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House Race Update: Ohio Sup. Ct. to Rule on Franklin County Votes

November 25, 2008 8:38 PM

ABC News' Teddy Davis and Arnab Datta Report: A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Ohio Supreme Court -- and not a federal district court -- is the proper forum to decide how approximately 1,000 challenged provisional votes should be counted in a tight congressional race between Ohio state Sen. Steve Stivers (R) and Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy (D).

The "court case… has been remanded to the Ohio Supreme Court,"  said Kevin Kidder, spokesman for Ohio's Secretary of State.

None of Franklin County's approximately 27,000 provisional ballots can be counted until the Supreme Court resolves what to do with the 1,000 ballots in question.

The race in Ohio's 15th congressional district is to fill the House seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH).

Stivers, the Republican candidate, is the candidate challenging the validity of approximately 1,000 provisional ballots in Franklin County.

On Nov. 20, a federal judge in Columbus ruled that because the disputed ballots were deficient due to poll worker error, they constitute valid votes that "must be opened and counted."

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals decided on Tuesday that the validity of the ballots should be decided by the Ohio Supreme Court and not by a federal district court.

According to the Associated Press, Kilroy, the Democrat, currently trails Stivers, the Republican, by 594 votes.

It is not yet known when the Ohio Supreme Court will render its decision.

November 25, 2008 in Ballotwatch, Vote 2008: Democrats, Vote 2008: Republicans, Washington | Permalink | User Comments (4)

Obama Points to Farm Subsidies for Budget Cuts

November 25, 2008 4:39 PM

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf and Nitya Venkataraman Report: Asked today where he would start cutting spending once he becomes President, Barack Obama immediately pointed to abuse of farm subsidies.

If changing government is his goal, he'll have no more difficult time than with farm subsidies, which confound academics and politicians in both parties, but represent a lifeblood of revenue for the middle of the country.

"Let me give you one example of what I'm talking about," Obama said of government waste at a press conference in Chicago today. "There's a report today that from 2003 to 2006, millionaire farmers received $49 million in crop subsidies even though they were earning more than the $2.5 million cutoff for such subsidies. If this is true, it is a prime example of the kind of waste I intend to end as president." (Read the report here.)

While Obama was talking about people gaming the subsidy system, it is interesting that he immediately thought of farm subsidies - sold every five years when the Farm Bill is passed as a way to help family farmers stay in business and keep American agriculture competitive in the global economy - goals that many people think farm subsidies miss by a wide margin as John Stossel found in Nebraska in October.

Fred Kirschenmann who owns a 3500-acre mixed grain and livestock farm in North Dakota says "in the short term, subsidies are necessary when you have volatility in prices" but ultimately are "not a sustainable system" for small family farms.

Farmers, he says, have never been in a position to bring a product in and determine its value against the market. "They have no economic power to negotiate a price that compensates them for their cost of production."

"What we need to be doing is gradually transitioning away from subsidies to a system that allows farmers to recoup their cost of production,' he says. "Subsidies should not be a handout they ought to be designed so that they provide a basic support to a system so a farmer doesn't go out of business."

Obama grudgingly supported the farm bill last Spring, and supported overriding President Bush's veto of it. He argued at the time that while the bill was not perfect, it was good.

That was not the tack President Bush took when he vetoed the bill in large part for not working enough to cut farm subsidies. In the official administration policy against the Farm Bill, the White House said "the bill continues to increase price supports and send farm subsidies to people who are among the wealthiest 2 percent of American tax filers whose three-year average Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) is greater than $200,000. Payments should be targeted to those who really need them, especially those who have a meaningful connection to production agriculture. This action does not represent fiscal stewardship nor is it farm program reform."

Ending farm subsidies altogether is a favorite topic of Obama's favorite Republican, Indiana Republican Richard Lugar.

Lugar and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, in late 2007 offered an amendment to the most recent farm bill that would have ended direct subsidy payments to farmers altogether and instead created a safety net - think large-scale, no cost insurance for emergencies.

