History not on Democrats’ side in this mid-term election

Democrats in Missouri and Kansas have great hopes of picking up seats in this year’s mid-term elections.

     

The chart says it all

Read But history suggests otherwise, and it suggests that in unmistakable terms.

In fact, Tim Storey, a political expert for the National Conference of State Legislatures says this:

“Since 1902, the party in the White House lost seats in legislatures in 26 of the 28 mid-term elections. The only exceptions being in 1934 when Democrats gained 1108 seats and in 2002 when Republicans netted 177 seats in the post 9/11 election.”

Click on the link for a chart that lays it all out. But Democrats, be forewarned: It’ll depress you.

Via: Kansas City Star

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Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/02/26/4849015/history-not-on-democrats-side.html#storylink=cpy

GOP Launches Major Push to Capture Blue State Senate Seats

Republicans are targeting blue states with competitive races in an effort to win back a majority in the Senate, Politico reports. 

The GOP currently holds 45 seats in the Senate to the Democrats' 55, so it needs to win only six of those elections. Seven states currently represented by Democrats were carried by Mitt Romney in 2012, but Republicans want to increase their chances, so they are also targeting other close elections in purple states, and even some blue ones.

Republicans hope to capitalize on anti-Obamacare sentiment as the program has suffered glitches in its website and in trust in a White House that promised people they could keep their insurance and that premiums would not rise.

Even if a GOP hoped-for backlash against Obamacare doesn't pan out, Politico notes that Democrats could be forced to pull money from bigger races to spend money on less-consequential contests.

Republicans already hold a majority in the House of Representatives.

New York Times statistician Nate Silver has been predicting a possible GOP turnover of the Senate since early this year. Silver's predictions were made months before the disastrous rollout of Obamacare. 

Among the states Politico sees as most likely GOP prospects are Michigan, Iowa, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Colorado, Oregon and Hawaii.

With Sen. Carl Levin retiring in Michigan, Republicans there have rallied behind state Sen. Terri Lynn Land. In Iowa, Sen. Tom Harkin also announced his retirement. No clear leader has emerged there.

In New Hampshire, Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen won in 2008 with only 52 percent. Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown has now moved his primary residence to the Granite State and has been toying with challenging Shaheen.

Via: Newsmax
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Karl Rove: GOP in Better Position than This Point in 2010 Midterm Cycle

Former GOP strategist and Fox News Channel contributor Karl Rove joined Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly on Wednesday evening where he said that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act has had a beneficial effect on the Republican Party’s chances of making gains in the 2014 midterms. Looking at recent polling data, Rove claimed that the GOP is in a better position at this point in the election cycle than they were in 2010. 

“As of today the Real Clear Politics average is 43 percent Republican, 42 percent Democrat,” Rove said of the average of a number of generic congressional ballot results. “One month ago, it was 40 percent Republican, 47 percent Democrat. So, it’s not just the CNN poll.”

“Let’s take a look at thought at 2010,” he continued. “A year out, the Democrats led 47 percent to 42 percent. By Election Day of 2010, it was 52% to 45%, a 7 point advantage for the Republicans.”

RELATED: Christopher: CNN Reports on the ‘Silver Lining’ for Obamacare in Latest Poll

“At this point, one year out from the election, the Republicans were down 5,” Rove observed. “Today, they are up one in the average.”

He said that, given that the Democrats are defending Senate seats in seven states that Mitt Romney won in 2012, Republican prospects for retaking the Congress look possible if not probable.

Rove said that this reversal of political fortunes from the government shutdown is entirely due to the Affordable Care Act’s implementation and it’s only going to get worse. However, even if the ACA were unfolding well and it was a popular program, Democrats would still have obstacles to overcome ahead of the 2014 midterms.

“The economy is not particularly good,” Rove said. “The president’s ratings are low. All of these things combined to point towards a lower number for the Democrats and a higher number for the Republicans next year.”

Via: Mediaite.com

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Obamacare Delays May Create Election Bomb for Democrats

Some of Obamacare’s most damaging political narratives will be getting a fresh look right before next year’s midterms, thanks to delays in the law’s implementation.

Canceled insurance plans are the most obvious example. President Obama said last week that insurers can un-cancel certain policies for another year, a move largely designed to appease nervous Democrats. But a one-year delay simply means that cancellation notices will resume next October—just weeks before many of those same Democrats will face voters for the first time since voting to pass the Affordable Care Act.

And that’s not the only political threat lurking just ahead of the 2014 midterms. The White House also delayed the law’s employer mandate until 2015. That means employers will be deciding in mid- to late 2014 whether they’re going to offer health benefits under the mandate—and whether to cut employees’ hours to avoid providing them with health care.

“They’re concentrating everything in the fall of next year, and that’s a very dangerous time to be doing it,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a conservative economist who leads the American Action Forum.

Via: National Journal

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Obamacare Reforms Could Doom Dems in 2014

Things aren’t exactly looking up for President Obama these days. The rollout of the Affordable Care Act’s central feature, the exchanges where people without employer-provided health insurance are meant to purchase plans, has been disastrous, marked by IT problems and astonishingly low enrollment numbers. The President’s promise that “If you like your plan, you can keep it” has been shown to be knowingly false. The number of people losing coverage is so far rapidly outpacing the number of people gaining coverage. And the administration’s haphazard fixes may only be worsening the situation, promising even deeper political trouble down the road.

First the administration delayed the employer mandate, which, now starting in 2015, will force employers with more than fifty quasi-full-time employees to provide health insurance or pay a new tax. The administration’s decision to delay the mandate, welcome as it may have been to businesses that gained an additional year to deal with the new regulations and obligations they will face, will almost surely lead to political damage at a very unhelpful time. Right before the 2014 midterm elections, about half of all employer plans would have to be canceled or replaced. This would show an immense number of Americans, more than ten times as many as those who are now receiving individual-market cancellation notices, that the administration’s promises that you can keep your doctor were false, and it will show them this in a direct, personal manner. It seems unlikely that congressional Democrats would be willing to deal with the political fallout from such unpleasant news right before facing reelection.

Via: The National Interest

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DNC chief: Democrats can run and win on ObamaCare in 2014

Democrats will be able to run on ObamaCare and win in 2014, the party chairwoman's insisted Friday. 

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said the troubled rollout of ObamaCare's enrollment website, which has frustrated thousands trying to enter the site and bruised the administration, won't hurt Democrats in next year's midterm elections. 

"Democrats will run on the Affordable Care Act and win," Wasserman Schultz said.

Speaking to reporters after an address to the DNC's Women Leadership Forum on Friday, Wasserman Schultz said the law will help the party with female voters because of the benefits women will receive under the healthcare law. 

"No, on the contrary, we know that women are already benefiting significantly from the part of ObamaCare that's already been implemented," she said. 

Wasserman Schultz cited the ability of women to receive free birth control and preventative care under the law as examples.

A number of Democrats have signaled worries about the law and the website. 

Ten Democratic senators signed a letter on Friday urging Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to extend the deadline for enrolling to make sure people unable to access ObamaCare's enrollment website will have time to do so. 

Via: The Hill

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