United States general elections, 2006

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The 2006 United States midterm elections were held on Tuesday, November 7, 2006. All United States House of Representatives seats and one third of the United States Senate seats were contested in this election, as well as 36 state governorships, many state legislatures, four territorial legislatures and many state and local races. The election resulted in a sweeping victory for the Democratic Party which captured the House of Representatives, the Senate, and a majority of governorships and state legislatures from the Republican Party.

Contents 1 Summary of results 2 Federal results 2.1 United States House of Representatives 2.2 United States Senate 3 State results 3.1 Governors 3.2 State legislatures 3.2.1 Third parties 3.3 Ballot initiatives 4 Local elections 5 Election irregularities 6 Ramifications 6.1 Democratic agenda 6.1.1 Six point plan 6.2 Domestic 6.2.1 Donald Rumsfeld 6.2.2 Republican leadership 6.2.3 Voting trends 6.3 International 6.3.1 Asia 6.3.2 Europe 6.3.3 Middle East 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Summary of results

The Democratic Party (United States) won a majority of the state governorships^[1] and the U.S. House and Senate seats each for the first time since 1994, an election-year commonly known as the "Republican Revolution". For the first time in the history of the United States, no Democratic incumbent lost (except Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who lost a primary challenge to the ultimate winner of the general election, Hank Johnson), nor did Republicans capture any open House, Senate, or Gubernatorial seat previously held by a Democrat.^[2]

Democrats took a 233-202 advantage in the House of Representatives, and a 51-49 advantage in the United States Senate. The Senate figure includes two candidates who ran as independent candidates: one who pledged to align with Democrats and another who lost the Democratic primary but won the general election as an independent promising to caucus with the Democrats.^[3] The final Senate result was decided when Democrat James Webb was declared the winner in Virginia against incumbent George Allen by the Associated Press.^[4] On November 9, 2006, Allen and fellow Republican incumbent Sen. Conrad Burns (Mont.) both conceded defeat, ceding control of the Senate to the Democrats.^[5][6]

The election made Nancy Pelosi (D-California) the first-ever female and first-ever Californian Speaker of the House^[7] and Harry Reid (D-Nevada) the first Mormon Senate Majority Leader.^[8] Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) became the first Muslim ever elected to the U.S. Congress^[9] and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Hank Johnson (D-Georgia) became the first Buddhists in a United States governing body.^[10]. Seven states banned recognition of same-sex marriage, while Arizona became the first state to reject such a ballot initiative.^[11] South Dakota rejected a ban on abortion under almost any circumstances, which was intended to overturn federal constitutional abortion-rights nationwide by setting up a strong test case that proponents hoped would lead to the overruling of Roe vs. Wade.^[12]

Some of the Republican House and Senate seats lost by the Republicans belonged to members of the Republican Revolution of 1994. Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania), Senator Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), Congressmen Charlie Bass (R-New Hampshire), John Hostettler (R-Indiana), Gil Gutknecht (R-Minnesota), and J.D. Hayworth (R-Arizona) all were elected in Democratic held seats in the 1994 elections and defeated in 2006. The Democrats also won back the Kansas 2nd and Ohio 18th, both lost to them in 1994. Rep. Sue Kelly (R-New York), also a member of the Republican "Class of 1994," was defeated.

The Democratic Party also claimed a majority of state governorships in the 2006 elections, gaining control of Republican-held governorships in New York, Massachusetts, Colorado, Arkansas, Maryland and Ohio, to give the party a 28-22 advantage in governorships.

[edit] Federal results

The Democrats gained six Senate seats by defeating Republican senators in the states of Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia. The Democrats secured a 51-49 majority in the Senate (Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont are Independents who will vote with Democrats on caucus issues). For the first time since the midterm elections of 1994, the Democratic Party gained control of both houses of the United States Congress.

[edit] United States House of Representatives

All 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives were up for election.

Main article: United States House elections, 2006

Summary of the November 7, 2006 United States House of Representatives election results

Party		Seats				Popular Vote
		2004	2006	+/−	%	Vote	%	+/−
	Democratic Party	202	233	+31	53.6%	39,673,226	52.0%	+5.4%
	Republican Party	232	202	−30	46.4%	34,748,277	45.6%	–3.6%
	Independents	1	0	−1	0	501,632	0.7%	+0.1%
	Others	0	0	0	0	1,305,803	1.7%	–1.9%
Total		435	435	0	100.0%	76,228,938	100.0%	0
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Special case: FL-13 (FL certified the Republican the winner, but this election is being disputed in court and Congress.)

