After 12 years of being largely ignored in the Republican-controlled Congress and by the Bush White House, the November 7 midterm elections handed Democrats a resounding victory that allowed them to claim control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate after a series of surprising wins across the country.



Within 24 hours of his party’s defeat in Congress, a humbled President George W. Bush dumped his defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, in an effort to appease angry Republicans who, in his words, took a “thumping” in the elections. Rumsfeld was one of the chief architects of the Iraq war.

Click here for complete list of Local 237 endorsements of the winners (PDF).

New York’s Hillary Rodham Clinton, who easily defeated her opponent in the Senate race, echoed the sentiments of many of her colleagues that more needs to be done to change the direction of Bush’s current policies, but called the president’s action a “new beginning” for the country.

Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the California legislator who will likely be selected the new Speaker of the House, wasted no time in rolling out the Democratic agenda, which includes issues that appeal to working families, among them: increasing the minimum wage and reducing the cost of prescription drugs.

Upstate, New York Congressman Tom Reynolds, who narrowly won re-election, blamed the defeat of several of his colleagues partially to what he called the “hostile national environment” against President Bush and the war in Iraq. At a news conference the day after the elections, Reynolds, who headed the Republicans’ congressional national campaign committee, said his committee had spent $80 million on House races, but Republican candidates were not as prepared as they should have been.

“This is the beginning of the end of the ‘good-old-boys’ Bush administration,” said an ecstatic Local 237 President Carl Haynes. “From here on, they will have to play ball with everyone.” Haynes said the Democrats had a “wonderful opportunity to prove that they can handle the challenge of healing the wounds and fixing some of the damage to our economy. The American people have spoken, they are tired of the nonsense and they want change. This is democracy at work.”

Haynes added that much of the Democrats’ power will come from the chairmanships, one of which will go to Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel, who is expected to lead the powerful Ways and Means Committee which deals with budget appropriations.

In addition to Congress, more than half a dozen Republican candidates and incumbents took a “thumping” at the state level, losing governorships and legislative seats to their Democratic challengers across the country. According to a CNN report, this gives Democrats control of a majority of top state posts for the first time in 12 years. In New York, Eliot Spitzer demolished Republican John Faso to replace Governor George Pataki by a vote of 70-28 percent.

Haynes said he had no doubt that many of the candidates endorsed by Teamsters Local 237 would prevail. “They all have a proven record of achievement and support for the members of this union and New York’s working men and women,” he said. “We expect they will deliver for the people who supported them.”