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Governor Of Virginia

Governor of Virginia

The Governor of Virginia serves as the chief executive of the Commonwealth of Virginia for a four-year term. The position is currently held by Democrat Mark Warner whose term expires in January, 2006. The current Lieutenant Governor, Democrat Tim Kaine, has been elected Governor and will succeed Warner in 2006.

Qualifications

Candidates for Governor must be United States citizens who have resided in Virginia as registered voters for five years prior to the election in which they are running. The candidates must be at least 30 years of age. Also, Virginia does not allow governors to hold the office for consecutive terms, so the incumbent Governor is barred from running in the election (although a former governor may run again in subsequent gubernatorial elections). Virginia is the only state in the U.S. in which governors cannot serve consecutive terms.

Duties

The Governor is required to live in the seat of government of Virginia. At every regular session, he must report the state of the Commonwealth to the General Assembly, Virginia's legislature. He must also convene the legislature when two-thirds of each house calls for a special session. The Governor must ensure that the laws of the Commonwealth are faithfully executed and is responsible for the safety of the state, as he serves as commander-in-chief of the state militia.

Powers

militia
- The Governor has the legislative power to submit recommendations and to call special sessions when he finds them necessary.
- The Governor has veto powers. All bills must be sent to the Governor before becoming law. The Governor may sign the bill, let it sit unsigned for seven days after which it becomes law, or veto the legislation. After a veto, the bill returns to its house of origin and must be overridden by two-thirds of the vote in each house.
- The Governor also has the power to use a line-item veto. He may send legislation back to the legislature with recommendations and amendments. The legislature must either approve the changes by a majority in each house, or override the veto with a two-thirds majority in each house.
- The Governor is commander-in-chief of Virginia's armed forces.
- The Governor may also communicate with other States and foreign powers.
- The Governor has the power to fill vacancies in positions unless the position is appointed by the legislature.
- The Governor may commute fines or sentences and issue pardons. The Governor may also restore voting rights and overturn other political penalties on individuals.

History

line-item veto] The position of Governor of Virginia dates back to the first permanent English settlement in America, Jamestown. The Virginia Company of London set up a government run by a council. The President of the Council basically served as governor. The council was based in London and controlled the colony from afar. Nominally, Thomas Smith was the first President of the Council, but he never left England. Edward Maria Wingfield was the first President of the Council in residence, making him the first to exercise the actual authority of governing Virginia. The Virginia Company abandoned governance by council May 23, 1609 and replacing it with a Governor, John Smith. [http://www.apva.org/history/timeline.html] In 1624, the English Monarchy took control from the Virginia Company and made Virginia a crown colony. Governors continued to be appointed by the monarch for many years. Most often, the appointed Governor would reside in England while a Deputy or Lieutenant Governor actually exercised authority. Royal rule was interrupted during the English Civil War after which Governors were appointed by the Commonwealth of England until the English Restoration. Virginia became an independent state during the American Revolution with Patrick Henry as its first Governor. From the Revolution until 1851, the Governor was elected by the state legislature. After 1851, the state turned to popular elections. During the American Civil War, Francis Harrison Pierpont was the Governor of the Union controlled parts of the state. Pierpont also served as one of the provisional Governors during Reconstruction. These governors were appointed by the Federal government. In 1874, Virginia regained its right to self-governance and elected James L. Kemper as Governor. After Reconstruction, Virginia would not elect a Republican as Governor until A. Linwood Holton Jr. in 1970. Doug Wilder became the first elected African-American Governor of any U.S. state. He served as Governor from 1990-1994. Ever since 1851, Virginia's gubernatorial elections have been held in "off-off" years -- that is, years in which there are no national (presidential, sentatorial, or House) elections. (Most states hold guberatorial elections either on presidential-election years or on "off" years, when there are congressional elections.) This fact, coupled with the no-consecutive-terms rule, has been charged with limiting interest and voter turnout in gubernatorial elections in Virginia. There are never incumbents in the race, and voters are always being introduced to new politicians, so they often choose between two little-known politicians every four years. The no-consecutive-terms rule also, some argue, makes it very difficult for the state's chief executive to make sweeping changes in four short years. Tim Kaine will be inaugurated on January 14, 2006. Due to renovations on the Capitol in Richmond, his inauguration will be held Williamsburg, making him the first Governor to be inaugurated in Williamsburg since Thomas Jefferson in 1779.