[edit] United States Senate

The 33 seats in the United States Senate Class 1 were up for election.

Main article: United States Senate elections, 2006

Summary of the November 7, 2006 United States Senate election results

Party		Breakdown			Total Seats			Popular Vote
		Up	Elected	Not Up	2004	2006	+/−	Vote	%
	Democratic Party	17	22	27	44	49	+5	33,134,651	53.8%
	Republican Party	15	9	40	55	49	−6	26,127,486	42.4%
	Independents	1	2	0	1	2	+1	878,486	1.4%
	Libertarian Party	0	0	0	0	0	0	600,991	1.0%
	Green Party	0	0	0	0	0	0	402,800	0.7%
	Others	0	0	0	0	0	0	408,335	0.7%
Total		33	33	67	100	100	0	61,552,749	100.0%
Sources: The Associated Press, Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Elections (unofficial)								view, talk, edit

The Democratic Party is considered to hold a majority with 51 seats because the two independents, socialist Bernie Sanders (Vermont) and Independent Democrat Joseph Lieberman (Connecticut), caucus with the Democrats.

[edit] State results

[edit] Governors

Main article: United States gubernatorial elections, 2006

Of the 50 United States governors, 36 were up for election. Twenty two of those contested seats were held by Republicans, and the remaining 14 were held by Democrats. Of the 36 governorships up for election, ten were open due to retirement, term limits, or primary loss. Although most governors serve four-year terms, the two exceptions, Vermont and New Hampshire, elect governors to two-year terms. As a result of the 2006 gubernatorial elections, there are now 28 Democratic governors and 22 Republican governors, a reversal of the numbers held by the respective parties prior to the elections.

[edit] State legislatures

Nearly all state legislatures were up for election. Prior to the general elections, with the exception of the nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature, 21 legislatures were controlled by Republicans, 19 by Democrats, and nine were split legislatures (where both houses are controlled by different parties). As a result of the 2006 elections, 23 legislatures were carried by Democrats, 17 by Republicans, and 9 legislatures were split. In all, Republicans lost, and Democrats gained, more than 300 state legislative seats. Democrats gained control of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, the Minnesota Legislature, the Iowa General Assembly and the New Hampshire General Court. In New Hampshire's case, both houses of the legislature flipped from the Republicans to the Democrats. The Republicans, meanwhile, did not gain control of any state legislature. Instead, state Republicans lost their majorities in the Wisconsin Senate, the Michigan Legislature, the Pennsylvania Legislature, and the Indiana General Assembly, turning those legislatures into split bodies. Conversely, Republicans gained control of 2 state houses - the Montana House of Representatives changed from a 50-50 split to a 50-49-1 split, with the lone Constitution Party representative voting for Republican control of that body. Also, the election produced a 26-26 split in the Mississippi Senate, previously under a democratic majority, with the tie-breaking vote coming from Republican lieutenant governor Amy Tuck.

Democrats gained or retained control of the state legislatures and governorships of 15 states, thus creating one-party Government in Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, and West Virginia. Republicans now control ten state governments, these being Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Utah. ^[13]

The most dramatic change in party control occurred with the New Hampshire General Court, where Republicans held a 92 seat majority in the lower House and an eight seat majority in the upper Senate prior to the election. By the end of the evening, Republicans had lost 81 seats in the House and five in the Senate, giving control of the General Court to the Democrats. This coincided with the landslide reelection of Democratic Governor John Lynch, the takeover of both of New Hampshire's U.S. House seats by Democrats, and New Hampshire's unique Executive Council gaining a Democratic majority.

[edit] Third parties

Third parties received largely mixed results in the 2006 elections. In the Maine House of Representatives, Green State Representative John Eder was narrowly defeated by Democratic rival Jon Hinck in a bitterly contested campaign over Portland's 118th District. Eder's loss deprived the U.S. Green movement's highest elected position in any state office. ^[14]

In the Vermont House of Representatives, the Vermont Progressive Party successfully maintained its six seats within the chamber. The Vermont Progressive Party has in recent years become one of the most consistently successful third parties in the U.S. to be elected to higher office.

In Montana, Rick Jore made history becoming the first candidate of the right-wing Constitution Party to be elected to a state legislature, elected to the 12th District in the Montana House of Representatives. Jore initially won in 2004 by three votes, only to see the courts throw out enough ballots to give the Democrat the victory. In the 2006 elections, Jore won convincingly, garnering 56.2% of the vote. ^[15]

Both the Libertarian and Reform Parties did not gain any state legislative seats.

