Snip of article from the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/292366_murray15.html

With Cantwell's seat on the Finance Committee, Murray's leadership position, her chairwomanship of the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee and Rep. Norm Dicks' assumed chairmanship of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, Washington state will have its most muscular profile in Congress in a generation.

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While she was not on the ballot, Sen. Patty Murray may have been the biggest winner this year.  With her election as Secretary of the Democratic Caucus and Democrats now in the majority, her position as a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee is strengthened.  Serving on the Appropriations Committee is one of the most desired positions in Congress because the committee decides how and where federal funds are allocated.  Even in 2005 while in the minority, Murray secured $516 million for transportation projects in Washington, including $220 million to replace the Alaska Way Viaduct in Seattle.  Now she will chair the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, giving her even greater power to allocate federal money for the state, though she will be hamstrung to some degree by the cost of the Iraq War and the massive federal deficit which built up during 6 years of Republican control in D.C.

Murray isn't the first Washington Senator to serve on Appropriations.  The late, great six-term Senator Warren Magnuson did also.  In fact, during his final term he was the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, one of the ultimate power positions in the Federal Government.  Murray is only 56 and already into her third term, one wonders if she too will someday have enough seniority to chair the Committee.

Newly reelected Sen. Maria Cantwell just earned a slot on the other highly desired committee in the Senate, the Finance Committee, which oversees tax and trade policies, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  Cantwell said she plans to use her new position to push for tax policies which will benefit both Washington state and the middle class, such as a $4000 tax deduction for college tuition, the state sales tax deduction and a Research & Development tax credit.  She also has worked to increase Medicare reimbursement rates to help improve access for seniors and to increase the Pell Grant award.

With Murray in the leadership and our senators on arguably the two most powerful committees in the Senate, things look good for our federal delegation.  We are far more likely to see progress on Washington state priorities such as the establishment of the Wild Sky Wilderness in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and clean-up of Hanford and Puget Sound.

Frank Hill, a DC insider, wrote an article on the importance of seniority within the U.S. Senate.  This is a snippet:

http://www.capstrat.com/cs/insight/articles/ussenate.cfm

And in the US Senate, seniority is what counts, rating something close to total devotion. Seniority leads to plum committee assignments and influence that far exceeds the reach of even the most powerful House members. The rules of the Senate, the comity and relationships necessary to build a consensus almost demands that a state send and keep their senators there over a long period of time to ensure maximum effectiveness for the state.

Overview

This was unquestionably a seismic election. The first thing that jumped out was that moderate and independent voters favored Democrats by a 20 point margin. I suspect this is why Democratic leaders are now tacking toward the center in their public statements. Both sides did fine in turning out their base, so reports that GOP voters were too unhappy to vote may have been wrong.

While exit polls predictably found that Iraq was a dominant issue for voters, corruption rivaled Iraq in importance. This is surprising because the conventional wisdom was that the "Culture of Corruption" charge was not gaining traction. I suspect that the Foley scandal, while perhaps not hugely significant in and of itself, occured against a backdrop of Jack Abramoff, Tom Delay, Bob Ney, Halliburton and billions of dollars missing in Iraq, finally making the corruption charges stick. Voters were also upset by Terri Schiavo, Hurricane Katrina, immigration and a whole host of other issues.

Women voters broke strongly for the Democrats in 2006 and for the first time in a while, men narrowly (51%) did as well. Republicans appeared to be gaining ground with Hispanic voters in recent elections, however this year Hispanics voted disproportionately (69%) for Democrats.

Perhaps the clearest sign of the rout was that not a single incumbent Democratic Governor, Senator or Representative (in the federal races) was defeated in 2006.

Voting Patterns by Region in the 2006 Elections

In 1994, Republicans picked up 20 seats in the South and continued to strengthen their grip on the region, especially after Bush was elected President. In the meantime, Republicans in the Northeast (many of whom are moderates) have increasingly become an endangered species. 2006 may have been their death knell. Incumbent Sens. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.), Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) and Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R-M.D.) were all defeated; in New Hampshire, both congressional seats flipped to the Democrats and Republicans were massacred in the state legislature races; in Connecticut Democrats gained 2 seats; in Pennslyvania Democrats picked up 4 seats; in New York Democrats picked up 3 seats and won all the statewide races.