Trivia


- The Governor of Virginia is referred to as "His Excellency"

See also


- List of Governors of Virginia
- List of colonial governors of Virginia Category:Government of Virginia
-

Governor

A governor is also a device that regulates the speed of a machine. See Governor (device). A governor is a governing official, usually in chief (at least nominally, to different degrees also politically and administratively) of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state; furthermore the title apllies to high ranking officials in private or similar governance such as commercial and non-profit management. Most countries in the world have some sort of official known or rendered as governor, though in some countries, the heads of the constitutive states, provinces, communities and regions may have a different title. This is particularly common in European nations and many of their former colonies, with titles such as President of the Regional Council in France and minister-president in Germany. Other countries using different titles for sub-national units include Spain, Italy, Switzerland. There can also be non-political governors: governors who simply govern an institution, such as a corporation or a bank. For example, in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries there are prison governors ("warden" in the United States), school governors and bank governors.

Etymology

The English word "governor" stems from the Latin gubernātor and the Greek kybernetes (helmsman or steersman), which in origin stem from the Latin gubernare and the Greek kybernan (to steer or govern). The recent English word "cybernetics" shares the same etymology. Strictly or etymologically speaking, the word "governor" is therefore supposed to be a metaphor derived from "steersman".

Pre-Roman empires

Although the legal and administrative framework of provinces, each administrated by a governor, was created by the Romans, the term governor has been a convenient term for historians to use in describing similar systems in antiquity. Indeed, many regions of the pre-roman antiquity were ultimately replaced by Roman 'standardized' provincial governments after their conquest by Rome.

Egypt


- In Pharaonic times, the governors of each of dozens of provinces in the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt (called "nomes" by the Greeks, and whose names often alluded to local patterns of religious worship) are usually known by the Greek word Nomarch.
- The whole (or most) of Egypt was repeatedly reduced to the status of province of a larger empire under foreign conquerors, notably under an Achaemenid satrap (see below).

Mesopotamia and beyond

Assyria, a ruthless conqueror of a large empire, ...
- shaknu
- bel pihati

Pre- & hellenistic satraps


- Media and Achaemenid Persia introduced the satrapy, probably inspired by the Assyrian / Babylonian examples
- Alexander the Great and equally Greco-Macedonian diadoch kingdoms, mainly Seleucids (greater Syria) and Lagids ('Ptolemies' in hellenistic Egypt)
- in later Persia, again under Iranian dynasties :
  - Parthia
  - the Sassanid dynasty dispensed with the office after Shapur I (who had still 7 of them), replacing them with petty vassal rulers, known as shahdars

Roman empires and legacy

In ancient Rome

From the creation of the earliest Roman subject provinces a governor was appointed each year to administer each of them. The core function of a Roman governor was as a magistrate or judge, and the management of taxation and public spending in their area. Under the Republic and the early Empire, however, a governor also commanded military forces in his province. Republican governors were all men who had served in senior magistracies (the consulate or praetorship) in Rome in the previous year, and carried related titles as governor (proconsul or propraetor). The first Emperor, Augustus (who acquired or settled a number of new territories), divided the provinces into two categories; the traditionally prestigious governorships remained as before (in what have become known as "senatorial" provinces), while in a range of others he retained the formal governorships himself, delegating the actual task of administration to appointees (usually with the title legatus Augusti, although some small provinces received governors with other titles such as procurator). A special case was Egypt, a rich 'private' domain and vital granary, where the Emperor almost inherited the theocratic status of a Pharaoh. The Emperor was represented there by a governor sui generis styled Praefectus Augustalis (the very title evokes the religious cult of the Emperor). Diocletian and Constantine in the fourth century carried out a root and branch reorganisation of the administration. This had two main features:
- Provinces were divided up and became much more numerous; they were then grouped into dioceses, and the dioceses in turn into prefectures;
- Military responsibilities were removed from governors and given to new officials called comes or dux. In addition, Italy was brought into the system for the first time. The prestige governorships of Africa and Asia remained with the title proconsul, and the special right to refer matters directly to the Emperor; the Praefectus Augustalis in Alexandria and the Comes Orientis in Antioch also retained special titles. Otherwise the governors of provinces had various titles without obvious logic, some known as consularis, some as corrector, some as praeses. Apart from Egypt and the East (Oriens - viz greater Syria), each diocese was directed by a governor known as a vicarius. The prefectures were directed by praefecti praetorio (a role transformed from a very different one in the early Empire).

