November 2018 meet-up: Election recap

DFA members Leon Reed and Bill Gilmartin

DFA hosted a spirited discussion of election results and forecasts the night after the election. With several races still not called, DFA members Bill Gilmartin and Leon Reed covered a wide range of results and provided some context and interpretation.

Reed gave an overview of the election results. He noted that many of the newly elected Democratic members of the House ran as “can-do” pragmatists while the GOP caucus is going to be more conservative and probably more confrontational.

He characterized the best news of the night as:

The Democratic near-sweep (7/8) of Governor and Senate races in the four key Great Lakes states that won the 2016 election for Trump (Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania)
The apparent pickup of seven governor chairs and large numbers of state legislative seats, which will be vitally important in oversight of 2020 voting and the redistricting following the 2020 census
Large gains in the Pennsylvania legislature, though both chambers remain controlled by the Republicans
Local initiatives to raise the minimum wage, expand Medicaid, establish nonpartisan commissions to redraw political boundaries, and restore voting rights to felons.

The worst news:

With continuing GOP control of the Senate, the judicial confirmation conveyor belt will continue for two more years
The ultra-battlegrounds (Ohio and Florida) are still controlled by the GOP
There will be a lame duck session, which is always unpredictable
Amendments to repeal Roe v. Wade passed in two states and are headed toward the Supreme Court.

Gilmartin focused on the incoming House committee chairs and the importance of congressional oversight. He described how congressional oversight has declined in the past 25 years (since Speaker Newt Gingrich started consolidating power with the party leadership) and expressed a hope that House leadership would allow strong committee chairs such as Adam Schiff (Intelligence) and Elijah Cummings (Oversight and Government Reform) and Raul Grijalva (Natural Resources) and Tim Walz (Veterans Affairs) to set an aggressive agenda of oversight hearings.

Gilmartin referenced an article that documented the decline of congressional committee oversight and budget hearings (www.heraldnet.com/nation-world/congress-has-a-job-but-has-largely-stopped-doing-it)and urged members to read it.

Reed and Gilmartin discussed the importance of the congressional hearing process and gave examples, just in the area of Homeland Security, of oversight hearing topics that have been neglected and could be revitalized: deployment of troops to the border, ICE enforcement policy, DACA, “travel ban,” family separation, asylum, domestic terrorism, and many other topics. An equally wide range exists in other areas.

After their presentations, Gilmartin and Reed answered questions about powers and functions of House Committees; the choice Democrats face between pushing impeachment and investigations vs. pushing solutions to issues such as DACA and healthcare; the push toward privatization; funding infrastructure projects and the likelihood of an infrastructure program; the likelihood that the political climate will change in Washington; local candidates, elections and election procedures; and a wide range of other issues.

Additional resources:

Read: “Congress Has a Job—but has largely stopped doing it” by Paul Kane and Derek Willis at: www.heraldnet.com/nation-world/congress-has-a-job-but-has-largelystopped doing it.