GOP wins 2 more years of House control, Dem gains minimal

[webfact]

GOP wins 2 more years of House control, Dem gains minimal

By ALAN FRAM

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans retained their lock on the House for two more years early Wednesday as GOP candidates triumphed in a checkerboard of districts in Florida, Virginia and elsewhere that Democrats had hoped Donald Trump's divisive comments about women and Hispanics would make their own.

 

Democrats who'd envisioned big gains in suburban and ethnically diverse districts instead seemed on track for modest pickups. Republican contenders were buoyed by the GOP presidential candidate's tight battle against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

 

While expectations were nearly zero that Democrats would win the 30 seats they'd needed to capture House control for next year, both sides had anticipated they'd cut into the historic GOP majority by perhaps a dozen seats. Republicans currently hold a 247-188 majority, including three vacant seats, the most the GOP has commanded since their 270 in 1931.

 

By late evening, Republicans had won at least 218 seats — guaranteeing control — and just four of their incumbents had lost. The GOP retained seats in Minnesota, New York, Colorado, Iowa and Wisconsin that Democrats sought to grab, and Republicans prepared to build on their current six-year run of House control.

 

"This could be a really good night for America," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who won a 10th term, told supporters in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin.

 

In Florida, freshman GOP Rep. Carlos Curbelo won a race that underscored how Trump's damage to Republicans would be limited. With around 7 in 10 of the Miami-area district's voters Hispanic, Democrats targeted it and the race became one of the country's most expensive with an $18 million price tag. But Curbelo distanced himself from his own party's nominee and held on.

 

Virginia freshman Rep. Barbara Comstock kept her seat in the Washington, D.C., suburbs despite Democrats' relentless attempts to tie her to Trump. The two sides spent more than $20 million on that contest in a district of highly educated, affluent voters that both sides had viewed as vulnerable to a Democratic takeover.

 

Democrats defeated two Florida GOP incumbents, but those results seemed due to local circumstances.

 

Rep. John Mica, 73, a 12-term veteran from the Orlando area, was criticized by GOP strategists for a lackluster campaign and lost to Democrat Stephanie Murphy, a political neophyte. Democratic challenger Charlie Crist, once the state's Republican governor, defeated Rep. David Jolly in a St Petersburg district that had been redrawn to favor Democrats.

 

Democrats spent $4 million and beat GOP Rep. Scott Garrett, a member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus from a northern New Jersey suburb of New York City. And they defeated Rep. Bob Dold, a GOP moderate from the Chicago suburbs where Democratic strength proved overpowering.

 

Both parties' candidates and outside groups spent nearly $1.1 billion combined on House campaigns, shy of the $1.2 billion record in 2012, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group. Republicans had only a slight financial edge.

 

While Trump hurt Republicans in some areas, his appeal to working-class white voters and their antipathy to Clinton were helping GOP candidates in others.

 

That seemed likely to help Republicans limit an erosion of their House majority, which would have left hard-line conservatives with added clout to vex party leaders.

 

Even with the Ryan-led House GOP's current formidable advantage, work has stalled on spending bills after hitting objections from conservatives, including the roughly 40 members of the hard-right Freedom Caucus. A major winnowing of moderate GOP lawmakers, which hadn't materialized by early Wednesday, would increase dissident Republicans' leverage next year.

 

House Republican leaders still face problems ahead. Conservative objections are likely over a fresh round of budget legislation plus the need to renew the government's borrowing authority or face an economy-jarring federal default.

 

Ryan, who's said he wants to be speaker in the new Congress, is not immune to ire from the Freedom Caucus and other Republicans upset over his refusal to campaign for Trump.

 

Just a handful of disgruntled conservatives could block Ryan from the 218 votes he'd need to retain his post. That could be an embarrassing setback for the GOP's 2012 vice presidential candidate, who may harbor White House aspirations, and some Republicans say it might persuade the 46-year-old Ryan to leave Congress.

___

Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-11-09

[elgordo38]

Would not be surprised to see Comey running on the Republican ticket next time around. 

[hawker9000]

7 hours ago, elgordo38 said:

Would not be surprised to see Comey running on the Republican ticket next time around. 

What, they put the janitor on the ticket now?   If he'd done his job and recommended a more-than-hard-earned indictment, THEN he might've had a chance at something.  As it is, he's trashed the reputation of the FBI.  Maybe Obama will give him a job taking out the trash or bussing tables at his presidential library.

 

[geriatrickid]

The demographics of those who voted for Trump show a  significant number of older white  people and social security beneficiaries.  I hope that the GOP controlled  House slashes their benefits and does away with all the  benefits like Medicare,  transportation and adaptability assistance, nursing home grants and the like. Let these old white people who bristled at the erroneous  perception that "darkies and foreigners" were stealing their benefits suffer the consequences.  Let the income inequality gap  resemble more of what one sees in the 3rd world such that poor people have nothing to lose when they start slaying these old pricks, or when the people they come to rely on say they won't work for next to nothing wages and ay taxes to support the old parasites.  Let the fun begin.

