National

With all the attention on Ohio, Virginia, Montana and a few other states, it would be easy to miss something very significant that happened in South Dakota on election night: a victory that just might point the way forward for progressives on a broad constellation of personal liberties.

Do you think they heard us this time? Although the Bush administration and its congressional allies have done a very good job of ignoring working families for six years, I think they must have heard us Nov. 7.

Voters made history Nov. 7. Exhausted and angered from a record number of deaths in Iraq, an economic recovery benefiting millionaires but not workers, and unchecked corruption, the voter upsurge rejected the Bush administration and its right-wing agenda.

When working people sit down to Thanksgiving dinner this year they will be savoring more than turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce. They will be giving thanks that a clear majority in the Nov. 7 midterm elections displayed so much common sense, voting to end one-party, dictatorial rule in Washington.

While Rumsfeld is going, U.S. troops are still in Iraq. Bush’s appointment of former CIA head Robert Gates to take Rumsfeld’s place does not mean that the president intends to heed the voters’ message: get out of Iraq.

WASHINGTON (PAI) — The new Democratic-run House in the 110th Congress will pass the Employee Free Choice Act, AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel said in a Nov. 8 interview. “It will be nice to be playing offense for the first time in my career.”

Among the most significant election results in California was the 53-47 percent victory of wind power engineer Jerry McNerney over seven-term U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo in the 11th Congressional District, despite a Republican 7-point advantage in voter registrations. The war in Iraq, the environment, and Washington scandals were key issues in the northern California race

Voters in six states that helped send Bush back to the White House for a second term in 2004 sent a different message this year, approving ballot measures that increase the minimum wage in their states.

CHICAGO — Health care activists from around the country gathered here for a strategy meeting Nov. 11-12, energized in the wake of the Democrats winning control of both houses of Congress.

CLEVELAND — Flush with victory in the Nov. 7 elections, Cleveland’s labor activists, like their counterparts elsewhere, are pressing to broaden the base of their movement and are already taking initiatives to guarantee that campaign promises are realized.