Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

US & Int'l Papers

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It's an Election Year

Monday February 27, 2006

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Let's let the Dubai port deal simmer for another couple of days while we turn our attentions to other things.

Dear Mr. Mullings:

Are we to believe you are not going to toot your own horn about Dubai asking for a 45-day delay in implementing its purchase of the British firm's port assets?
Oh, golly. You know I hate this sort of thing. But if you're talking about my being widely quoted on Wednesday and Thursday saying:
A delay of up to 60 days would "get people to back off the ledge here and give everybody a chance to back down," said Republican consultant Rich Galen.
in newspapers worldwide, why � shucks. Just doin' my job, is all.
Oh, please. You guess right once every six or seven years and right away you think you're Nostradamus.

The mid-term elections to be held on November 7, 2006, are beginning to get our attention here in Your Nation's Capital. The seats of all 435 voting members of the US House are on the line, as are 33 Senate seats.

Of those 33 Senate seats, 17 are held by Democrats, one by Jim Jeffords (who claims to be an independent), and 15 by Republicans.

The Democrats have to win a net six seats to take control of the Senate. Republicans have to keep any losses to five which would create a tie. Vice President Dick Cheney, as President of the Senate, would break any ties, so the GOP can maintain control with 50 Senators.

Across the Rotunda, Republicans hold an official lead of 231-201 with two vacancies and one independent - Bernie Saunders who lists himself as a Socialist and, therefore, has not generally been a safe Republican vote.

Of the two vacancies, one is a Republican seat, one Democratic, so let's put the effective margin at 232-203.

You have to get to 218 seats to take control of the House, so the Democrats need to win 15 more seats than Republicans next November.

This is not as easy as it sounds.

For one thing, there is nothing in the world more important to the average Member of Congress than insuring his or her re-election. To that end, they take a great interest in the way their Congressional Districts are drawn.

With the use of computers, each party is assiduous in making certain its incumbents have as many voters of their party as possible and as few of the other party as necessary. This works to the advantage of both.

Finding 15 Republican districts which will go Democratic is not likely - and that assumes the Dems don't lose any of their own - which leads me to the story I want to tell you.

Ohio's sixth district seat is held by Ted Strickland, a Democrat, who is retiring to run for Governor. The filing deadline for those wishing to succeed him was last week.

The consensus front-runner was a Democratic State Senator named Charles Wilson, who does not actually live in the district, but just outside of it. [The US Constitution requires a Representative live in the state, but there is no requirement to live in the district]

It seems that Sen. Wilson (who is not, I guarantee you, the head of the Mensa Society caucus in the Buckeye state legislature) will not appear on the primary ballot as a Democrat because he didn't get enough valid signatures on his filing petitions.

I was thinking he needed 1,500, maybe 2,000 valid signatures and I felt badly for him when I read he was four signatures short.

I was wrong. He got 46 valid signatures.

Fifty. He needed FIFTY signatures and he couldn't do it.

Too bad. The Dems in the House have been looking for some new mathematics talent on the Budget Committee; the Ways & Means Committee; or the COUNTING TO FIFTY COMMITTEE.

So, a relatively safe district will now be a toss-up which could easily go Republican, meaning the Democrats would have to win an additional GOP seat to make up for that loss.

That's why the Democrats are going to have a hard time taking control of the US House in the November elections.

On a the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to a Mullmeister quote, a link to a Nostrodamus bio; the Constitutional language dealing with residency; another Mullfoto showing my extraordinary popularity in Washington, and a nice Catchy Caption of the Day.

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