The smoke from last night is starting to clear, and it looks like we’re going to have a Democratic president, 56 Democrats in the senate, and 256 in the house. The last time there was a Democratic mandate like this was 1993. We must take advantage of this opportunity by getting DC congressional representation. (After all, we may not get another chance this good for another 16 years).

Last year, HR 1905 passed the house, and then stalled in the senate as S 1257, failing to meet cloture by 57-42. With an even larger Democratic majority, the house is likely to pass it again if asked. The problem is the Senate. Last time 8 senate Republicans supported the bill:

*I’m assuming Coleman will win the recount since he’s winning right now. If he doesn’t he’ll be replaced by Al Franken, who will probably support the measure.

So we have 56 Democratic senators, plus the 8 Republicans. Even without Robert Byrd (who had no vote the last time), that’s 63 yes votes in the senate – enough to gain passage.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 1:59 pm by Ari and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.