Update: 12/08/00
Democratic Senatorial candidate Maria Cantwell has been certifed the winner in the Washingston state Senate race. Her win has been confirmed by the mandatory recount required due to the closeness of the race. Cantwell's victory officially ties the Senate at 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, and puts the number of female senators at 13.
If Gore is eventually declared the winner of the Presidental election, Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman would have to give up his Senate seat, and the Republican Governor of Connecticut would likely appoint a Republican to fill the seat, changing the split to 51 Republicans and 49 Democrats. If Bush is declared the winner, Sen. Lieberman would retain his seat, and VP Dick Cheney would cast the deciding vote in any tie vote in the Senate. So, in effect, either way, the Republicans would nominally retain control of the Senate.
Update: 11/15/00
Senatorial candidate Maria Cantwell still battles Senator Slade Gorton for a Washington state Senate seat, awaiting the final tally of absentee ballots. A Cantwell win would increase the number of female Senators to 13, and tie the Senate at 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. That number includes Senator Joe Lieberman, however, who would have to resign his Senate seat should he become Vice President. The Republican Governor of Connecticut has indicated that he would appoint a Republican to fill the seat.
And in Florida, the Presidential election is not the only election hanging by a recount: Women's eNews reports that longtime state Rep. Elaine Bloom (D-North Miami) has sued to contest her narrow loss to 20-year-House veteran, anti-choice Republican Clay Shaw. Bloom has petitioned three county courts for a second manual recount of the vote in Congressional District 22, along the east coast from Miami's South Beach to Juno Beach, where she trails Shaw by 687 votes.
Dateline: 11/8/00
As anyone currently residing on the planet knows, the Presidency hinges on the results of the Florida recount. So too, does American women's access to abortion services, writes Pro-Choice Guide Margaret Sykes. If Bush's slim majority in Florida is confirmed by the recount now underway, the U.S. Government will be totally under Republican control for the first time since 1955. Although observers have pointed out that the Senate may be sufficiently pro-choice to prevent the appointment of Justices which would overturn Roe v. Wade, there are a number of incremental steps a Republican government can take to make abortion essentially unavailable, whether it is technically legal or not.
While women hold their breath over the outcome of the presidential election, we do know that women have made several political gains in this election. Governors-elect Ruth Ann Minner (D-DE) and Judy Martz (R-MT) join re-elected Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and incumbents Gov. Jane Dee Hull (R-AZ) and Christine Todd Whitman (R-NJ) in Governor's Mansions across the country. This brings the total number of female Governors to five, the most serving at one time in American history.
In the Senate, two new female Senators, Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), will join the three returning incumbent women Senators, Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) who all held onto their seats easily. A gubernatorial appointment will also send Jean Carnahan (D-MO) to the Senate from Missouri. Carnahan was the wife of the late Mel Carnahan, who won the Missouri senatorial contest posthumously. This increases women's Senatorial holdings from nine seats to twelve, with a possible thirteenth still undecided, Maria Cantwell (D-WA).
In the House, it now appears that women added two seats, from 58 women in the 106th Congress, to 60 in the 107th Congress which will be seated in January. That could possibly increase by two, based on a recounts demanded in Michigan and Florida. In Michigan's 8th Congressional district, the seat vacated by Debbie Stabenow to run for the Senate, Democratic challenger Diane Byrum trailed Republican challenger Mike Rogers by only 524 votes in the final vote tally. In Florida's 22nd Congressional district, Democrat Elaine Bloom trails Republican incumbent E. Clay Shaw by 667 votes in the unofficial count.
However the Presidential race turns out, women can take some comfort - and no small amount of pride - in the fact that there are more women Senators and Governors now than at any time in America's history.
~Karen~
