My Picador Article: The 2006 Elections

I wrote an article about the 2006 elections for my school newspaper. It's just a simple synopsis of the elections for those who don't know too much about it, but I think it offers a few fun facts and some interesting topics for debate. Here is the article:

The mid-term elections have come and gone. The only people with something to celebrate this time around are the Democrats. Many pundits called this election a “vote against Bush” or a “vote against the war in Iraq”. Despite being very simplified, these statements fairly assess the results of the election.

The U.S. governmental breakdown before the election: the Republicans held the Presidency, the Senate (55-45 majority), and the House (232-203 majority). After all of the electioneering mayhem: The Democrats gain control of the House (232-202, with 1 undetermined) and the Senate (49-49, with 2 independents that will caucus with the Democrats).

New Hampshire was not immune from the Democratic romping. The Republicans controlled every branch of the New Hampshire government, except the governorship, prior to the elections. Now, the Democrats hold each governmental division, which includes the Governor, House, Senate, and Executive Council. Some believe that this is the first time this has ever happened. You have to look back to the 1800’s for the last time the Democrats even controlled the New Hampshire House.

Why did this happen? Well, as said above, a large part of this “Democratic Tsunami” was due to an unpopular war and an unpopular president. In New Hampshire these effects were amplified. Our Democratic governor is the most popular governor our state has ever seen. He won his election by an historic 48-point margin. Many other Democratic candidates were pulled along for the ride.

The Republicans always talk about “getting out the base” of good voters; some blame the poor results on a bad turnout among these voters. New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner predicted the state-wide turnout to be high. In fact, there ended up being 20,000 more ballots cast than predicted. Traditionally there are more straight ticket ballots for Republicans in New Hampshire; this year there were about 20,000 more for Democrats. Republicans still have the most registered voters in New Hampshire. This has left many GOP leader thinking that maybe it’s time the Republican Party rethinks who constitutes this “base” of good voters.

I think the greatest question here is: what can be done to revive the NH GOP? I am a personal believer that the so-called "social conservative" and "values voters" are not the true base of the Republican Party, especially in New Hampshire. In our state we have Republicans that I like to call "New Hampshire conservatives". For the most part they tend to be more libertarian-leaning conservatives. I count myself among this group. We tend to have a distrust for big government and enjoy low taxes and personal freedoms.

One reason the Democrats took control of the New Hampshire government is because they realized a big part of the New Hampshire conservative ideology; they realized that the voters of New Hampshire don't want any more taxes. Most of the popular Democrats in New Hampshire have said they oppose a sales or income tax.

Democrats tend to be more for socially liberal policies that usually mean more personal freedoms. Now combine that with the recent switch to an anti-tax sentiment in their party and they send a message that appeals to NH conservatives. The best thing for the NH GOP to do is to show that the Democrats are merely paying lip service to this idea of low taxes and smaller government. The voters of this state have to realize that the only guarantee against a broad-based tax is a government consisting of traditional NH conservatives.

The real base of the New Hampshire Republican Party is the NH conservatives. For us to take back the government, we need to work on making a plan that shows how we will fight to reduce the size and scope of government. We need to show voters that we are the party of low taxes, smaller government, and personal freedoms. New Hampshire voters (which includes conservatives) do not want a government of socially conservative Republicans. They just want to be left alone to attend to their own business.

In Libertate,
Tyler