Byzantium

This system survived with few significant changes until the collapse of the empire in the West, and in the East the breakdown of order with the Persian and Arab invasions of the seventh century. At that stage a new kind governor emerged, the Strategos a role leading the themes which replaced provinces at this point, and involving a return to the amalgamation of civil and military office which had been the practice under the Republic and the early Empire.

Legacy

While the Roman administration in the West was largely destroyed in the barbarian invasions, its model was remembered, and would again be very influential through two particular vehicles: Roman law and the Christian Church.

Holy Roman/ Habsburg Empires and successor states


- Reichskommissar

British Empire and Commonwealth

In the British Empire a governor was originally an official appointed by the British monarch to oversee one of his colonies. Generally of the gubernatorial offices established under the British, the structure comprised three levels:—
- Governor-General (formerly in charge of a group of colonies, and now also with largely ceremonial functions in relation to independent, sovereign Commonwealth Realms);
- Governor (in charge of a colony); and
- Lieutenant-Governor (in charge of a sub-colonial unit, usually styled a "province").
- (Note: colony in this sense means any separate jurisdiction inside the British Empire) In the first two cases the Governor (or Governor-General) represents the authority of the Monarch. Lieutenant-Governors represent the authority of their superiors (a Governor or Governor-General). Administrators, Commissioners and High Commissioners exercise similar powers (Note: such High Commissioners are not to be confused with the High Commissioners who are the equivalent of Ambassadors between Commonwealth states). A Governor would usually have an Executive Council to help with the colony's administration. Governors could also, in addition, have Legislative Councils and/or Assemblies underneath them. Today crown colonies of the United Kingdom continue to be administered by a governor, who holds varying degrees of power. Worldwide, there are 15 Governors-General who represent the dignity of the Monarch in the (sovereign) Commonwealth Realms. Because of the different constitutional histories of the former colonies of the United Kingdom, the term "Governor" now refers to officials with differing amounts of power. Especially after colonies became independent of the United Kingdom, the presence of the word "Governor" does not guarantee that the said Governor is the "typical British-style" Governor; examples include:
- Sri Lanka, once a colony governed by a single British Governor before independence, now has many "governors" controlling sub-national units
- Nigeria, also a colony once governed by a single British Governor before independence, now has many "governors" controlling sub-national provinces Governors (of all ranks) are usually housed in a building called 'Government House'. Governors used also to have a standard flag pattern (a Union Flag with the colonial seal or coat of arms in the centre). Governors-General still have a standard pattern flag, a blue flag with the royal crest (lion and crown) with the name of the jurisdiction on a scroll underneath. Below, the Governors described for Australia, Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom overseas territories fit the traditional British framework as just described. The rest are not British-style governors.

Colonial style

United Kingdom overseas territories

In the United Kingdom's remaining overseas territories the governor is normally a direct appointee of the British Government and plays an active role in governing and lawmaking (though usually with the advice of elected local representatives). In some minor overseas territories there is instead of a Governor an Administrator or Commissioner, or the job is ex officio done by a High Commissioner.