Their proposal got 37 votes in 2007. Obama was campaigning, but his Illinois colleague Dick Durbin supported the amendment.

On his change.gov transition website, President-elect Obama promises to "Fight for farm programs that provide family farmers with stability and predictability. Implement a $250,000 payment limitation so we help family farmers -- not large corporate agribusiness. Close the loopholes that allow mega farms to get around payment limits."

Cutting subsidy payments at $250,000 was the same level sought by President Bush (and overridden by Congress with Obama's help).

November 25, 2008 in Bush, George W., Obama, Barack, Vote 2008: Democrats, Vote 2008: Republicans, Washington, White House | Permalink | User Comments (28)

For Obama, a Cautionary Tale on Budget Cuts

November 25, 2008 4:04 PM

ABC News' Jonathan Karl Reports: When President-elect Obama promised today to "scour our federal budget, line by line, and make meaningful cuts" he sounded like the current president.

"Just as we trust Americans with their own money, we need to earn their trust by spending their tax dollars wisely," President Bush said during his State of the Union address on January 28.  "Next week, I'll send you a budget that terminates or substantially reduces 151 wasteful or bloated programs, totaling more than $18 billion."

True to his word,  President Bush's 2009 budget submission proposed to "terminate or reduce 151 discretionary programs" and calculated that making all 151 of those cuts would reduce 2009 spending by $18 billion.

Given the size of the deficit (it was more than $430 billion last year), $18 billion in savings is quite modest.  But how many of those 151 programs were ultimately eliminated?

None.  Instead Congress added an extra $20 billion in spending.

November 25, 2008 in Bush, George W., Obama, Barack, Vote 2008: Democrats, Vote 2008: Republicans, Washington, White House | Permalink | User Comments (4)

Schumer Giving Up D.S.C.C. Gig

November 24, 2008 5:28 PM

ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: New York Sen. Chuck Schumer (D) is giving up his job running the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee after two successful campaign cycles which saw his party go from minority status under a newly re-elected President Bush to its biggest Senate majority in three decades.

In 2006, Schumer helped engineer a 6-seat gain that gave the Democrats a 1-vote majority in the Senate. 

In the still unfolding 2008 election, the Democrats picked up 7 additional seats in the Senate with possible pick-ups in Minnesota and Georgia yet to be determined.

Due to the closeness of the vote in Minnesota, an automatic hand recount is currently taking place between Democrat Al Franken and incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman. A Dec. 2 run-off is slated to take place in Georgia between Democrat Jim Martin and incumbent Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss. The Peach State holds a run-off election if no Senate candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote. 

If Democrats were to win both races, they would have a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority. Even if the Democrats lose both races, no party has had a 58-seat majority in the Senate since the Democrats controlled that many seats in the 96th Congress which took place from 1979-80.

Schumer is leaving his campaign post because he wants to play a more active role in the burst of legislation expected during Obama's first year in office.

The New York Democrat's successor has not yet been named by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
One Democrat frequently mentioned is New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez.

November 24, 2008 in Vote 2008: Democrats, Vote 2008: Republicans, Washington | Permalink | User Comments (11)

Waxman Defeats Dingell to take Influential House Post

November 20, 2008 11:17 AM

ABC News' Rick Klein, Dean Norland, and Jonathan Karl Report: House Democrats voted Thursday to put Rep. Henry Waxman in charge of the influential House Energy and Commerce Committee, in a stinging rebuke to the House's longest-serving member that could have wide implications for the Obama administration's environmental agenda.

Waxman, D-Calif., defeated Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., in a 137-122 secret-ballot vote. Dingell has long been one of the auto industry's biggest champions, and Waxman's case to his colleagues was based in large part on his promise to push an agenda that aligns more closely with that of President-elect Barack Obama.

