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GOP Woes Not Likely to Leave With [TX Rep] DeLay
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Party
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Apr 05, 2006 05:40pm |
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| Category | Analysis |
| Media | Newspaper - Los Angeles Times |
| News Date | Wednesday, April 5, 2006 11:40:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By Janet Hook, Times Staff Writer
April 5, 2006
WASHINGTON — Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) soon will be gone from Capitol Hill, but Republicans anxious about November's elections face a pressing political question: Will the ethics woes that he came to symbolize disappear with him?
Many Republicans expressed hope Tuesday that DeLay's decision to resign his House seat would help them squelch Democratic charges that the GOP had created a "culture of corruption" in Washington.
But even with the Texan removed as the poster boy for such attacks, a hostile campaign environment — including a federal inquiry likely to keep the ethics issue alive — confronts Republicans heading into the midterm congressional elections.
"Clearly, we are in an environment right now that could lead to significant Republican problems in the fall," said former Rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.), now a lobbyist. "If the election is held under the circumstances that prevail today, we'd lose control of the House."
The Democrats need to gain 15 seats to take control of the House, and most GOP strategists doubt their party is that vulnerable. But they concede that losses in the House and the Senate, in which the Republicans have a six-seat majority, are likely.
"There's certainly awareness that the atmospherics are less than favorable right now," said a senior GOP official who agreed to candidly assess the party's prospects only on the condition of anonymity.
The ongoing Justice Department investigation of influence-peddling in Washington — which already has led to guilty pleas by former GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and two onetime DeLay aides — is a political powder keg that could explode with new indictments at any time. |
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