Australia

Main article: Governors of the Australian states In Australia, each state has a Governor as its formal representative of the Queen as head of the state government. each State Governor is appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of the Premier (politically responsible head ofstate government) and play a largely ceremonial role. State Governors have emergency reserve powers but these are rarely used. The Territories of Australia have Administrators instead of governors, who are appointed formally by the Governor-General. The Governor-General is the representative of Australia's head of state (i.e. the -British and- Australian Sovereign) at a federal level appointed by the crown on the advice given by the Australian (federal) Prime Minister. When the office of the Governor-General is vacant, or the occupant is unable to discharge their duties (on holidays, or travelling overseas for example), frequently the most senior state governor acts in their position. If this is not practicable, a justice of the High Court is appointed as administrator for the Commonwealth, and exercises those powers of the Governor-General in their absence. The difference in terminology between the Australian state Governors and the Canadian provincial Lieutenant Governors is significant. In the Australian case, the Governor nominally derives power directly from the monarch and is in practice nominated by the Premier of a state. In the Canadian case, the Lieutenant Governor nominally is appointed by the Governor-General and in practice is named by the federal Prime Minister. See also:

- Governor of New South Wales
- Governor of Queensland
- Governor of South Australia
- Governor of Tasmania
- Governor of Victoria
- Governor of Western Australia
- List of Governors of New South Wales
- List of Governors of Queensland
- List of Governors of South Australia
- List of Governors of Tasmania
- List of Governors of Victoria
- List of Governors of Western Australia

Hong Kong

See Governor of Hong Kong.

Northern Ireland

There was a position of Governor of Northern Ireland from 1922 until the suspension of Stormont in 1973.

New style

India

In India each state has a ceremonial Governor appointed by the President of India. These Governors are different to the Governors which controlled the British-controlled portions of the Indian Empire (as opposed to the princely states) prior to 1949.

Malaysia

In Malaysia the four non-monarchical states -Penang, Malacca, and the two on Borneo : Sabah and Sarawak- each have a ceremonial Governor styled Yang di-Pertua Negeri, appointed by the federal King Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, with a seat but no vote in the federal majlis Raja-raja (council of rulers). These states have a separate head of government which is the Chief Minister or Menteri Besar. All other states have royalty as head of state, no governor : a raja in Perlis, a Yang di-pertuan besar (elected from local rulers) in Negeri Sembilan, or a Sultan in the states of Selangor, Pahang, Johore, Perak, Kelantan and Kedah.

Nigeria

In Nigeria, the leaders of the regions, which in 1967 were divided into states, have been known as governors since 1954. Following a military coup in November 1993, President Sani Abacha suspended all the governors, and appointed administrators. When democracy was restored in 1999, the office of governor was revived and new governors were elected. The president of Nigeria can suspend state governors in a state of emergency and replace them with administrators. They are elected by popular vote.

Papua New Guinea

In Papua New Guinea, the leaders of the provinces have been known as governors since August 1995. Previously they had been known as premiers.

Sri Lanka

The provinces of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) are led by governors.

Russia and former Soviet Union

-Empress Catherine the Great -

Other modern Asian countries

People's Republic of China

In the People's Republic of China, the title "Governor" (省长) refers to the highest ranking executive of a Provincial Government. The Governor is usually placed second in the provincial power hierarchy, below the Provincial CPC Secretary (省委书记), who serves as the highest ranking Party official in the Province. A Governor can be also used when referring to a County Governor (县长).

Other modern countries in the Americas

United States

In the United States, the title governor refers to the chief executive of each state, not directly subordinate to the federal authorities, but the political and ceremonial head of the 'sovereign' state. The governor may also assume additional roles, such as the Commander-in-Chief of the State National Guard forces (when not federalized), and the ability to commute or pardon a criminal sentence. U.S. Governors serve four-year terms except those in New Hampshire and Vermont, who serve two-year terms. In all states, the governor is directly elected, and in most cases has considerable practical powers (notable exceptions with very weak governorships include Texas), though this is moderated by the state legislature and in some cases by other elected executive officials. They can veto state bills. In some cases legislatures can override a gubernatorial veto by a two-thirds vote, in others by three-fifths. In Tennessee the governor's veto can be overridden by an absolute majority vote making it virtually useless. The Governor of North Carolina had no veto power until a 1996 referendum. In most states, whenever there is a sudden vacancy of one of the state's Senate seats, that state's governor appoints someone to fill the vacancy until a special election is to be held, although the governors of Oregon, Massachusetts and Alaska no longer have this power. In colonial America, the governor was the representative of the monarch who exercised executive power, many colonies originally elected their governors, but in the years leading up to the American Revolutionary War, the king began to to appoint them directly. During the American Revolution, the royal governors were expelled, but the name was retained to denote the new elected official. See: List of United States Governors for past and present governors.
- Lieutenant Governor
- Governors of American Samoa
- Governors of Guam
- Governors of Northern Mariana Islands
- Governors of Puerto Rico
- Governors of U.S. Virgin Islands

