Although most of the talk these days about politics centers on the presidential campaign, there are many other very important races that will be decided in November.
The partisan margin in the House of Representatives is the smallest it has been in 46 years. If six seats (out of the 435) shift to the Democrats, they will retake the majority in the House. That would mean a change in leadership, a change in committee chairmen, and a change of direction in the House.
The margin in the Senate is also very slim. With the death of Senator Paul Coverdell, the Republican margin changed from 5 to 4 and put Democrat control of the Senate within the realm of possibility. Nineteen of the seats up in November are held by Republicans. Only fifteen are held by Democrats. Many of the Republican seats up this time were won in 1994 when Republicans swept into the House and Senate with the Contract with America. They will no longer have that advantage this time, and few believe that George W. Bush's coattails will help sweep them back into office.
Another set of important elections are for control of the state legislatures which are currently evenly divided between the two parties. Twenty-two states have bodies with partisan margins of five seats or less. These state legislatures will redivide congressional districts next year, after the 2000 Census. So control of the state legislatures will no doubt affect the distribution of congressional seats.
Finally the Supreme Court will be affected by the November elections, at least indirectly. The next president may appoint as many as three or four Supreme Court justices. Many of the important cases before the court this year were decided by one or two votes in 5-4 or 6-3 margins.
So the November elections promise to be very important.
I'm Kerby Anderson of Probe Ministries, and that's my opinion.