Abstract

Will the Senate Tip?

Democrats in the United States are running even or ahead in four of five races for 2004 open Senate seats in the South, and they are also even or ahead in contests for Republican-held seats in Illinois, Oklahoma, Colorado and Alaska. Suddenly, in a year when continued Republican Party control of both houses of Congress seemed assured, and the presidential election was supposed to be the only competition that mattered, there is a real race for control of the legislative chamber that can make or break a President's agenda. New Jersey Senator Jon Corzine says Democrats need to get these Senate races on their radar. If Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry makes it to the Oval Office his attempts to address the disastrous failure to fund No Child Left Behind education programs would certainly be affected by whether the Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee was chaired by New Hampshire Republican Judd Gregg, the chief Senate defender of Bush's mandate-rich but cash-starved education agenda, or Massachusetts Democrat Ted Kennedy, one of the few senators who is not afraid to talk about fully funding federal mandates. Suggestions that Democrats might actually come out of the 2004 election season with a President and control of the Senate provoked laughter when Jersey Senator Jon Corzine took over the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in late 2002, after the Democrats had lost control of the Senate in one of the worst midterm election setbacks ever for an opposition party.