Sara and others have called Tuesdays elections a tsunami as the wave of Tea Party Republicans got swept in. What does it all mean?
Nationwide Democrats are asking “Was it Worth it?“:
Was it all worthwhile? Was the 111th Congress’s flurry of legislative activity worth the backlash it helped create? Were the health care bill and the stimulus worth handing John Boehner the gavel in the House of the Representatives? Did it make sense to push and push and then keep on pushing, even after the polls and town halls and special-election outcomes made it clear the voters were going to push back?
When Congresscritters show more loyalty to their party and leaders than they do to the folks at home, the results will be inevitable. Adding insult to injury the Legeslature will be dealing with ethics hearings of Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) Rangle will be giving us lots of usable quotes.
In Congress the will be dealing with the Ethics Hearings for Charlie Rangle . It wil all make for great fun.
The Texas State house is going look a lot different in January. Where they had a small majority in the last session the 22 seat gain gives them a 99 to 51 advantage. The Republicans should not be as shy about being .. Well … Republicans this time. Maybe the rinos will step out of the way and the elephants won’t be so shy about kicking some donkey around at the state house. In Texas they are the ones with keys and the Dems are in it just for the ride. The Ball is in their Court.
The Texas Lege is now stocked full of R’s. Voter ID better damn well happen. Lowering the appraisal cap to 3% better damn well happen. A better school finance distribution plan better damn well happen. This isn’t a time for cute stuff like banners over doors or cutting trans fat – this is a time for fundamental, structural changes. Stop taking money from the gas tax for other uses. Fundamental change.
Fun times ahead – there are plenty of things that both sides of the fence can work together on and move Texas forward. Compromising on the core principle of a smaller, more efficient, focused government isn’t one of them. The ball is in your court R’s – can you handle it?
We can expect that along with Restricting Taxes, and Voter ID that campus and parking lot carry will move through unobstructed. The tough part of course as always will be the budget. Gambling will likely not be taken seriously.
Republicans gain 22 seats in the State House, for a 99-51 advantage. That’s with Pete Gallego, Hubert Vo, and Donna Howard, all of whom had been trailing early, coming back to win. Howard’s margin of victory is a microscopic 15 votes, so she’ll have to survive a recount. No Republican seats flipped.
– Among many other things, I strongly suspect that’s a death blow for expanded gambling this session. Which is ironic, since polls pretty consistently showed that people prefer expanded gambling to nearly any other choice for bridging the budget gap. With this partisan margin in the House, you’ll need a majority of GOP legislators to favor a joint resolution for expanded gambling, and I don’t see that happening; if there had been as much as one third of the GOP caucus in favor of it in 2009, it would have passed then. Sam Houston Race Park may have a new, deep-pocketed investor with a record of getting other states to allow slot machines at racetracks, but I don’t think that will do them any good here.