"The prevailing view in the caucus, and the argument we made, was that we needed a change for the committee to have the leadership that will work with this administration, and with members of both the House and the Senate, in order to get important issues passed in health care, in environmental protection, in energy policy," Waxman said. "We are at a unique moment in history. We have an opportunity that maybe only comes once in a generation and I think that the Democratic caucus agreed with me that we must meet that challenge and move forward on those important policies."

House leaders created a new post for Dingell -- chairman emeritus. Dingell was first elected to Congress in 1955, and in February is set to become the longest-serving member in the history of the House of Representatives.

November 20, 2008 in Vote 2008: Democrats | Permalink | User Comments (11)

Biden's Guv Plans Midnight Swearing-in

November 18, 2008 6:49 PM

ABC News' Teddy Davis and Arnab Datta Report: ABC News has learned that Delaware's newly elected Democratic governor is planning to take the oath of office at 12:01 a.m. ET on Jan. 20, 2009, making it possible for him to name Vice President-elect Joe Biden's replacement to the United States Senate. 

Whether Governor-elect Jack Markell (D) gets to name Biden's Senate replacement will ultimately turn on whether the Vice President-elect makes good on his stated intention to wait until the moment he becomes Vice President to resign from the U.S. Senate. 

Delaware law provides that when a U.S. senator resigns before the end of his term, the state's governor appoints a replacement who remains in office until the next election which, in this case, is 2010.

The midnight swearing-in will take place in Newark, Del., on the campus of the University of Delaware.  Markell will be sworn into office by one of the state's Supreme Court justices.  While Markell will take the oath of office and officially become governor on January 20, he will re-enact the swearing-in and deliver his inaugural address on January 21, at the state capitol in Dover, Del.  Markell opted for a midnight swearing-in to accommodate Delawareans who wanted to attend the Obama-Biden inauguration in Washington, D.C., as well as the inauguration of the new governor, while simultaneously complying with the state constitution's requirement that the new governor be sworn in on January 20. 

Markell thought it would be more feasible to hold a re-enactment on January 21 than it would be to hold a daytime swearing-in on January 20. 

A number of Delaware state officials have been mentioned as possibile Biden replacements including Lt. Gov. Jack Carney, Supreme Court Chief Justice Myron Steele, and Secretary of State Harriet Smith Windsor. 

Attorney General Beau Biden, the vice president-elect's son, sent an email to reporters on Tuesday saying that he does not want to be considered as a possible replacement for his father in the Senate. The younger Biden is a member of the state's National Guard and has been training in Texas for a year-long deployment to Iraq.

Markell is planning formally to announce his plans on Wednesday.

November 18, 2008 in Biden, Joe, Vote 2008: Democrats, Vote 2008: Republicans, Washington, White House | Permalink | User Comments (8)

Dodd: Dems Can't Pass Auto Bailout This Year

November 13, 2008 5:46 PM

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf Reports from Capitol Hill: An architect of the original bailout bill said Thursday Democrats lack the votes to pass bill giving auto companies a piece of the $700 billion bailout pie next week.

"I want to help them if we can, but I'm not going to give anyone a blank check, so we're going to try and do something if we can next week. I don't think the votes are there. Candidly, I don't think we have the votes to get that done. With no big change between now and next Wednesday, I'm skeptical," said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who chairs the Senate Banking Committee.

Even after January, Democrats will have to gain some Republican support in the Senate to pass a new rescue package for the automakers -- and that is looking less likely.

Republicans worry that every time Congress passes a rescue package for a new industry, others will line up to create a bailout soup kitchen line.

"Those are not illegitimate concerns obviously," said Dodd, "And you want to put conditions on any resources provided to an industry that hasn't managed itself very well, but its not going to serve any of our interests if a major automobile manufacturer goes out of business between now and Jan. 20th if we could step in and keep them vibrant, we might allow them to survive."

So, while the aim and focus of the TARP is elastic and evolving, it is looking less likely that the auto industry will get in on the action.

Democrats in the House and Senate made clear earlier this week that they'd like to see some of the $700 billion go to help the troubled U.S. auto industry, which directly and indirectly employs 1 in 10 U.S. workers.

