Republicans captured a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives during Tuesday’s midterm elections, but failed to meet expectations of also taking the majority in the Senate.

Central New York went against the national trend, re-electing Democratic incumbent Dan Maffei (25th Congressional District). But political science professors at Syracuse University said the majority of voters across the country took to the polls Tuesday to voice their frustrations at the lack of a quick fix to the economic downturn in the first two years of President Barack Obama’s term.

‘Some of the issues that were detrimental to the Republicans of the Bush administration, like the war in Iraq, are off the agenda,’ said Kristi Andersen, a political science professor in SU’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. ‘What’s on the agenda is the economy. And the economy has not turned around as rapidly as people hoped.’

At press time, the Republicans gained six seats in the Senate, bringing the ratio of Democrats to Republicans to 51-to-46 with three seats undecided.

Republicans picked up vacant seats in Pennsylvania (Pat Toomey), Illinois (Mark Steven Kirk) and Colorado (Ken Buck), among others. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) — who has held his Senate seat since 1986 — was also expected to lose to Republican upstart Sharron Angle, but ultimately won with a 6 percent margin.

Before Election Day, Maffei had a comfortable double-digit lead in most polls.

Barring one snowy weekend in February, during which he could not get a flight back to Syracuse, Maffei made the approximately 370-mile trek from Washington, D.C., to DeWitt, N.Y., each weekend during his first two-year term to meet with the citizens in his district. And Abigail Gardner, Maffei’s spokeswoman, credits that outreach as part of the reason Maffei staved off defeat in Tuesday’s midterm elections as Republican power shifted in Congress.

‘If you explain your positions to your voters, and you work really hard by coming home every single weekend like he did to make sure that voters know you’re still in touch and you’re attractable, that’s really one of the most important things a freshman congressman can do,’ Gardner said.

Though Maffei survived for a second term in the House of Representatives, many fellow Democrats suffered a different fate. Democrats had enjoyed a 255-to-178 majority, but Republican takeovers in some of what The New York Times identified as 111 toss-up seats transferred power.

At press time, the Republicans gained a majority of 234-to-180 seats in the House with 21 seats still undecided.

The shift in the House means that Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the speaker of the House since 2007, will no longer hold the position. It will now likely belong to Ohio Republican John Boehner, who is currently the Senate minority leader. The speaker of the House will be chosen the first day of the next session of Congress on Jan. 3 by majority vote.

Gardner, Maffei’s spokeswoman, said she noticed a difference in attitude among voters compared with two years ago. Much of it had to do with the little change in the U.S. economy, as well as a lower level of enthusiasm from younger voters because of the absence of the ‘top-of-the-ticket effect’ without Obama on the ballot, she said.

Maffei, in turn, stressed the bills he had helped pass and his willingness to reach out to voters in the 25th District in his campaign, Gardner said.

‘I think his record and the way he has handled himself in Congress has gotten a lot of people’s respect,’ Gardner said. ‘You see these bomb-throwers, and you see people who went out and did wacky things on either side — Alan Grayson for the Democrats and Michele Bachmann for Republicans — and Dan Maffei isn’t that guy.’

But that difference in attitude also led to the party swing in both the House and the Senate. Throughout the past two years, Republicans have been named the ‘Party of No.’ But Anderson said one likely result will be a switch from Republicans scrutinizing every legislative detail to Democrats becoming overly cautious. Republicans might also become more proactive in getting legislation through, now that they have more control.

‘If and when the Republicans control the House, they can no longer be only the ‘Party of No,” Anderson said. ‘They have a share in power, so they will have to work with the Senate and the administration to get things done.’

But to Robert McClure, an SU political science professor, Tuesday’s results could create an even more divided government. If the two parties are unwilling to work together, the shift could create two ‘Parties of No.’

‘We can either have one ‘Party of No’ and one ‘Party of Yes,’ two ‘Parties of Yes’ or two ‘Parties of No,” he said. ‘And I don’t know what we’re going to have.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on November 2, 2010 at 12:00 pm