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BY JULIE PACE
Associated Press writer
WASHINGTON — Facing the prospect of big Repub-lican gains in Congress, President Barack Obama is sending voters a mixed message: He says he sees opportunities to work with the GOP after Election Day yet warns Washington could be consumed by gridlock if the opposition takes control.
It’s a strategy based on Obama’s need for voters to see him as the same politician who ran for the White House promising a new era of bipar-tisanship, at the same time he rallies his base to try to stave off sweeping Republican victories in the Nov. 2 midterm elections.
During a town hall meeting with young people, Obama said there are good GOP ideas, and some issues where he sees an opportunity to work with Republican lawmakers.
“My hope is that as we look forward, let’s say on educa-tion or on energy, some of the things that we haven’t yet
fi nished, that we’re going to have a greater spirit of cooper-ation after this next election,” Obama said.
Just two days later, at a private fundraiser near Boston, Obama warned that the prospects of bipartisan cooperation would be slim if Republicans ran Congress. He said it would be nearly impos-sible for him to advance some important issues, like clean energy and education, or to achieve many of his foreign policy goals.
“Not one of these issues will we be able to make serious progress on if we do not have a strong Democratic Senate,” Obama said.
The president’s message was even more foreboding at a recent Democratic National Committee fundraiser, when he predicted that a GOP-led Congress would create a stalemate between the White House and Capitol Hill. “We
could even go backwards,” he said.
White House offi cials say there’s nothing inconsistent in Obama’s remarks. Adviser David Axelrod said Obama wants to work with Repub-licans but his experience from the fi rst half of the administration makes him “a little pessimistic.” And he said it’s important for voters to understand that the
potential for gridlock exists if Republicans take control of Congress.
“We want Democratic majorities,” Axelrod said. “We don’t want things throttled down.”
The highly partisan atmosphere that has consumed Washington throughout Obama’s two years in offi ce has discouraged voters.
Election 2010Election 2010
Obama’s message mixed on bipartisanship
AP fi le photo
President Barack Obama, speaking to young people during a town hall event broadcast live from Washington on Oct. 14, said there are good GOP ideas, and some issues where he sees an opportunity to work with Republican lawmakers.
By St. Louis Post-Dispatch
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri illustrates the Democrats’ predicament as they try to maintain control of the House of Representatives.
After winning 66 percent of the vote two years ago, he is facing a tough re-election battle against Vicki Hartzler, a former Missouri House member from Harrisonville.
Skelton’s moderate voting record gives him a stron-ger shot at re-election than many House Democrats. Nonetheless, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is spending more than $300,000 on ad buys hoping to save Skelton’s seat, according to disclosure reports last week.
House Democrats, after gaining 52 seats since 2006, could be facing losses approaching that level and perhaps beyond, polls and political handicappers suggest. Republicans need a net gain of 39 seats to run the
House next year.In a battery of recent
polls, Republicans on Friday were holding an advantage averaging 7.2 percent when voters were asked which party they supported in congressional elections. Several independent analysts increased predictions last week on GOP success: The Cook Political Report said Republicans could gain 52 seats and also moved Skelton’s race to the “tossup” category. Larry Sabato, who heads the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, predicted a 47-seat gain for Republicans.
Democrats are pinning hopes for a late revival on President Barack Obama’s 11th-hour appeals, eff orts to reinvigorate women voters and what they see as their superior get-out-the-vote machinery. But Republicans and Rep. John Boehner, who would elevate to House Speaker, have seen enough polls to begin planning in earnest to take charge.
Republicans make plans for taking over House
BY MIKE ZAPLER
San Jose Mercury News
WASHINGTON — When voters choose between Barba-ra Boxer and Carly Fiorina in California’s hard-fought Senate race Nov. 2, they also may be deciding control of the entire U.S. Senate.
The contest between the three-term Democratic incum-bent and the Republican former Hewlett-Packard CEO is shaping up as one of a small handful of races around the country that will determine whether Democrats retain power in the Senate or cede it to Republicans, three election handicappers told the San Jose Mercury News.
While Republicans are widely expected to win the House, it’s a much taller order in the Senate, where there are 41 Republicans compared with a Democratic caucus of 59 (57 Democrats and two indepen-dents). GOP candidates would have to hold all of their current seats (likely) and then win 10 seats now held by Democrats. Election handicappers are predicting GOP gains of six to nine seats; to get to 10, Repub-licans would have to take almost every competitive race.
It would mean knocking off Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, claiming Barack Obama’s former Senate seat in Illinois and nabbing the West Virginia seat held by the late Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd for more than fi ve decades.
Assuming all that happens, and then some, the prospects for a Republican takeover would come down to victory in one of two liberal strong-holds, Washington or Califor-nia. Both are represented by Democratic women elected in 1992 — the so-called Year of the Woman — running against Republican former business executives.
In Washington, Sen. Patty Murray has maintained a small but steady lead on Republican Dino Rossi in recent polls. The same is true of Boxer, who is
running slightly ahead of Fiori-na. Neither incumbent, howev-er, is a lock for re-election.
Will the GOP wave reach the Left Coast? Anything is possible in this most unpre-dictable of election years.
“The problem with a wave election is you have no idea how big it is until it lands,” said
Jennifer Duff y, senior editor of the Cook Political Report, which predicts Republicans will gain seven to nine seats and rates the Boxer-Fiorina contest a tossup. “If Fiorina wins in California, it’s clearly a big wave.”
Elections expert Larry Sabato’s “Crystal Ball” politics website has Republicans falling one or two seats short of a Senate takeover. However, he — like other prognostica-tors — is hedging his bets. One historical nugget that gives him pause: Since the 1940s, each of the six times that control of the House has changed parties, the Senate has switched in the same election.
Senate control hinges on few key races
Carly FiorinaRepublican U.S. Senate candidate
Barbara BoxerDemocratic California senator
A7The Wenatchee WorldNation Monday, October 25, 2010
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