Posted on 11/20/2006 8:12:53 AM PST by MNJohnnie
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1740325/posts
Democrats Say They Will Push to Require "Cleaner Campaigns"
Posted on 11/17/2006 10:27:48 AM CST by Mr. Brightside
By Marie Horrigan
Thu Nov 16, 6:26 PM ET
The Democrats who will be senators in the 110th Congress beginning in January have spent the week after Election Day choosing their leadership team and discussing agenda items for their return to the majority.
But they also are taking a glance back at the 2006 campaign that awarded them the six-seat net gain they needed to take control — and decrying negative campaign tactics they pinned on Republican candidates.
“We have to do everything we can to make elections more civil,” said Harry Reid of Nevada, newly chosen by his Democratic colleagues as Senate majority leader, at a breakfast Wednesday sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.
“Somehow, constitutionally, we’re going to have to figure out a way to stop this,” Reid added, saying he would support measures through whichever venue would be most effective, whether administratively or through legislation.
Chatting with reporters Wednesday, Reid reminisced about his first election for lieutenant governor. “I was looking around for something to put on my little [biography] card I passed out. ... But I looked at things that were positive about me,” he said. “I never considered putting anything negative about my opponent. And now that’s the first place people go.”
Reid decried the tactics used in the tight contests in states such as Missouri and Maryland where “robocalls” and “push-polls” were used to attack Democratic candidates, he said.
“We’re going to need to have legislation to stop that, and we’re going to do everything we can to make elections more civil than they have been,” Reid said.
Speaking on the matter with characteristic bluntness was New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer (news, bio, voting record), who spearheaded the party’s national takeover campaign as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Schumer accused Republicans of “despicable” tactics in the 2006 election cycle, alleging that their operatives called Democrats and lied to them about the location of their polling places.
“I think somebody who does that, and who authorizes that — I don’t care who they are — should go to jail for 10 years,” Schumer said.
Schumer said he and Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel (news, bio, voting record), who headed the party’s successful House takeover effort as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, were making a list of the “abusive practices” used by Republicans, which both Reid and Schumer contended were unique to their partisan counterparts.
“I think you’d have to look long and hard for any Democrat doing this kind of stuff,” Reid said.
“Yeah, no, we don’t do this,” Schumer said. “It’s really different.”
Schumer called for better campaign finance disclosure and said the party leadership would consider civil and criminal penalties and the possibility of creating a special division of the Justice Department to prosecute such infractions.
“I’m sorry — free speech is free speech, but it goes beyond this,” Schumer said of the alleged campaign tactics.
Republicans, however, have charged Democrats used many of the same tactics that Reid and Schumer complain about.
“We have rampant examples of Democrats making calls to GOP voters saying literally that their voting stations had changed and things like that and certainly the usual ‘push-polling,’ so these guys obviously are blowing smoke when they’re complaining about this,” one Republican strategist told CQPolitics.com.
The Election Day results came at the end of a record-setting spending spree by the parties, candidates and outside interest groups.
According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spent $94.6 million and its Republican counterpart, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, spent $70.1 million through the middle of October. Meanwhile, all Senate candidates spent a combined $401.5 million, a 30 percent increase from 2004, CQ’s PoliticalMoneyLine.org reported.
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Thanks, Johnnie.
Did you get your "bonus?"
Wow is it that time again already?
Hey Johnnie...check out my sig line...Christmas comes early for me! :)
Morning my FRiend.
Major Congrats! Can you tell us where you are currently stationed?
Thanks, MN, early ping.
“I’m sorry — free speech is free speech, but it goes beyond this,” Schumer said of the alleged campaign tactics.
Hey Shmucky...you wanna talk about low campaign tactics? Let's discuss stealing private credit records.
Well if being held accountable for every single error anyone made this weekend while having no authority to actually fix the problems is a "bonus", then YEAH, I got it.
Any idea how I give it back?
Morning TX.
"Can you tell us where you are currently stationed?"
Ft. Myer, VA. 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, The Old Guard.
Morning CC27. How was your weekend?
Well again. Major Congrats. Virginia is a good place to be posted. Most of my work involves working with one of our Warehouses just outside of Richmond. I love Virginia.
Naw, this bonus:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1740344/posts?page=281#281
Great thank you. Yours?
Not too bad. Cowboys won...still on Cloud 9 over my impending promotion.
Short work week has started.
Yeah it's been a great last 5 days! LOL!
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