Mexico

The elected heads of Mexico's 31 federal states are styled "governors" (gobernadores), closely following the U.S. model. See: List of Mexican state governors.

Brazil

Until the 1930 Revolution, the heads of the Brazilian Provinces then States where styled Presidents (presidentes), later governors and intervators (appointed by the federal goverment) and finally in 1945 only governors.

South America

Many of the South American republics (such as Chile and Argentina) have provinces or states run by elected governors, with offices similar in nature to U.S. state governors.

Other European countries and empires

Benelux monarchies


- In the Netherlands, the government-appointed heads of the provinces were known as Gouverneur from 1814 until 1850, when their title was changed to King's (or Queen's) Commissioner. In the Dutch crown's Caribbean Overseas territories, the style Governor is still used (alongside the political head of government) in the Netherlands Antilles as well as since 1986 on the neighbouring island of Aruba (separated from the former)
- In Belgium, the title of Gouverneur is used, in both the French and Dutch languages. There are presently 10 provinces, each with its own governor; the national capital, Brussels, does not belong to any, constituting a third 'capital' region (along with Flanders and Wallonia), with its own minister-president.

France & Napoleon

Italy


- The essentially maritime empire of the Venetian republic, comprising Terra Ferma, other Adriatic (mainly Istria and Dalmatia) and further Mediteranean (mainly Greek) possessions, used different gubernatorial styles, such as (castelleno e) provveditore (generale), baile

Papal & Vatican particularity


- In the various Italian provinces (former principalities and city-states) that became amalgamated as the Papal States, the Holy See exerced temporal power via its legates and delegates, including some cardinals
- Also in the southern French Comté Venaissin, the home of the popes during their 'babylonian exile', and retained centutries after, but never incorporated into the Papal States, Legates and Vice-legates were appointed
- The sovereign modern remnant of the formerly vast Papal States, the Vatican City State, is now a mere enclave in the capital of Italian Republic. It is too small to have further administrative territorial divisions, and so styles its equivalent of a Prime Minister, Governor and Mayor all roled in to one, as the Governor of Vatican City.

Turkish

In the Ottoman empire, various Pashas (generals) administered a province of the Great Sultan's vaste empire, with specific titles (such as Mutessaryf; Vali = Wali was often maintained or even revived in oriental successor states; cfr. Beilerbei (rendered as Governor-general, as he is appointed above several provinces under individual governors) and Dey)

Other modern African countries

Colonial entities


- Other countries then the UK with colonies in Asia, Africa and other areas, such as Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands give some, but not always all, of the top representatives of (or rather in) their colonies the title of governor.
- Currently, the län (counties) of Sweden, the provinces of Finland, the states of Indonesia and some of the administrative divisions of Russia are among the areas which have leaders with the title of governor. See also:
- Governor of Macau
- Governor-General of Finland
- Governor-General of the Irish Free State
- Over-Governor of Stockholm
- Governor of the Straits Settlements
- Governors-General of Sweden
- List of County Governors of Sweden
- Governor of Hong Kong

Modern equivalents

As a GENERIC term, Governor is used for various 'equivalent' officers governing part of a state or empire, rendering other official titles such as :
- colonial High Commissioner (not the Ambassadors exchanged within the Commonwealth) And this also applies to non-western and/or antique cultures

