Thinking Through the Elections

By Jim Cason on 11/03/2010 @ 01:18 AM

Tags: Elections, Lobbying

Final results are still coming in from the mid-term election November 2. Whether you are celebrating the return of a favorite legislator, bemoaning the defeat of a long-time ally, or somewhere in between, we can all take comfort in the fact that people in this country get to choose who represents them in Congress.

FCNL is a nonpartisan organization and we don’t align ourselves with individuals or parties. We do recognize that many you will have strong feelings about the results of this election. We will all be thinking about the results and what do they mean for our work in the next few weeks. If you’re coming to Annual Meeting, David Culp and I will be talking about what the results of the mid-term election mean for FCNL during the Thursday evening program.

One of the many things I appreciate about FCNL is that we find a way to start a conversation with whomever the voters send to Washington. That may be easier or harder on any given issue depending on the legislator, but in my experience it often leads to surprises and new openings.

My own view is that a lot of work needs to be done in Washington right now. Perhaps, a Congress where Republicans and Democrats have to work together more closely to accomplish anything may be a Congress that accomplishes more. As I think about what we’ve been doing in the last two years, a lot of our work has been trying to build bipartisan coalitions on New START, on the CLEAR Act, and on the effort to cut the Pentagon budget.

What do you think?