The Senate’s GOP campaign guru said his party has a much better shot at picking up seats in 2010 than in 2008, in part because George Bush has left office and President Obama has aggressively implemented an agenda that will scare voters away from the Democratic party.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said he expects unemployment to remain high, which could blunt the enthusiasm for Democrats and help the GOP stem the losses in Congress that have taken place over the last two election cycles.
Cornyn blamed heavy 2008 losses on” a toxic political environment to start with, and because of that difficult environment, we had a difficult time recruiting candidates.”
“We didnt have candidates last cycle,” Cornyn told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.”We didn’t have that opportunity then. We are going to have a combination of opportunity and we’ll be able to get good candidates and that will at least stop the bleeding.”
With Bush out of the picture, the focus in now on the Obama administration, Cornyn said, and that could work in the GOP’s favor.
“I think there will be some serious economic anxiety going into the 2010 election,” Cornyn said. “I see a lot of opportunity in 2010 primarily because we are seeing a lot of concern raised about spending and borrowing in Washington,” Cornyn predicted he will be much more successful recruiting good candidates, not only in places like Ohio and Florida, but in traditionally Democratic territory such as Connecticut, where Sen. Chris Dodd, a Democrat has been trailing Republican Rob Simmons in polls.
Cornyn said Republicans are fielding candidates to run for the seat held by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., although the GOP has not found anyone to run against him yet.
“Nevada is still in a formative stage,” Cornyn said. “We are not there yet.”
Cornyn said recent weak poll numbers for Reid “are really an invitation for a strong candidate to step forward and run, and with the right candidate and the right circumstances, there would be a reasonably good chance of winning.”
Cornyn said the party will likely have to find a Senate candidate to run in Texas because of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s bid to be governor.
“She is running for governor,” Cornyn said. “I would not be surprised if she steps down this fall, setting up a temporary gubernatorial appointment.”
Replacing Hutchison may not be easy, he said, adding, “I expect it to be a real race.”
Cornyn is one of seven Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will soon consider the Supreme Court nominee Obama chooses to replace retiring Justice David Souter. Cornyn said he talked to Obama earlier this week about the nomination process.
“What I told him at the time is really the only thing that he could do to guarantee a big fight would be to try to jam through a nominee, not allow us to do our job,” Cornyn said. “My sense is if the President tells Harry Reid and [Judiciary Committee Chairman] Pat Leahy, let’s take this at a reasonable pace and let everyone do their job,” the nominee would be confirmed.
“The only exception,” Cornyn said, “Would be if we picked someone out of the mainstream, who clearly advocated legislating from the bench. We believe judges have a unique roll in our government but it is not making policy from the bench.”