[edit] Ballot initiatives

Voters weighed in on various ballot initiatives. These included:

• In a hotly-contested referendum that inspired a widely-publicized feud between conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh and actor Michael J. Fox, Missouri voters narrowly passed an initiative to allow funding for embryonic stem cell research. The presence of the referendum on the ballot may also have aided Democrat Claire McCaskill in her victory over incumbent senator Jim Talent, who had opposed the measure.
• Raising the minimum wage, which passed in all six states with such referendums (AZ, CO, MO, MT, NV, OH)
• Banning the recognition of same-sex marriage, passing in seven out of eight states (Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin, with Arizona voting against the proposition, the first state in the nation to do so.)
• Colorado voters narrowly rejected an amdement to establish domestic partnerships by a margin of 52 to 47.
• Legalizing cannabis, failing in both states with such referendums for use for unconditional reasons (Colorado, Nevada) as well as for medical use only (South Dakota)
• Restricting affirmative action, passing in Michigan
• Requiring parental notification before an abortion for minors, failing in both states with such referendums (California, Oregon)
• Banning nearly all abortions, including those for victims of rape and incest, which failed in South Dakota
• Instant-runoff voting, which passed in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota
• A referendum to ease restrictions on wine sales in Massachusetts, which failed.
• Rhode Island voters approved a constitutional amendment to reextend the franchise to former criminals following their release, effectively enfranchising individuals on parole or probation.
• In California, voters endorsed a $37 billion package of bonds (Propositions 1A through 1E) to pay for transportation projects, housing, levee repairs and other infrastructure -- said to be the largest program of its kind in U.S. history.^[16]

[edit] Local elections

Numerous other elections for local, city, and county public offices were held.

A strange local election occurred in South Dakota; Marie Steichen was elected to Jerauld County commissioner, despite the fact that she died two months before the election. Her name was never replaced on the ballot, and voters who chose her were aware of her death.^[17]

In Richmond, California, a city of more than 100,000 residents, the Green Party challenger, city councilperson Gayle McLaughlin, unseated Democratic incumbent Irma Anderson and will now become the first Green Party mayor of a city of that size.^[18]

Two candidates in Nevada’s branch of the Constitution Party, called the Independent American Party (Nevada), were also elected to office. Jackie Berg was elected Eureka County Clerk with 54.1% of the vote, easily topping Republican and Libertarian opposition. Also, Cel Ochoa will be the new constable in Searchlight, Nevada by virtue of winning 54.93% of the vote to defeat her Republican rival. Another Nevada Independent Party member, Bill Wilkerson, was elected to the Elko, Nevada School Board, in a non-partisan race.^[19]

In Missoula County, Montana, residents passed a measure to encourage the County Sheriff's Department to make marijuana enforcement a last priority.^[20]

In Dallas County, Texas, Democrats regained control in 41 out of 42 contested GOP judgeships, as well as the district attorney's office and the county judge's seat.^[21]

[edit] Election irregularities

There were scattered reports of problems at polling places across the country as new electronic voting systems were introduced in many states. The problems ranged from voter and election official confusion about how to use new voting machines to apparent political dirty tricks designed to keep certain voters from casting their votes to inclement weather suppressing turnout.

Some reported irregularities:

