Back in July, I compiled a list of legislation that would have passed in the 110th Congress if Democrats held eight more seats in the Senate and 20 more seats in the House. Here is the list (more in the extended entry:
Webb amendment to HR 1585: To specify minimum periods between deployment of units and members of the Armed Forces for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
On the House side, the mission has been accomplished, as the requisite number of seats have been acquired. On the Senate side, we currently stand at six pickups, with Alaska, Georgia and Minnesota still undecided.
A week after the election, the Senate remains surprisingly in flux, with Democratic pickups standing at anywhere from six to nine seats. Fortunately, with six pickups, we get everything on this list except the Employee Free Choice Act. As we are already seeing, expect just about the entire list to be passed swiftly, since the Democratic trifecta will be itching for early successes.
In order to get the Employee Free Choice Act, we need eight pickups in the Senate, which means two our of three of the undecided campaigns. The Georgia Senate campaign will be decided on December 2nd via run-off election, so our path to winning that seat is obvious. Without any third party candidates, and without the assistance of Obama's turnout machine, Democrat Jim Martin is definitely the underdog in the campaign. However, it is far from over, and you can help out here. The Alaska and Minnesota Senate campaigns will be decided via counting and re-counting, and both campaigns should probably be considered toss-ups at the moment (Nate Silver breaks down the numbers for Alaska and Minnesota). So, we can still get the Employee Free Choice Act, too, even if the odds don't favor us at the moment.
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