie Wilson of Ohio.

Even with those losses, the House will still have a completely different constituency when it comes to issues of the unborn and infirm as most of the Republican's 240 seats will be filled with pro-life legislators.

Coverage of the 2010 Mid-term elections cannot end without addressing the importance of the Tea Party. Vilified by Democrats and even mainstream media, those who identify themselves as a part of this movement played a significant role in the election, despite the fact that a few of their key candidates were unsuccessful.

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Tea Party favorites Christine O'Donnell lost to Chris Coons for the Delaware senate seat and Sharon Angle fought hard but couldn't overtake Harry Reid in Nevada.

Exit polls showed that the economy and jobs were the most important issues for voters, who felt that Washington was not effective in addressing those issues.

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Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online and the CEO/Associate Publisher for the Northern Virginia Local Edition of Catholic Online (http://virginia.catholic.org). He is a former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church who laid aside that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

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