Speaker John Boehner Delivers the Weekly Republican Address
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By: John Boehner
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Speaker John Boehner Delivers the Weekly Republican Address - Video
With Republican majorities now assured in both houses of Congress, Pentagon spending is likely to grow to cope with national security threats around the globe.
The White House announced Friday that it would request $5.6 billion in additional funds from Congress for airstrikes and other operations against Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria. The total includes $1.6 billion to develop and train Iraqi security forces, which were routed by the Sunni militants last summer.
But that figure may be dwarfed if Republican hawks follow through on promises to roll back mandatory defense spending cuts imposed by a government-wide budget cut known as sequestration.
Pentagon officials certainly hope so.
"We need Congress' support to get done so many of the things that we're trying to get done, not the least of which is taking sequestration off our backs," said Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman.
The Republican sweep in Tuesday's election puts Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a strong critic of defense cuts, on track to take over the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee.
McCain already has called for stepping up the campaign against Islamic State, doing more to defeat Syrian President Bashar Assad and providing arms to Ukraine to fend off Russian forces, among other actions.
That could mean federal funding will flow more freely to defense contractors in aerospace-rich places like Southern California, which suffered waves of layoffs over fears related to Pentagon spending cuts.
"National security was a big issue during the elections; it was out front," said Cord Sterling, vice president for legislative affairs at the Aerospace Industries Assn., a trade and lobbying organization in Arlington, Va. "There's likely to be an attempt to redraft budgets."
With U.S. combat troops out of Iraq and being withdrawn from Afghanistan, the Pentagon was under pressure to lower war-related spending in the last round of budget requests for fiscal 2015.
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Republican control of Congress could mean more military spending
SPRINGFIELD, Va. Ed Gillespie's U.S. Senate campaign ended in defeat Friday as the Pemberton Township native conceded the razor-tight Virginiarace to Democratic incumbent Mark Warner.
"The votes just aren't there," Gillespie told his supporters, adding that he had called Warner earlier in the day to congratulate him.
It "would be wrong to put my fellow Virginians through a recount," he said, "when in my head and my heart I know that a different outcome is not possible."
The latest numbers from the State Board of Elections show Warner leading by more than 16,000 votes, with 49.1 percent of the vote, and Gillespie at 48.4 percent, out of more than 2 million ballots cast. Libertarian Robert Sarvis was third with 2.4 percent. Warner's margin had increased slightly over the previous two days.
Virginia law allows a loser to seek a recount if the margin of defeat is less than a percentage point. But the state will pay for the recount only if the margin is less than 0.5 percentage points. Because Gillespie is down by 0.7 points, he would have been on the hook to pay for any recount.
Gillespie left the reception room with his wife, Cathy, without taking questions from reporters. On the way out, he shook hands with some of the more than 100 supporters, who applauded and cheered.
A 1979 graduate of Pemberton Township High School, Gillespie previously worked as a political strategist and communications adviser for President George W. Bush and other Republican lawmakers. He served as chairman of the Republican National Committee in 2003, and the following year was credited with helping Bush win re-election to the White House and the GOP win majorities in the Senate and House.
The U.S. Senate race marked the first time he ever ran as a candidate himself.
Warner issued a statement commending Gillespie on his campaign and saying, "Virginians sent an unmistakable message both to me and Congress as a whole: End the gridlock and get to work." Warner promised to work with Republicans on reducing the budget deficit and other issues.
Warner, a former governor who is one of Virginia's most popular politicians, had been expected to handily win a second term. But Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman, rode a wave of support for GOP candidates nationwide, and almost knocked Warner out of the Senate despite being outspent heavily.
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Republican Gillespie concedes Va. Senate race
Republican challenger Dan Bongino has conceded the race for Marylands sixth Congressional district to Democratic incumbent John Delaney.
Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, ran a spirited campaign to unseat the freshman Congressman, garnering 48 percent of the vote in a district widely considered to be the most politically mixed in the state.
He beat Delaney on Election Day and in the absentee ballots counted so far, but early voting totals put the Democrat on top by a percentage point. Bongino congratulated the incumbent and Maryland governor-elect Larry Hogan.
After a hard-fought race, it is now time to move on and allow the citizens of Maryland to be heard, Bongino said in an e-mailed statement. Although there are still some outstanding votes, it is clear that Congressman Delaney will emerge the victor.
On Friday, Delaney released a statement, saying, I am truly honored to have been re-elected and look forward to getting back to work representing Marylanders from Grantsville to Gaithersburg in the House.
Delaney, a businessman and one of the wealthiest members of the House of Representatives, will be entering his second term in office.
Delaney also congratulated Bongino on a vigorous campaign.
He [Bongino] has dedicated much of his life to serving his country and in our many times running into one another on the campaign trail, he was always a complete gentleman ready with a warm handshake, Delaney said. We dont agree on how to get there, but Mr. Bongino and I want many of the same things for our country.
Bongino said he was grateful to Delaney for his concern for his opponents family during the grueling campaign schedule that took the Republican across the district which comprises parts of Montgomery County and the Western Maryland counties.
According to the statement, Delaney sent Bongino a note a few months ago, after Bongino told the congressman about some health problems Bonginos wife was having that had been compounded by the stress of the campaign.
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Republican Bongino concedes Congressional race to Democrat Delaney
NEW YORK Evidence from recent election cycles suggests Republicans have some distance to go in winning minority support in major elections. But there was at least some indication from Tuesday nights exit polls of 129 respondents that the GOP may be making some headway with Asian-Americans, the fastest-growing minority group in the United States. The data may show the value of Republican engagement with minority voters particularly since the 2012 election.
National exit polling of voters in House races last night found that almost half of Asian-Americans 49 percent supported the Republican candidate. This is about twice the share who supported Mitt Romney in exit polling conducted after the 2012 presidential election. It also reverses a trend that began roughly during the 1990s, of increasing Asian-American support for Democratic candidates (starting with Bill Clinton).
The issues that Asian voters identified as most significant mirrored those of the general electorate the economy first, followed by health care, foreign policy and immigration. Notably, many more Asian voters (21 percent) identified foreign policy as the most important issue facing the country as the electorate did generally (12 percent).
The marked emphasis on foreign policy among these voters is still noteworthy and outside the margin of error for the poll. So its possible that some of the presidents struggles in foreign policy helped to explain the relative success that Republicans had with Asian-American voters.
But another (not necessarily conflicting) explanation is that Republicans finally devoted some time, attention and resources to cultivating Asian voters.
The Republican National Committee focused on outreach to them in key races in Virginia and Colorado, and also played a part in targeted congressional races in California and other states.
The focus on Virginia and Colorado was particularly noteworthy, as both states have come to be bellwethers in national elections and places where even relatively small groups of voters can make a big difference in a presidential contest.
In Virginia, the Asian vote is becoming increasingly significant. A recent report on NPR noted that Asian-Americans make up 5 percent of Virginias population, a 68 percent increase during the last decade. Senate candidate Ed Gillespie and House candidate Barbara Comstock led events in the Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian and Filipino communities. Comstock was victorious in a challenging congressional district, while Gillespies showing against Sen. Mark Warner was far more competitive than most people expected (with votes left to be counted).
Similarly, in Colorado, the Republican National Committee held events in the Korean and Chinese communities for Senate candidate Cory Gardner, House incumbent Mike Coffman and gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez. Gardner and Coffman won, while Beauprez came up just short.
While its premature to argue that Republicans have figured out how to appeal to Asian-American voters again, Tuesdays results should encourage those looking to build support for Republican candidates and policies in minority communities. The real test will come in the 2016 presidential race.
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Republican courting of Asian voters paid off