• Millions of allegedly harassing and deceptive "robo-calls" were reported or placed in at least 53 house districts. The vast majority of the calls were reported to begin with the message "Hello, I’m calling with information about (Democratic candidate)" and continue with a negative message concerning the candidate. Regulatory statements concerning the sponsor of the message (usually the NRCC) allegedly did not come until after the message, instead of before, as the FCC mandates. Citizens reported receiving calls several times an hour and as late as 2:30 AM, and many held the mistaken belief that the calls were from Democratic campaigns.^[22]
• Massive undervoting in several Florida counties, suspected to be caused either by malfunctioning electronic voting machines or bad ballot design. Recount is impossible because of missing paper trail.^[23][24] An analysis from the Orlando Sentinel claims the undervoting swung an election to the GOP in Florida's 13th congressional district.^[25] Democratic candidate Christine Jennings brings a lawsuit to court.^[26]
• In Gateway, Arkansas, a town of 122 people, 199 votes were cast in an uncontested mayoral race. In nearby Pea Ridge, Arkansas, 3,997 votes were cast in a contested mayor's race for the city of 3,344 people.^[27]
• Waldenberg, Arkansas mayoral candidate, Randy Wooten, gets no votes despite voting for himself.^[28][29]
• Report of a "straight vote" for Democrats including non-Democrats in York County, Pennsylvania.^[30]
• In the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, officials could not verify that voting machines were secure and did not already have votes in them.^[31]
• Voting-machine problems kept polls open until nine o'clock pm, an hour later than scheduled, in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.^[32]
• A man in Allentown, PA smashed an electronic voting machine with a paperweight. The votes were recovered.^[33]
• Poll workers struggled with e-ballots in several states.^[34]
• In a small town in Oklahoma, a power outage in a polling station was caused by a squirrel gnawing on a power cable.^[35]
• Officials and experts reported electronic voting machine malfunctions in Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, Colorado and Florida.^[36]
• A bomb threat at East High School caused a voting shutdown in Madison, Wisconsin.^[37]
• A Kentucky poll worker was charged with choking a voter.^[38]
• Programming errors and inexperience dealing with electronic voting machines caused delays in Indiana, Ohio and Florida. About 175 of 914 precincts turned to paper ballots in Indiana's Marion County.^[39]
• Vandals chained the main door and broke keys into the locks of New Jersey Republican candidate for Senate Tom Kean Jr.'s headquarters. Accusations have been made towards Democratic incumbent Bob Menendez, but they deny any involvement in the situation.^[40]
• Disabled voters were asked by election officials in Bonneville County, Idaho to use punch card ballots.^[41]
• Irregularities with Diebold and other voting machines have been reported in the early elections.^[42][43]
• The Chicago Board of Elections has been running a Web site that has allowed, by a simple programming hack, the exposure of personal information of a million registered voters. (Fixed on 21 October 2006)^[44]
• Reports from Virginia:^[45]
  • FBI looking into possible Va. voter intimidation.^[46]
  • Calls that voting will lead to arrest.
  • Telling voters that their polling location has changed.
  • Fliers in Buckingham county say “Skip the election”
  • Voting machine problems.
• Vote flipping of voting machines in several states.^{[47][48][49][50]}
• Demonstration of crackable Diebold voting machine in HBO's documentary Hacking Democracy.^[51][52]
• On Election day November 7, talk show host Laura Ingraham prompted listeners (audio) to jam the Democratic Voter Protection hotline where voting problems were to be reported,^[53] reminiscent of the 2002 New Hampshire Senate election phone jamming scandal.
• In Maryland, some voters were given sample ballots by Republican supporters that incorrectly listed Republicans Robert Ehrlich and Michael Steele as Democrats.^[54]
• In Sarasota County, Florida, a large number of undervotes for the close 13th congressional district race, coupled with reports of voting machine problems on that part of the ballot, led Florida's Secretary of State to send a team to audit the result and possible recount.^[55]
• Electronic voting machine problems in Kane County, Illinois kept the polls open until 8:30pm CST, one and a half hours later than scheduled.^[56]
• In western Washington, flooding from heavy rainfall interfered with the elections.^[57]
• In Denver, Colorado, the computer system containing the voter registration rolls slowed down and crashed on several ocasions during the day causing lines that were over two hours long at some vote centers.^[58] Some vote centers ran out of provisional ballots, and sample ballots had to be used instead.^[59]
• Also in Denver, 44,000 absentee ballots were misprinted with the "yes" and "no" positions on a ballot issue reversed. Also, the bar code designating the ballot style was misprinted, requiring the ballots to be hand sorted which delayed results by over a week. The problem is blamed on ballot misprints by Sequoia Voting Systems. Some ballots had to be hand-copied onto other ballots before they could be counted. ^[60]

A database of reported problems can also be found at Voters Unite.

[edit] Ramifications

Many political analysts concluded that the results of the election were based around President George W. Bush's policies in the War in Iraq and corruption in Congress.^[61][62] At a press conference given to address the election results, President Bush called the cumulative results of the election a "thumpin'" by the Democrats.^[63]

[edit] Democratic agenda

Democrats have promised an agenda that includes withdrawing from the war in Iraq,^[64] raising the minimum wage, implementing all of the 9/11 Commission recommendations, eliminating subsidies for oil companies, restricting lobbyists, repealing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, lowering interest rates on college loans, expanding stem-cell research, investigating political appointees for actions taken during and leading to the war in Iraq, allowing current tax cuts to expire,^[65] and negotiating Medicare prescription drug prices. They plan to legislate these issues within their first 100 legislative hours of power in January 2007.^[66] According to Brian Wright, president of Democrasource, LLC (an Ohio based national political consulting group), “There’s no question, the administration and Iraq set the tone for this year. This new balance of power can be a true catalyst to get the country back on track."

