Election 2006

In a runoff election held yesterday in Texas’s 23rd District, former Democratic Rep. Ciro Rodriguez defeated incumbent Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-Texas), 55%-45%. With Rodriguez’s win, the Democrats now stand to hold a 233-202 advantage when the 110th Congress convenes next month.

On Saturday, Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) defeated Democratic challenger Karen Carter in a runoff election, 57%-43%, to keep his seat in Louisiana's 2nd District. Jefferson is currently being investigated by the FBI for allegedly accepting a bribe from the owner of iGate Inc.

Guest blogger: Congresspedia intern Tim Malacarne

The Democratic Party’s return to majority status in both the House and Senate for the 110th Congress means that, for the first time since 1994, Democrats have the unfettered ability to set the congressional agenda. During the run up to the election, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) tempted voters with an ambitious package of prospective legislation. Now that they are soon to assume control, let’s take a look at what is most likely to fill their plate at the beginning of the 110th Congress:

The tobacco industry’s buddies in the bar and gambling businesses are at it again, suing to try and stop Nevada's new smoke-free law, which voters approved November 7 by a margin of 54% to 46%. The law bans smoking in bars that serve meals, slot machine sections of grocery and convenience stores, in video arcades, shopping malls, schools and day-care centers. Bar and casino owners are claiming the law is unconstitutional, and saying that it will hurt their businesses, while offering no proof that it has. A peer-reviewed study published in Tobacco Control journal in 2003 conclusively linked the tobacco industry to most of these lawsuits. The industry and its allies typically lose these "equal protection" suits, which are stimulated by the tobacco industry to undermine enforcement and long-term implementation of smoke-free laws.

Guest poster: Paul Blumenthal of the Sunlight Foundation

Exit polls show that the 109th Congress severely misread the American voters and believed that passing lobbying and ethics reforms was unnecessary, despite the parade of FBI raids, criminal indictments, and jailed lawmakers and lobbyists. The leaders of the new Democratic majority have promised to enact the reforms the previous Congress shied away from.

The Democrats' plan is to introduce individually a selection of lobbying and ethics reforms that comprised the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2006, an all-in-one package introduced last year. The proposed reforms include:

The Georgia secretary of state today certified the final results of the Georgia congressional elections and Democratic Rep. John Barrow squeaked by Republican challenger Max Burns with less than one percent of the vote to hold on to the Georgia 12th seat. According to the AP story, the Republican-controlled Georgia Legislature redrew the 12th district in 2005 to exclude Barrow's house and many of his constituents, but Barrow moved back into the district and prevailed anyway.

There are still seven races left to be called. Check back with Congresspedia and our Election 2006 homepage for details, updates and analysis.

In what seems to be becoming an American tradition, there are still uncalled House seats eight days after the election. While The Democratic control of the House is solidly entrenched, the results of these races will determine just how much breathing room they have in passing their legislative agenda.

You may have noticed that different websites have varying tallies for the number of open seats and those controlled by Democrats and Republicans. We called several of those outlets to sort things out and here are the results: