Posted on 07/24/2006 9:36:25 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
If you want to understand why Democrats are the minority party in Congress, look at four states: Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Kentucky. Before the 1994 elections, when Democrats still controlled both chambers, these Southern states had 24 Democratic House members and 14 Republicans. Among senators, there were five Republicans and three Democrats.
Today, there are 24 GOP House members and 15 Democrats, and all eight senators are Republicans.
Democrats acknowledge that their prospects for regaining control are dim until they start winning elections in this region. Several of this year's races are lab experiments in this effort, with Democrats testing new types of candidates, messages and media.
They hope to underscore that they do not fit stereotypes of Democrats as cultural liberals, and they hope to win voters with mix of economic populism and traditional values. There is talk of raising the minimum wage and creating more jobs, but little about abortion or gun control.
Phil Kellam, who is challenging Rep. Thelma D. Drake in Virginia's 2nd District, is airing a TV ad that calls for ending the sale of violent video games to children and blocking their access to violent or pornographic Web sites. President Bush won Drake's district with 58 percent of the vote in 2004. But Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine won the same precincts in 2005.
Democrats have been thrilled to find their candidates in striking distance in some of these races. One of the Democrats' top targets is North Carolina's 11th District, where former Washington Redskins quarterback Heath Shuler is trying to unseat Republican Rep. Charles H. Taylor. In Virginia, James Webb, a former Republican who served as secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan, is being watched closely by Democrats to see if he can make Sen. George Allen sweat for reelection.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You're absolutely correct about Butler. My mistake for not noting him. Beall was more of a "moderate" Northeast type of Republican, though. And Mathias was a flaming liberal!
They also elected Spiro Agnew as governor in Maryland. So it hasn't been impossible for conservatives to win there. But it has been rare, which does make the state different from the South, where electing conservatives is the norm.
Yeah, no kidding. I'm surrounded by them in People's Republic of Montgomery County, MD.
Well, Beall's lifetime ACU rating was 50, which was far higher than many of his RINO colleagues (some of whom quite literally were in the single-digits). Mathias was so liberal that he was giving strong consideration to switching parties by the end of his final term (in exchange for the 'Rats allowing him to continue serving as a Committee Chairman), but given that the GOP Senate had more than 51 members during his last term, he couldn't be rewarded, and had he run again in '86, there would've been no reason to reward him for switching when the 'Rats won back the Senate.
As for Spiro Agnew, Agnew ran as a LIBERAL Republican in '66 (in the mode of the previous successful liberal RINO Governor, Ted McKeldin). The Conservative in the race was the infamous George Mahoney, who managed to narrowly win the Dem primary. Horrified liberal 'Rats voted for Agnew and a 3rd party Dem liberal running as an Independent. Agnew didn't become a Conservative until the year he became Nixon's running mate following the rioting in the wake of Rev. King's death. Ironically, it was his previous ethics as a LIBERAL that ended up doing him in politically.
Democrats can compete anywhere!
They are equal opportunity racists. They have kept the blacks on the plantation for 150 years.
They are attempting to create a new class of indentured servants called ILLEGAL immigrants who are dependent on the largess of the democratic vote.
What the democrats forget is that the blacks will vote 90% democratic as long as they believe they are at the front of the bus.
When the blacks discover (the NAACP is so racist they are slow to understand) that the dems are pushing them to the back of the bus in favor of the yellow and brown, then there will be HELL to pay.
But, the majority have to get past the racists Dick Gregory, Julian Bond and "Rev" Jackson before that happens.
Interesting info about Agnew! I never knew he was regarded as a RINO early in his career. Yeah, Beall was better than the block of very left-wing RINOs that populated the Senate in those days. Mathias, Stafford, Brooke, Weicker, Javits, Case, Schweiker (who became more conservative after his association with Reagan).
I'm in Tennessee. We're a conservative state but we still manage to elect liberals from time to time. We were stuck with Al Gore Sr. in the Senate for three terms. Then we got stuck with his son for a term & a half, and we had Jim Sasser for three terms. These guys run initially as conservatives, then move to the left after being elected. They cast a few conservative votes when they're coming up for re-election, then shift back to the left when they're back in office. We finally got sick of Gore Sr. & Sasser pulling that stunt and voted them out, but it took 18 years to do it each time. Gore Jr. outed himself after becoming Clinton's VP.
Interesting to note Beall tried to make a comeback 2 years after his defeat at the hands of Sarbanes by running for Governor, but came up rather poorly. Of note was that Beall had a Black running mate with State Sen. Aris Allen, something that the current Governor would copy 24 years later with success.
I'm also a native Tennessean, so I'm quite aware of its political history. ;-)
Another interesting MD-TN connection. Fmr. Sen. Bill Brock, who was in Beall's 1970 class (and like Beall, was defeated after a single tem) moved to MD and challenged Sarbanes in 1994, and gave him the closest race since his initial victory.
As a fellow Tennessean, I hope you're supporting Ed Bryant for Frist's open seat next week !
Yep! I'm supporting Bryant!
Excellent to hear. Get everybody you know to vote for him.
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