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Senate Switch Causes Power Shift
By Sabra Ayres
Medill News Service
WASHINGTON -- Civil rights advocates applauded Sen. James Jeffords' bolt from the Republican Party last week, saying the power shift in the Senate to a one-vote Democratic majority will create a less conservative policymaking agenda in Washington.
"The new composition of the Senate will serve as a brake on [President] Bush's more radical proposals," said Tim McFeeley, political director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
Jeffords announced Thursday that he will change his party affiliation and become an independent. The switch moved the power of the majority to the Democrats, who now have 50 members in the Senate to the Republicans' 49. Jeffords is the only independent and has said he will caucus with the Democrats.
As the majority party, Democrats will appoint new chairmen from their party for each of the Senate's 19 committees.
"All in all, this change will make the U.S. Senate more compassionate and less conservative," McFeeley said.
He and other civil right advocates said the power change will be particularly important on the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose members must approve Bush's judicial nominations before the full Senate can confirm them.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, is expected to replace Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah as chairman of that committee.
"You can bet any recommendations coming out of Leahy's Judiciary Committee to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court will support Roe v. Wade, whereas under Hatch, they were sure not to," said Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women, referring to the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
Increasing minority representation in the federal appeals courts also may become a swifter process, said Scott Gunderson Rosa of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
"Before we couldn't get past the hearing process," Rosa said. "I think the Democratically controlled Senate will take up the issue faster."
Rosa pointed to Richard Paez, a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge in California as an example of the difficulty Hispanics and Latinos have faced during the Republican majority. Paez's nomination to the circuit court took four years to be confirmed because of delays created by Republicans, Rosa said.
The NAACP declined comment on the Senate power change. The nonpartisan civil rights organization does not comment on partisan issues, the spokesman said.
But the executive director of the Leadership Conference of Civil Rights, a coalition of groups including the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union, AARP and the American Jewish Congress, agreed that the power switch's impact on judicial nominations will be significant, but that other civil rights issues also will be helped.
"Hate crimes and election reform - these are two issues that might see early Senate consideration," said Wade Henderson. "Certainly, this reflects the change in Senate leadership."
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