Resignations show Dems taking action, leaders say
WASHINGTON — Members of both parties are glum and guarded after a shocking week of resignations on Capitol Hill. But Democrats say the way they’re handling the sexual misconduct issue will give them a valuable weapon for next year’s congressional elections. Republicans say that’s just wishful thinking.
No one knows when or where the allegations that have felled lawmakers, journalists and entertainers will end. The ax could well fall again in a Congress where the culture has long tolerated behavior that would trigger departures today.
For now, Democrats want voters to see a very bright line: They forced the liberal rising star Al Franken and civil rights veteran Rep. John Conyers to leave, while Donald Trump remains president and Alabama Republican Roy Moore could well be elected to the Senate on Tuesday.
“Democrats are now in a better position than ever to tie Donald Trump and Roy Moore around the necks of Republicans” running for Congress next year, said Jim Manley, a Democratic operative and former Senate aide.
Republicans are quick to contest that argument.
They say Trump was elected last year despite the election season release of a 2005 tape in which he described sexually offensive behavior, followed by accusations by several women of aggressive sexual misconduct. And they suggest Sen. Franken’s departure was more politically bearable for Democrats because his home state of Minnesota has a Democratic governor who will appoint the temporary replacement.
“Do you think if Al Franken had a Republican governor they’d be doing this?” asked Tom Davis, a GOP consultant and former Virginia congressman who chaired his party’s House campaign committee.
While both Trump and Moore have faced and denied allegations, their political fortunes aren’t likely to be damaged by the way the Democrats have handled Franken and Conyers.
What’s important, Democrats say, is that the contrast heightens their chances of winning over female and suburban voters, pumping up donors and party activists and even recruiting women to run for Congress next year.
“Yes, we may lose some people that we liked quite a bit along the way,” said Brian Fallon, senior adviser to the liberal group Priorities USA. “In the long term, the party is better off doing right by women.”
On Thursday, in an extraordinary scene witnessed by teary-eyed colleagues and relatives, Franken told a wake-like Senate he is resigning. Two days earlier, it was the House’s longest-serving member, John Conyers of Michigan, who quit. Both succumbed to pressure by leaders and colleagues after initially saying they’d fight to stay.