[Boon Mee]

25 minutes ago, geriatrickid said:

The demographics of those who voted for Trump show a  significant number of older white  people and social security beneficiaries.  I hope that the GOP controlled  House slashes their benefits and does away with all the  benefits like Medicare,  transportation and adaptability assistance, nursing home grants and the like. Let these old white people who bristled at the erroneous  perception that "darkies and foreigners" were stealing their benefits suffer the consequences.  Let the income inequality gap  resemble more of what one sees in the 3rd world such that poor people have nothing to lose when they start slaying these old pricks, or when the people they come to rely on say they won't work for next to nothing wages and ay taxes to support the old parasites.  Let the fun begin.

Your lot can drop all the silliness and false talking points now. Hillary was badly beaten and will never recover. It is all over now...

 

"The Democrats will now control next to nothing above the municipal level."

 

"Donald Trump will be president. We are going to be unpacking this night for the rest of our lives, and lives beyond that. We can’t comprehend even 1 percent of what’s just happened. But one aspect of it, minor in the overall sweep, that I’m pretty sure we can comprehend well enough right now: The Democratic Party establishment has beclowned itself and is finished."

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/11/the_democratic_party_establishment_is_finished_after_trump.html

Edited November 9, 2016 by Boon Mee

[NovaBlue05]

3 hours ago, hawker9000 said:

What, they put the janitor on the ticket now?   If he'd done his job and recommended a more-than-hard-earned indictment, THEN he might've had a chance at something.  As it is, he's trashed the reputation of the FBI.  Maybe Obama will give him a job taking out the trash or bussing tables at his presidential library.

 

 

Obama is too concerned about his exit plan and whether he left any fingerprints on the DOJ coverup to worry about Comey.

[geriatrickid]

1 hour ago, Boon Mee said:

Your lot can drop all the silliness and false talking points now. Hillary was badly beaten and will never recover. It is all over now...

 

"The Democrats will now control next to nothing above the municipal level."

 

"Donald Trump will be president. We are going to be unpacking this night for the rest of our lives, and lives beyond that. We can’t comprehend even 1 percent of what’s just happened. But one aspect of it, minor in the overall sweep, that I’m pretty sure we can comprehend well enough right now: The Democratic Party establishment has beclowned itself and is finished."

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/11/the_democratic_party_establishment_is_finished_after_trump.html

 

Clinton was not badly beaten. To use Trump's argument, her victory was stolen. After all, she won a plurality of the votes. Didn't she have  200,000 more votes than Trump?  She has however accepted the electoral college results. So no she was not badly beaten.

2 years is a very short time in politics. This is the best thng that could have happened to the Democrats as it will  convince them that they need to pick a unifying candidate. The knives will be out for Trump within a few short days, just you watch.  T

[elgordo38]

9 hours ago, hawker9000 said:

What, they put the janitor on the ticket now?   If he'd done his job and recommended a more-than-hard-earned indictment, THEN he might've had a chance at something.  As it is, he's trashed the reputation of the FBI.  Maybe Obama will give him a job taking out the trash or bussing tables at his presidential library.

 

Opinion noted and respected. Faults lie on both sides in this debacle that has 4 years to play out. 

[OMGImInPattaya]

7 hours ago, geriatrickid said:

The demographics of those who voted for Trump show a  significant number of older white  people and social security beneficiaries.  I hope that the GOP controlled  House slashes their benefits and does away with all the  benefits like Medicare,  transportation and adaptability assistance, nursing home grants and the like. Let these old white people who bristled at the erroneous  perception that "darkies and foreigners" were stealing their benefits suffer the consequences.  Let the income inequality gap  resemble more of what one sees in the 3rd world such that poor people have nothing to lose when they start slaying these old pricks, or when the people they come to rely on say they won't work for next to nothing wages and ay taxes to support the old parasites.  Let the fun begin.

Stay your warm your lib-Dem bubble and keep reading Huff Post News and the Guardian...bodes well for Republicans in 2018 and beyond.

Edited November 10, 2016 by OMGImInPattaya

[hawker9000]

5 hours ago, geriatrickid said:

 

Clinton was not badly beaten. To use Trump's argument, her victory was stolen. After all, she won a plurality of the votes. Didn't she have  200,000 more votes than Trump?  She has however accepted the electoral college results. So no she was not badly beaten.

2 years is a very short time in politics. This is the best thng that could have happened to the Democrats as it will  convince them that they need to pick a unifying candidate. The knives will be out for Trump within a few short days, just you watch.  T

LOL.   "Not badly beaten" you say?  But she was beaten by what you've all been calling a "dead party" ever since Obama won in 2008!!  And she lost the House & Senate for the democrats as well!  That's "badly" enough, isn't it?    'Just cracks me up.  If the situation were reversed, right now you'd be regaling us all with tales of the "great progressive mandate, and you well know it.

 

Pathetic - the whole bit about the electoral college starting already.  How predictable.  Aren't you going to be late for your "he's not our president" rally?  Too bad you're not a student at Yale - you could be claiming PTSD and opting out of your mid-terms...