CWN Midterm Election Update
The National Democratic Party watched their large majorities in both the House and Senate evaporate Tuesday night as Republican challengers crushed incumbent Democrats across the country. Republicans are projected to pick up as many as 69 seats in the House and six seats in the Senate.
This new political landscape will definitely make it even more challenging then it has been the past two years under a Democratic majority in both chambers, to advance progressive environmental issues on Capitol Hill. Many of the new Members of Congress did not run on progressive environmental platforms. Instead their main mission generally appears to be focused on the economy and rescinding Obama's health care initiative. One of the biggest blows for clean water protections was the defeat of Clean Water Champion U.S. HouseTransportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar (MN-8). Mr. Oberstar was seeking his 19th term n Congress and lost a close election to Ron Johnson. This was the first time Congressman Oberstar had lost even a county since 1974. Mr. Oberstar's efforts to protect clean water will not soon be forgotten and his leadership in this area will be sorely missed. The Clean Water Network awarded him a clean water congressional champions award in 2007 for his efforts to strengthen the federal Clean Water Act and protect our nation's waters.
Another major loss for the clean water community was Senator Russ Feingold's defeat in Wisconsin. Senator Feingold has been a key player on clean water legislative efforts and has been the biggest Senate proponent for the Clean Water Restoration Act (aka America's Commitment to Clean Water) that would restore Clean Water Act protections to all waters in the U.S. CWN awarded Senator Feingold our highest congressional honor, a Clean Water Champions Award in 2007, during Clean Water Week. The Senator will be missed on Capitol Hill.
Democrats lost only a small number of seats on three key Senate committees, Agriculture (2), Environment and Public Works (1), and Energy and Natural Resources(3)). However the losses on the three relevant House committees were much larger, Agriculture (16), Transportation and Infrastructure (15), and Energy & Commerce (6). For a snap shot of election results and a detailed breakdown of some of the key races please click HERE. Keep in mind this election summary is a work in progress. We will be updating it again next week with more information.