[edit] Six point plan

Prior to the election in July 2006 Democrats unveiled a six-point plan they promised to enact if elected with congressional majorities. The plan was billed the "Six for 06 agenda" and officially called "A New Direction For America"^[67] and compared to the 1994 Republican "Contract with America"^[68]. The six-points of the plan include: "honest leadership and open government, real security, energy independence, economic prosperity and educational excellence, a healthcare system that works for everyone, and retirement security".^[69]

• Real security
  • In regards to "real security" they propose a "phased redeployment" of U.S. forces from Iraq, doubling the size of U.S. military special forces to capture Osama Bin Laden and destroy terrorist groups such as al Qaeda, and implementing the 9/11 Commission proposals to secure the national borders of the United States and screen every container arriving at U.S. ports.

• Economic prosperity and educational excellence
  • Democratic plans for economic prosperity include ending the congressional pay raise until the federal minimum wage is raised and withholding tax breaks from U.S. companies that outsource jobs to foreign countries. Within education they plan to cut college loan rates, expand federal grants, and ensure that funds used for college tuition are not taxed.

• Energy independence
  • The Democratic plan for achieving an end to American dependence on foreign countries for oil consists of repealing tax incentives given to oil companies, higher penalties for price gouging gasoline products, increasing tax incentives and funding for the research and development of technologies intended to improve fuel-efficiency and creating viable alternative fuel supplies such as biofuels.

[edit] Domestic

[edit] Donald Rumsfeld

With apparent reference to the impact of the Iraq war policy, in a press conference held on November 8, Bush talked about the election and announced the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Bush stated, "I know there's a lot of speculation on what the election means for the battle we're waging in Iraq. I recognize that many Americans voted last night to register their displeasure with the lack of progress being made there." Prior to the election, Bush had stated that he intended to keep Rumsfeld on as Secretary of Defense until the end of his Presidency. However, Bush then went on to add Rumsfeld's resignation was not due to the Democratic victories on November 8. Rumsfeld's job reportedly had been on the line for several months prior to the election, and the decision for him to stay until after the election, if he was going to be let go at all, was also reportedly made several months earlier. All this led to his resignation.^[70]

[edit] Republican leadership

On the same day, then Speaker of the House, Representative Dennis Hastert of the 14th Congressional District of Illinois, said he would not seek the Minority Leader position for the 110th Congress.

[edit] Voting trends

In the aftermath of the election The Weekly Standard published a number of articles highly critical of how the Republican Party had managed the United States Congress. It called the electoral defeat for the G.O.P. "only a little short" of "devastating" saying the "party of reform... didn't reform anything" and warned that the Democratic Party has expanded its "geographical sphere of Democratic power" to formerly Republican-held states such as Montana, Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota while it solidified former swing states like Illinois as Democratic strongholds. In the New England region, popular Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island was defeated, despite having approval ratings near 60% and Republicans now only control a single district, the CT-04 seat held by Chris Shays, out of 22 congressional districts. The Democrats also became the clear majority in the Mid Atlantic region as well. Two Republican incumbent Congressmen were defeated in New York state, both from Republican regions upstate, and four Republican Congressmen were defeated in Pennsylvania. Democrats picked up seats in all Northeastern state legislatures holding elections, except Rhode Island, which remained unchanged (and Democrats clearly in the majority). Democrats kept both vulnerable Senate seats in Maryland and New Jersey, winning them by wider margins than predicted, and they won the heavily contested Senate seats in Missouri and Virginia.

The Democratic expansion into Indiana, Virginia, and Ohio has "seriously diminished the chances for future Republican success" it claimed. The paper, which has been described as the "quasi-official organ of the Bush Administration"^[71] also stated that more people would have to "bendover" to get anywhere in a political office and has called on Republicans to move to the center for the sake of the party's future viability saying "conservatives won't want to hear this, but the Republican who maneuvered his way into the most impressive victory... won ... after moving to the center" and that "the South is not enough space to build a national governing majority".^[72][73]

