Despite a last-minute visit by President Barack Obama, congressman Tom Perriello (D-Va.) joined over 60 of his Democratic colleagues in the House of Representatives to lose his tough reelection bid.
Friday night, just 4 days before the election, Obama held a rally at the Charlottesville Pavillion to try and encourage students at the University of Virginia to vote. The 5th district, which Perriello won by only 700 votes in 2008, is historically conservative. Speaking to a crowd of nearly 10,000, many of whom waited in line for upwards of 12 hours, Obama stressed that young voters could be the difference.
“I just want to make sure that everybody understands we need that same enthusiasm and interest on the part of young people that we had in 2008 in 2010,” Obama said.
Obama went on to launch scathing attacks on the Republican party.
“Tom and I refuse to think it makes sense to pay for a $700 billion tax cut for millionaires and billionaires and then cut education by 20% to pay for it. Let me tell you, China’s not cutting education, South Korea’s not cutting education spending, India’s not cutting education spending, Germany’s not cutting education spending. Those countries aren’t playing for second place and neither does the United States of America,” Obama said to deafening cheers.
Throughout the night, Obama framed the election as a choice between his policies, which he claimed were leading the country forward, and the Republican’s, which he argued would send America backwards–possibly into a depression.
He touted his administration’s efforts on health care reform and financial reform as examples of how he and the Democrats were protecting middle-class families.
Tom Perriello bucked a trend among Democrats in conservative districts by campaigning for, rather than against, those controversial measures.
“Sometimes, you know, folks who are operating in the best interest of their constituents…sometimes they don’t win. Because folks don’t turn out, because folks don’t vote. Because folks feel like ‘well, this is too hard.’ This is where all of you come in. The only way to fight that cynicism…is with the millions of voices who are ready to finish what we started in 2008,” Obama said.
Shelley Cox, 47, of Ivy, Virginia, agreed.
Obama went on to argue that politicians, like Tom Perriello, who took tough votes sometimes aren’t rewarded with reelection in November. He said that students could combat that cynicism by voting.
However, as returns slowly streamed in from the 5th district and around the nation, it was apparent that they had not.
Perriello began the night leading his opponent, state Senator Robert Hurt, by a small margin. As the night progressed, Hurt overcame the small deficit and eventually turned that into a comfortable lead that he retained for the rest of the night.
Indeed, Republicans, riding the largest electoral wave since World War II, picked up roughly 65 seats in the House. They needed to pick up 39 in order to pry the gavel from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D, Ca.) hand.
“I voted for [Modern Whig Party candidate] Jeff Vanke because Goodlatte didn’t have a Democrat running against him,” senior Keith Thomas said referring to the 6th district’s, including Harrisonburg’s, congressman Bob Goodlatte (R, Va.).
Goodlatte easily won reelection.
In the Senate, in which the math was far more difficult for Republicans, they picked up 6 seats. In a night in which little went the Democrats way, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) held on against tea party favorite Sharon Angle. Likewise, progressive hero Michael Bennet (D, Co.) prevailed against tea party backed Ken Buck.
In the House, tea party candidates won in 113 of their 129 races. In the Senate, tea party candidates won in four of their seven races, with the race in Alaska still too close to call . In that race, CNN has projected that the Democrat will not win, however Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R, Alaska) is challenging tea party backed Joe Miller as a write-in candidate. She was one of many centrist Republicans ousted during the primary season as the party took a shift to the right.
With a much smaller coalition in Washington, Obama will be faced with the challenge of passing legislation in a far more hostile Congress. Both sides have said they are willing to compromise, but philosophical differences on issues such as how to kick start a nearly stagnant economy will ensure confrontation.
In the meantime, the lame-duck session of Congress (the Republican majority will not be sworn in until January) will have their plate full. The Bush tax cuts are set to expire on December 31. Obama and the Democratic leadership have said they want to extend the tax cuts for those making under $250,000 a year, but allow them to expire for “the millionaires and billionaires who don’t need them.”
Republicans, meanwhile, are persistent in their belief that taxes ought not be raised during an economic downturn.
Should Congress fail to produce a bill by December 31, taxes will go up across the board.
