Marlene's View from the Hill

January 26, 2010
Surprises In The Senate

When this year began, I did not think this was possible, but it has been an unbelievably exciting month to watch the United States Senate.  The Senate, normally the paradigm of stability, is surprising a lot of Washington veterans like me with its turbulence. 

January started out with the news that Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, a strong friend of the lodging industry, was retiring after 18 years in the Senate.  Sen. Dorgan has been in a leadership role in the Senate as Democratic Policy Committee chairman, and he has held a leadership position as a sponsor of the industry’s Travel Promotion Act (TPA).  He is going to be missed, but I’m hopeful that he will push his fellow Senators even more to get TPA scheduled for one last vote.

Not only did Sen. Dorgan announce his retirement, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) also announced that he was leaving.  This makes six Republicans and now two Democratic Senators retiring, which means the incumbent advantage held by these lawmakers is now gone.  And as I remember from the Republican Senatorial announcements last year, when once one of them announces, a number of them usually follow.

This was driven home hard by the surprising news from Massachusetts’s special election.  The late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA)’s seat was expected to be filled in the January 19 contest by the Democratic candidate, Martha Coakley.  After all, the seat had been in Democratic hands since 1952, and there had not been a Republican Senator from the Bay State since the 1970s.  But discontent over Congress’s massive and costly healthcare bills, a charismatic challenger named state Sen. Scott Brown, and many missteps from the Coakley campaign, led to an unbelievable 53-46% win for Brown in a solid blue state. 

I watched the returns at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C., a popular haunt for Members and lobbyists alike.  I did not think that news like Brown’s election was anticipated – even in this Republican-filled room.   Clearly, if a Republican can win in Massachusetts, it means at the very least this fall’s Congressional elections will be some of the most exciting to watch in years!  While I was there, I ran into Sen. Saxby Chambliss (GA), Sen. Richard Burr (NC), and House Republican Leader John Boehner (OH) – each of whom left in a very good mood.  I also had a chance to chat with Rep. Mary Fallin (OK) who is also running for Governor of her state.  She is a great fan of the tourism industry and of Joe Martin, our outgoing AH&LA chairman! 

This month, I also followed some behind-the-scenes news on two of our industry’s legislative priorities.  The good news was that our long-suffering Travel Promotion Act could be added to the upcoming jobs bill scheduled for action in February.  It’s a good fit, as TPA promises to create thousands of industry jobs at no cost to taxpayers.  The bad news I heard was about an attempt by organized labor to attach a different version of the job-killing Employee “No” Choice Act (EFCA) to a yet-unspecified piece of legislation.  I know our association’s members do not want something as bad as EFCA attached to any jobs legislation, so I would expect a lot of Senators also believe the same way.  We may see EFCA brought up later this year as a payback for labor’s support of the Democrats in the 2008 elections, but that would be ultimately very detrimental to the Democrats in today’s tough economic and political environment.

I’m in San Diego this week for the annual ALIS conference.  I will have more to report on what I heard and saw in my next blog post.  My staff is back in Washington gearing up for the March Legislative Action Summit, so I’m hoping more industry members come to Washington to share in the never-ending excitement of politics.