[edit] International

[edit] Asia

• China
  • The government of the People's Republic of China is said to be nervous about the effect a Democratic-led Congress might have on its exports to the United States market and the possible controversy that could result because of the country's human rights record. Nancy Pelosi, who became the Speaker of the House, is a noted critic of Chinese policy. Concerns likely to be raised include the undervalued Chinese currency, blamed by some for the recent losses in the American manufacturing industry, and issues such as internet censorship, piracy, limited market access within China itself for companies based in the U.S., and religious freedom.^[74] The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu stated that she hoped the United States would play a "constructive role" in maintaining a "sound, healthy and stable relations between China and the US".^[75]

[edit] Europe

• Belgium
  • Belgium's Minister of Defence André Flahaut expressed his approval of Rumsfeld's resignation. He said Rumsfeld was "obstinate", and he hoped that the elections would bring upon a change in the United States' foreign policy.^[76]
• Denmark
  • The Prime Minister of Denmark, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said he hoped that President Bush and the newly-elected Congress could find common ground and resolve issues regarding the War in Afghanistan and the War in Iraq. Rasmussen also said Denmark would keep its troops in Iraq and neither the election nor the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld would change government foreign policies.^[76]
• France
  • France's Minister of Defence Michele Alliot-Marie said that her American counterpart, Donald Rumsfeld, had "taken the consequences" of an election in which voters punished the government over the war in Iraq.^[76] The former Socialist Prime Minister of France, Laurent Fabius, was quoted as saying, ""A lot of Americans have realised that Mr. Bush has lied to them."^[77]
• Germany
  • Germany's Foreign Office's coordinator for German-American cooperation, Karsten D. Voigt, said that he believed that the Democratic-controlled Congress will be more cooperative with the world, but he expects that Europeans will have to carry more influence on such foreign issues of importance, such as the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan, and the nuclear weapon programs of North Korea and Iran. Voigt further stated that Europe needed to develop a stronger relationship with the United States, especially with newly elected Congressional politicians. Voigt went on to say that doing so would help "better convey European positions on major international issues and make concerted efforts to find constructive political solutions for the future."^[76]
• United Kingdom
  • Labour Party Member of Parliament John McDonnell, a critic of United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair, said, "the message of the American people is clear -- there needs to be a major change of direction in Iraq. Just as in Britain, people in the US feel that they have been ill advised, misled and ignored."^[77] McDonnell, who became the first Labour Party MP to announce that he would stand for leadership in 2007, also said, "These election results have not only damaged Bush, they mean that Blair is now totally isolated in the international community."^[77]
• Italy
  • The Prime Minister of Italy, Romano Prodi, believed that it was Bush's Iraq policy that had led to the complete turnover in the elections. He said that Bush would "have to negotiate with the opposition on all issues."^[77]
• Spain
  • Spain's ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party responded to the elections stating that they hoped the elections "would help to change the course of US foreign policy."^[77]

[edit] Middle East

• Iran
  • Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called U.S. President George W. Bush's defeat in congressional elections a victory for Iran. "This issue (the elections) is not a purely domestic issue for America, but it is the defeat of Bush's hawkish policies in the world," Khamenei said in remarks reported by Iran's student news agency ISNA on Friday. "Since Washington's hostile and hawkish policies have always been against the Iranian nation, this defeat is actually an obvious victory for the Iranian nation." "The result of this election indicates that the majority of American people are dissatisfied and are fed up with the policies of the American administration," the IRNA state news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.^[78]
  • In a letter to the American people released on Wednesday, November 29, 2006 via Iran's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote:

“

I'd also like to say a word to the winners of the recent elections in the US : The United States has had many administrations; some who have left a positive legacy, and others that are neither remembered fondly by the American people nor by other nations. Now that you control an important branch of the US Government, you will also be held to account by the people and by history. If the US Government meets the current domestic and external challenges with an approach based on truth and Justice, it can remedy some of the past afflictions and alleviate some of the global resentment and hatred of America . But if the approach remains the same, it would not be unexpected that the American people would similarly reject the new electoral winners, although the recent elections, rather than reflecting a victory, in reality point to the failure of the current administration's policies. These issues had been extensively dealt with in my letter to President Bush earlier this year.[79] [80]

”

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• E-voting state by state: What you need to know, Computerworld, 1 November 2006
• Election coverage on the Tavis Smiley show
• Better World Links on the U.S. Midterm Elections 2006 > 1500 links
• U.S. Midterm Election News Coverage - Comprehensive news coverage of all election campaigns and candidates
• BSRS Newsservice Coverage of US Midterm Elections - Humorous coverage of the all national and state-wide races in the 2006 midterm elections

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