Analysis by Paul Tuns
LIFESITE, November 6, 2002 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The pro-life, pro-family movement is generally happy with the results of the U.S election Tuesday night as Republicans re-gained the Senate, increased their number of House seats and achieved better than expected results in numerous gubernatorial races.
Pro-lifers had good reasons for wanting the Republicans to win back the Senate. The one-seat Democratic majority has defeated several Bush pro-life judicial nominees and also refused to even consider legislation passed by the House of Representatives on life issues, including a partial-birth abortion ban, a ban on human cloning, conscience protection for healthcare workers and approval of the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act.
The White House has signaled that it would push for a Senate vote on the legislation Congress has passed and would re-nominate the defeated pro-life judicial nominees. A staffer for a senator within the Republican leadership told The Interim in October that if the GOP regained control of the Senate, the leadership would allow votes on judicial nominees and pro-life legislation.
Not only have the Republicans gained control of the Senate, which will allow Bush's pro-life agenda to advance, but the number of pro-life senators has also increased.
Pro-life hopes were raised early when Congressman Saxby Chambliss quickly scored a lead over incumbent Democratic Senator Max Cleland of Georgia. Cleland, who claimed to oppose partial-birth abortion, was exposed as having voted to uphold President Bill Clinton's veto of Congressional bans of partial-birth abortion three times. Chambliss has a 100 percent pro-life voting record and social conservatives were hopeful but not expecting victory in Georgia. Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, led Republican efforts in Georgia and scored a number of upsets by pitting solidly pro-life Republicans against lukewarm or liberal Democrats.
After pro-abortion incumbent Paul Wellstone of Minnesota died in a plane accident two weeks before election day, the Democrats ran former vice-president Walter Mondale as their candidate. Abortion was a critical issue. Former St. Paul mayor Norman Coleman repeatedly raised it during the campaign, one of the few Republicans to do so. During a debate Monday, Mondale said Coleman's pro-life position was the pre eminent example of the candidates “right-wing extremism.” Coleman defeated Mondale in this crucial and close race, resulting in a GOP pickup.
Former pro-life Republican Congressman Jim Talent defeated incumbent pro-abortion Democratic Senator Jean Carnahan. Republicans assumed that this race was vital to regaining control of the Senate.
Respected pollster John Zogby said that while abortion does not rank as one of the ten most important issues cited by respondents to his surveys it is an important “niche” issue for the congressional and senatorial races, particularly in close races. In such races, Zogby said, “the relatively small amount who vote the abortion issue either from the life point of view or the choice point of view — could make or break an election.”
Lori Waters of the socially conservative Eagle Forum said that in Missouri, which pro-life Jim Talent won by less than one per cent, abortion was “the second most important issue.” It featured prominently in the political debate and, said Waters, “it was pro-life voters that turnout out the vote for Jim Talent and really put him over the top.”
Other close Senate races that political operatives and the media watched included New Hampshire and Colorado. In both cases, pro-life conservative Republicans (John Sununu and Wayne Allard, respectively) defeated pro-abortion, liberal Democrats. Sununu defeated endangered Republican Senator Robert Smith, a strong pro-lifer who polled poorly against Sheehan earlier this year. The risky move of challenging an incumbent to hold a better hand on election day paid off.
Democrats were hopeful about their chances of picking up an open southern seat in North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas where stalwart pro-life Republicans were retiring. Strong pro-life Republicans won in South Carolina (Lindsey Graham) and Texas (John Cornyn) and moderate pro-life Republican Elizabeth Dole held off a challenge by former Bill Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles.
The only incumbent Republican senator to go down to defeat was Tim Hutchinson, a pro-lifer who lost because of his personal conduct; he recently divorced his wife and married a much younger staff member. Democrat Mark Pryor tried to appeal to social conservatives but they appeared to have stayed home. Pryor won anyway. The Family Research Council noted the vote result “in a state trending Republican showed that family and traditional moral values still matter to voters.
The gubernatorial races were a real mixed bag. Pro-abortion Democrats gained control in Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania, but moderately pro-life Republicans won surprise victories in Massachusetts (Mitt Romney) and Maryland (Robert Ehrlich). Jeb Bush, who made powerful pro-life speeches during campaign stops in the week before the election, cruised to re-election as Florida's governor, and Texas's pro-life Governor Rick Perry sailed to re-election. Both were considered vulnerable to hopeful Democrats who considered those races opportunities to embarrass the president in his brother's and his own home states.
Although he did not win, pro-life Republican Bill Simon finished just six points behind California's radically pro-abortion governor, Gray Davis. The California Pro-Life Council said earlier this year, after Davis signed numerous pro-abortion bills into law, that “There is no human abortion he is willing to oppose.” Davis's poor showing is widely thought to end his chances to run on the Democratic ticket in 2004 or 2008, thus eliminating one of the most rabidly pro-abortion governor's from those stakes. Despite several isolated setbacks, pro-life and pro-family leaders cheered the results.
Ken Connor, president of the Family Research Council said, “On balance, this was a significant victory for our pro-family issues. Pro-family and pro-life forces in the House and Senate were strengthened, and President Bush emerged from the evening as a potent political power.”
Gary Bauer, president of the Campaign for Working Families, concurred. “Particularly in the case of the Senate this can have tremendous implications for the pro-family, pro-life movement.”
Almost immediately, politicians and pundits were eyeing the 2004 presidential campaign. The results clearly bolster Bush by increasing his stature and providing momentum. Furthermore, several Democratic hopefuls — Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, House Minority Leader Dick Gephart, California Governor Gray Davis — were severely weakened by their weak performance. Democrats will blame Daschle for failing to maintain control of the Senate and will hold Gephart partially responsible for not cutting into the Republican control of the House of Representatives.
Al Gore, environmental extremist, abortion supporter and the former vice president and 2000 Democratic nominee, remains the frontrunner to be the Democratic standard-bearer for 2004. But CNN's Tucker Carlson noted early Wednesday morning that New York Senator and radical pro-abortion feminist Hillary Clinton “is the big winner” in the Democratic Party.
While some pundits saw Clinton holding off for a presidential run until 2008, she emerges as one of the few unscathed Democrats. She did not campaign heavily in close contests and thus cannot be linked to failed campaigns.
Many political analysts, including former President Bill Clinton advisors James Carville and Paul Begala, are urging the party to move left and find Hillary Clinton's left-liberalism an attractive antidote to President Bush's compassionate conservatism. It is a sign of the desperateness of the Democrats that they would rely on a politically untested, ideologically radical first-term senator as their political saviour.
Paul Tuns is the editor of The Interim, the monthly print publication of Interim Publishing, of which LifeSite News is a division.