But, Republicans Thursday indicated they will be less willing to sign a big new check for Detroit than they were to prop up the financial industry earlier this year.

"People up here don't get it," fumed one Senior Republican Thursday. "Bailouts are less popular than Congress."

Be it a rescue or a bailout, any new loans to the auto industry would represent another huge outlay of taxpayer dollars and that is what frustrates Republicans, when there are no taxpayer guarantees the new money would keep the auto industry solvent.

"Spending billions of additional federal tax dollars with no promises to reform the root causes crippling automakers' competitiveness around the world is neither fair to taxpayers nor sound fiscal policy," said House Republican Leader John Boehner in a statement Thursday.

And if Republicans band against a bailout for the auto industry, Democrats admit there is no way it can pass this year, and it might be tough next year too.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., an architect of the $700 billion rescue package, is said to be crafting a sub-rescue package for the auto industry, which would cut a check from that $700 billion to the prop up the U.S. automakers. Frank's committee will grill the CEOs of the Big Three American automakers in a hearing next week.

But, Congress authorized $25 billion in preferred loans to the auto industry earlier this fall. The money is tied up in red tape and must be used to update facilities for production of more fuel efficient vehicles.

Rather than dipping into the $700 billion originally aimed at Wall Street and the financial industry, Republicans would rather re-tool those loans to make them more immediately available and not constrict their use to creating more fuel efficient vehicles.

Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate (and the most powerful Republican in the land when President Bush is no longer president) has not rejected the idea of a bailout for the auto industry.
But his spokesman Don Stewart said Thursday that Congress should consider how to use the billions in loans already thrown at the auto industry before allocating new money.

“Earlier this year, Congress acted in a bipartisan way to help the auto industry and protect jobs. The Congress passed and the president signed legislation authorizing $25 billion in low-interest loans to help American automakers re-tool their facilities to make the fuel-efficient cars of the future. It may be that there are changes that need to be made in order to expedite these low-interest loans. Other ideas have been floated and all will receive a review as we approach the Senate’s return next week," said Stewart.

Democrats realize that until January, when Barack Obama becomes President, they can't get anything done without the cooperation of Republicans first in the Senate and ultimately in the White House, where President Bush is no fan of another bailout/rescue.

November 13, 2008 in Dodd, Chris, Vote 2008: Democrats, Vote 2008: Republicans, Washington, White House | Permalink | User Comments (28)

Illinois Guv to Pick Obama Replacement

November 13, 2008 3:04 PM

ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: Now that President-elect Barack Obama has formally submitted his Senate resignation (effective Sunday), Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) has broad discretion in coming up with a replacement.

Blagojevich need only pick someone who is a resident of Illinois, is at least 30 years old, and has been a United States citizen for at least nine years.

Illinois allows substitute senators to stay in place until the unexpired term is done, which would be 2010 in the case of Obama who was elected in 2004.

Illinois law does not dictate how quickly Blagojevich must make the pick. The governor has said, however, that he is aiming to do it by the end of the year.

Valerie Jarrett, an Obama adviser and close friend of the family, took herself out of the running to replace him in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.

While Blagojevich wants a senator who agrees with his policy agenda, he has indicated that he will not appoint himself.

"I'm not interested in the U.S. Senate, I like my job as governor," said Blagojevich at a post-election press conference.

The individuals listed below are just some of the names which have circulated as possible Senate replacements:

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr (D-IL)

Illinois Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth

Illinois State Sen. President Emil Jones

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL)

Attorney General Lisa Madigan

Lieutenant Gov. Pat Quinn

November 13, 2008 in Obama, Barack, Vote 2008: Democrats, Vote 2008: Republicans, Washington, White House | Permalink | User Comments (29)

Cassoulet - Mystery Solved

November 10, 2008 4:44 PM

ABC News' Brian Hartman reports: Throughout ABC's election night coverage from New York, it was impossible to miss, amid shots of the boisterous crowd gathered in Times Square, a large banner emblazoned with the conundrum: "cassoulet."

