After months of speculation, it now is official. Voters have
decided to hand Congress to Democrats, ending the 12-year GOP reign
in the House and delivering a sharp rebuke to President Bush. As a
result, the business community will be forced to navigate its
respective agenda through the turbulent seas of divided government
and presidential electoral politics building up to the 2008
election.
At press time, Democrats had won at least 28 Republican-held
seats without losing any of their own. The results gave Democrats a
231-196 majority, with eight races still undecided, and Nancy
Pelosi (D-Calif.) will become the first female speaker of the House
in January. In the Senate, Democrats picked up six Republican-held
seats, giving them a 51-49 advantage and ushering in the era of
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Democrats also gained
heavily in gubernatorial races, picking up seven states to claim a
majority nationally.
Dissatisfaction with Bush, the war in Iraq and recent Republican
scandals turned the campaign into a referendum on the GOP.
Corruption proved to be a more salient issue than
expected—exit polls found 41 percent of voters rated
corruption as being "extremely...
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