Furthermore, the word has other meanings

- as an administrator and/or supervisor (individually or collectively, see Board of Governors) in the socio-economic spheres of life.
- Governor of the Bank of Canada
- List of governors of national banks of Serbia and Yugoslavia

See also


- Governor-general
- Lieutenant governor
- Minister-president
- Viceroy Governor Category:Titles ms:Gabenor ja:知事

U.S. Democratic Party

The Democratic Party, founded in 1792, is the longest-standing political party in the world. It is one of the two major parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. Currently it is the minority party in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives. Democrats control 20 state legislatures, as do the Republicans (nine states have different parties in control of the upper and lower chambers, while Nebraska's unicameral legislature is elected on a nonpartisan basis). In 2005, the Democrats regained a majority of legislative seats nationwide. Of the two major U.S. parties, the Democratic Party is to the left of the Republican Party, though its politics are not as consistently leftist as the traditional social democratic and labor parties in much of the world. The Democratic Party is more notably factional than many major parties in the industrialized world, partly because American political parties in general do not have as much official power to control members as political parties in many other countries, and partly because the United States does not have a parliamentary goverment.

History

Beginnings

labor-1837).]] The Democratic Party's origins lie in the original Republican Party founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1792. Today, that party is usually referred to as the "Democratic-Republican Party" to avoid confusion. After the disintegration of the Federalist Party, the Democratic-Republicans were the only major party in American politics. For 20 years, different factions of the party contended for the presidency, whose candidates were nominated by congressional caucuses. In 1824, a particularly bitter election was thrown to the House of Representatives, and won by John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay. Jackson, recovering from his defeat, gathered together prominent leaders, including Martin Van Buren of New York and even Vice President John C. Calhoun to support his next bid for the presidency. By the election of 1828, the unified party broke into two. One became the National Republican Party, and backed the incumbent President, and the other, which became known as the Democratic Party, after their insistence that the President hold a national mandate from the people, backed Andrew Jackson. The National Republican faction became the Whig Party (after their opposition to "King Andrew"), which would disintegrate in the 1850s when dissident Whigs and Northern Democrats formed the Republican Party.

Antebellum

Initially the Democratic Party was a coalition between Western pioneers in the Ohio River valley and Illinois - the "North West" of the U.S. at that time - and Southern planters and agrarians from the Jeffersonian coalition. This coalition was very similar to the one that Jefferson and Madison had worked to create, and lead to the belief that Jackson, and not John Quincy Adams, represented a continuous "Jeffersonian" tradition. This was in opposition to the Federalist and Hamiltonian conception of government which Adams was said to represent. The key issues were election access and the Bank of the United States. The Jeffersonians had opposed the first bank, but had allowed it to continue for 20 years of their time in power. The issue of the Bank, and tariffs would be the central domestic policy issue from 1828 to 1850, even though it was increasingly overshadowed by expansion and nativism in the run up to the Civil War. The Democratic Party would lose the presidency to William Henry Harrison, only to gain it back when his Vice President took office, and proceeded to enact many policies the party favored. James Polk would solidify the party's hold on power with a coalition that was increasingly based on holding a solid South and taking enough states in the North to win national power. The party also became increasingly associated with continuation of slavery, including pressing for more and more aggressive laws to enforce the recapture of enslaved individuals who had escaped, and for more of the Great Plains to be opened to slavery. This ran into the Missouri Compromise, which had set a free line, north of which slavery would be prohibited, in return for keeping a balance of power in the Senate. With the disintegration of the Whig Party in 1856 into two factions, the American Party of Millard Fillmore and the Republican Party whose first candidate was John Fremont, it seemed as if the Democratic Party would have a permanent dominance of political power.