One viewer wrote on the Dallas Morning News website, "That may well be the most confusing sign I have ever seen anywhere."

Heads also were scratching in ABC's election coverage studio.

"I want to know who 'cassoulet' is," George Stephanoulos said on-air to Charles Gibson just before a commercial break.

Many viewers were just as curious. Thousands logged onto the internet for answers, making "cassoulet" -- a French bean casserole -- one of the top 100 search terms on Google for Election Day.

The real answer, it turns out, appears to be that US election night was the backdrop for a French joke. 

As seen in this video clip, a sound engineer for "Le Petit Journal" (The Little Journal), a comedy show that airs on the Canal + TV network, had been making the rounds of US live news broadcasts that day. Wherever Mathieu the engineer could find a camera, he would wave a sign with messages for his mother -- capping off the day with a massive banner that paid homage to her beloved cassoulet.

The video can be seen HERE.

November 10, 2008 in Biden, Joe, McCain, John, Obama, Barack, Palin, Sarah, Vote 2008: Democrats, Vote 2008: Republicans | Permalink | User Comments (30)

Did Blacks Tank Gay Marriage in California?

November 07, 2008 6:50 PM

ABC News' Alex Green Reports: Barack Obama won the presidential election on Tuesday but did the Democrats' win contribute to the passage of a measure banning gay marriage in California?

It's a question being hotly debated in the blogosphere and the theory goes something like this: a popular, African-American presidential contender increases black turnout.  Blacks, by in large, oppose gay marriage.  Therefore, proposition eight banning gay marriage in a Democratic-leaning state such as California passes 52-48 percent.

Turns out it's not quite that simple. 

"Whites voted very narrowly against the ban, 51-49 percent. Asian-Americans voted the same. Hispanics voted for it, by 53-47 percent. Blacks voted for it, overwhelmingly, 70-30. Blacks can be said to have put it over the top. Hypothetically, had no blacks voted, we compute a vote of 50-50," according to an analysis by ABC News Polling Director Gary Langer.

Yes, black Californians who voted for Obama also supported the gay marriage ban by a wide margin but so did Hispanics.  And white and Asian-American opposition to the ban wasn't large enough to overcome the spread, so to speak.

That said, African-American opposition to gay marriage and gay civil unions is not new. In an ABC News/Washington Post poll in late 2007, blacks opposed gay civil unions by 58-36 percent. (Whites were in favor, 55-41.) In earlier polling we've done on gay marriage, blacks have been even more broadly opposed, 66-31 percent.

Some may find irony in the idea that as Sen. Obama took a major step forward for civil rights breakthrough his candidacy helped fuel at least in part the restriction of another group's civil rights.

Obama didn't take a hard line against the proposition, routinely stating that he did not support Proposition 8 but personally doesn't believe in gay marriage.

"I think that he [Mr. Obama] was very resolute in his statements along with Senator Biden.  If anything might have added to the confusion it was how that statement was misconstrued," said Andrea Shorter, Director of And Marriage For All, a gay rights advocacy group.

"The support against Proposition 8 among African Americans wasn't eroding until a mailer from Yes On 8 [the campaign driving Proposition 8] had a picture of Barack Obama with a statement that he supported Yes On 8 [though he doesn't]," Shorter added.

Nevertheless, to change perception of gay Americans in California's black communities, And Marriage For All will be holding next steps meetings with black clergymen and other community allies. 

"The type of change that Proposition 8 is attempting to do goes against the foundational legal principles in our Constitution . . . equal protection against minority groups in the Constitution," said Jennifer Pizer Senior Council for Lambda Legal, a gay rights legal advocacy group.

The challenge is unique: Obama's candidacy drove historic black turnout.  Proposition 8's passage can't entirely be attributed to any one single race but gay rights groups across the country are going to have to rally support among a much more politically engaged black community.

November 7, 2008 in Obama, Barack, Vote 2008: Democrats | Permalink | User Comments (471)