Politics: USA: 16 state governors, 46 state legislatures, 435 fed Representatives, 30 Senators > Nov 7
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The USA has seen a rash of primaries in the various political parties to select each party's candidate for various offices. The parties, thus, are readying themselves by selecting their official candidates for a number of different offices on both the state level and the federal level. In the upcoming campaigns working toward November 7's vote, we find tensions between a given party's candidates for state offices, and those of the same party running for federal offices. This tension seems in some cases to be a split, most noticeably between some running for governorships, including also incumbent Governors lined up against Congressional candidates and incumbents. This can be traced in significant part to issues of serious state concernss (sometimes held in common by all 50 states), issues that federal lawmakers disgard, along with the White House.
"The national mood is pretty sour out there towards Congress ... and I think it's getting worse, because people are just getting frustrated. They recognize the tremendous needs, and they don't see anybody stepping forward or a party stepping forward to getting it done," said former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, a Republican and four-term governor of Wisconsin, who spoke to the NGA [National Governors Association's meet] Aug. 5 about reforming the nation's health care system.North America > USA
David Broder, a longtime political correspondent for Washington Post, said in an Aug. 4 speech in Columbus, Ohio, that widespread discontent could have an effect not only on congressional races this year, but also state-level elections.So, the key word emerging from the above quoted article, "Gov's anger with feds boils over," by Eric Kelderman, staff writer for Stateline.org, (again, the keyword ...) is "turnover." Kelderman's thawt around this word goes against the conventional wisdom that incumbents have an advantage over upstart would-be newcomers to political office on the state and federal levels in the USA. From a purely reportorial standpoint, it will be interesting to see whether Kelderman turns out to be correct, as his suggested of the outcome will be measureable. It's not enuff to point to the primary defeats of Sen Joe Lieberman (a liberal Democrat Senator who supports the Iraq War and faith-based initiavities) and Rep Cynthia McKinney (an ultra-lib Democrat who supports the Palestinians against Israel and punched an elderly security guard who didn't recognize her and asked for her Congressional ID). These two particular dumpings of incumbents do not a trend make.
"I think the net result of this is we're going to see a lot of turnover in Congress and probably in state offices as well," Broder told the annual convention of Capitolbeat, an association of statehouse reporters and editors.
What's more certain other issues crisscross the impacts of all other issues, when it comes to the state level. Just as national issues like the Iraq War can influence who gets elected to a given state's Senate, so a given state issue can influence how some voters choose candidates (incumbents or not) for federal offices. A number of states have these issues on their ballots, or are attracting candidates' endorsement or resistance to these state issues:
1.) proposals to ban same-sex marriages (Arizona, Idaho, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Virgina, South carolina ... several others already have such legislation ... while Colorado is proposing "domestic partnerships");
2.) proposals to increase the minimum wage (Arizona, Nevada, Montana, Missouri);
3.) proposals to limit the state government's spending (Nevada, Oregon, Montana, Nebraska, Michigan, New Hampshire, Rhode Island [non-binding].
4.) proposals to control eminent-domain powers of municipaltieis that had recently been incrased by a hated US Supreme Court decision regarding events in Connecticut (Kelo v New London), and felt by many Americans to threaten homeowners (California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho), Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, New Hampshire).
"Voters in half the country will face more than 100 ballot measures on a range of issues, with gay marriage and increases in the minimum wage expected to be the most closely watched battles of the 2006 elections."
-- Politicarp
Further Resources:
Same-sex state legislation - Google Search results
Minimum wage - Google Search results
Eminent domain - Google Search results
Limit govt spending - Google Search results
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