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Clinton’s policies a new “Contract With America,” a 10-point
legislative plan to cut federal taxes, balance the budget and
dismantle various welfare programs enacted and expanded
by Democrats.
Americans bought into the contract, with Republicans taking
control of both the House and Senate.
Clinton, realizing Americans were unhappy with his policies,
became more centric and easily won re-election.
Now it’s 2018, and while there’s no Clinton to kick around
anymore, the stakes of this year’s midterm elections are as
high as they were in Arkansas in 1980 and in Washington in
1992.
In the period since Donald Trump’s election as president,
Washington has been plagued with a do-nothing, harshly partisan
Congress, and while in reality both parties are to blame,
the American people seem to be poised to drain the Congressional
swamp and give the blue party a chance to run things
on Capitol Hill.
History says the president’s party loses seats in the first
election following his inauguration.
But will that hold true in 2018? And if so, how many seats
will his party lose?
It might even be that voters are ready to send new blood
to Washington, even if it means casting out members of Congress
from their own party.
One only has to look at what happened in New York City in
the Democratic primary.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 28, defeated incumbent Joe
Crawley, the Democratic Caucus Chair, in the primary on June
26, in what has been described as the biggest upset of the
2018 election season thus far.
Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists
of America and has been endorsed by various politically progressive
organizations and individuals.
Crawley was seeking his fourth term to represent New
York’s 14th Congressional District after serving as representative
from the 7th District beginning in 1999.
It wasn’t really even close, with Ocasio-Cortez winning 57
percent of the vote.
“He was pretty well entrenched in his position, so to say his
loss is a shock is pretty much an understatement,” said David
Heller, vice president of government affairs at the Truckload
Carriers Association. “In fact, it was massive shock. It was a
blow that shows the upcoming midterm election is anybody’s
ballgame.”
While many pundits are focusing on the Senate, where the
GOP holds a slim 51-49 advantage and where at least seven
seats are being called “toss-ups” by Real Clear Politics, some
are beginning to wonder aloud if the House, where Republicans
hold a 236-193 margin with six seats unfilled, could be
a turnover, too.
Take, for instance, the races for the House seat from
Ohio’s 12th District, where voters went to the polls August 6
to choose a replacement for Rep. Pat Tiberi, a Republican who
resigned to work in private business.
At press time, Republican Troy Balderson had 101,772
votes to 100,208 for Democrat Danny O’Conner, which
amounts to a 1,564-vote difference.
But there are 3,435 provisional ballots that have yet to be
counted.
What’s more, Ohio law requires an automatic recount if
two candidates are ultimately separated by less than onehalf
a percentage point, and with the afore listed vote totals,
Balderson’s lead is only fourth-tenths of 1 percent.
Early in the race, O’Conner was given little chance to win
given the facts that Trump carried the district by 11 points
and that Tiberi won by 37 points in 2016.
Since Republicans typically are friendlier toward trucking
than Democrats, Heller and other industry executives are
casting a wary eye toward November.
“Obviously, we will be watching these races without a
doubt,” Heller said. “If the Democrats take control of the
House, it presents an interesting landscape because currently
you have strong Republicans in the House and Senate.
With the Republicans controlling all three venues it makes it
somewhat of an easy time [getting pro-trucking legislation]
passed. If any of that landscape changes, it’s a whole new
ballgame.”
Heller blames inaction as cause of voter unrest.
“Partisanship has been rather strong. One side blames the
other and vice versa, many times over the same issue,” he
said. “Traditional strongholds of both parties have often come
up contested these days. That hasn’t always been the case.
A strong Republican part of the country based on a strong
Republican officeholder may not be the case anymore. Look
at every bill out there today. Nothing gets done on its own.
Rather, they are often attached to a larger bill.”
Heller believes that regardless of which party holds power,
inaction still may be an issue.
“The harsh reality is we need to come together and work
on things that really make sense,” he said. “For instance, we
start having talks about ELDs and exemptions. We don’t need
to exempt these devices, we need to support the mandate
that was put in place, and there is a reason this mandate
came about. People were submitting fraudulent logs, and so
obviously, we have to prove that can no longer be the case.
We have to tell the true story.”
There have been documented cases of a president achieving
bipartisan success in getting major legislation
through a Congress of the opposite party.
Both were former governors who
defied political stereotypes, wrote
Jack Markell in a 2012 article on
the website, Politico.com.
Both worked with political
opponents to confront
the challenges facing the
nation and craft bipartisan
solutions. Reagan
worked with a Democratic
Congress to pass
comprehensive immigration
and tax reforms.
Clinton worked with a
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