Civil War and Reconstruction

In the 1850s, following the disintegration of the Whig Party, the Democratic Party became increasingly divided, with its Southern wing staunchly advocating the expansion of slavery into new territories, in opposition to the newly founded Republican Party, which sought to prohibit such expansion. Democrats in the Northern states joined the Republicans in opposing the expansion of slavery, and at the 1860 nominating convention the Party split and nominated two candidates (see U.S. presidential election, 1860). As a result, the Democrats went down to defeat with the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln, a link in the chain of events leading up to the Civil War. During the war, Northern Democrats divided into two factions, War Democrats, who supported the military policies of President Abraham Lincoln, and Copperheads, who strongly opposed them. After 1864, the Democratic Party's main opposition has come from the modern Republican Party. The Democrats were shattered by the war but nevertheless benefited from white Southerners' resentment of Reconstruction and consequent hostility to the Republican Party. Once Reconstruction ended, and the disenfranchisement of blacks was re-established, the region was known as the "Solid South" for nearly a century because it reliably voted Democratic and there was, in many places, effectively only one party, there being no significant Republican presence. Though Republicans continued to control the White House until 1885, the Democrats remained competitive, especially in the mid-Atlantic and lower Midwest, and controlled the House of Representatives for most of that period. In the election of 1884, Grover Cleveland, the reforming Democratic Governor of New York, won the Presidency, a feat he repeated in 1892, having lost (but won the popular vote) in the election of 1888 (as had Samuel J. Tilden in the election of 1876).

Populism and Republican dominance

In the presidential election of 1896, widely regarded as a political realignment, Democrats favoring Free Silver defeated their conservative counterparts and succeeded in nominating William Jennings Bryan for the presidency (as did the agrarian Populist Party). Bryan, perhaps best known for his "Cross of Gold" speech delivered at the 1896 convention, waged a vigorous campaign attacking Eastern monied interests, but lost to Republican William McKinley in an election which was to prove decisive: the Republicans controlled the presidency for 28 of the following 36 years.

The New Deal

William McKinley The stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression set the stage for a more progressive government and Franklin D. Roosevelt won a landslide victory in the election of 1932, campaigning on a platform of "Relief, Recovery, and Reform". This came to be termed "The New Deal" after a phrase in his acceptance speech. The Democrats also swept to large majorities in both houses of Congress, and among state Governors. Roosevelt altered the nature of the Party, away from laissez-faire capitalism, and towards an ideology of economic regulation and insurance against hardship. After winning re-election in 1936, Roosevelt embarked on an ambitious legislative program that came to be called "The Second New Deal." He was stymied, however, by an alliance of Republicans and conservative Democrats, as well as by the Supreme Court. Frustrated by the conservative wing of his own party, Roosevelt made an attempt to rid himself of it; in 1938, he actively campaigned against five incumbent conservative Democratic senators, and to appoint more justices to the Court. However, Roosevelt's attempt to chastise the conservatives failed when all five senators won re-election despite Roosevelt's efforts, and his attempts to add justices to the Court became derisively known as "Court Packing". Roosevelt's New Deal programs focused on job creation through public works projects as well as on social welfare programs such as Social Security. It also included sweeping reforms to the banking system, work regulation, transportation, communications, stock markets and attempts to regulate prices. His policies soon paid off by uniting a diverse coalition of Democratic voters called the New Deal Coalition, which included labor unions, minorities (most significantly, Catholics and Jews), and liberals. This united voter base allowed Democrats to be elected to Congress and the presidency for much of the next 30 years. Under Roosevelt, the Democratic Party became identified more closely with modern liberalism, which included the promotion of social welfare, civil rights, and regulation of the economy.

Civil Rights Movement

In 1924 at the Democratic National Convention, a resolution denouncing the white-supremacist Ku Klux Klan was introduced. After much debate, the resolution failed by just a single vote. This resolution later passed during the 1948 Democratic National Convention as part of a larger resolution endorsing civil rights. civil rights when he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.]] The New Deal Coalition began to fracture as more Democratic leaders voiced support for civil rights, upsetting the party's traditional base of conservative Southern Democrats. After Harry Truman's platform showed support for civil rights and anti-segregation laws during the 1948 Democratic National Convention, many Southern Democratic delegates decided to split from the Party and formed the "Dixiecrats", led by South Carolina governor Strom Thurmond. Over the next few years, many conservative Democrats in the "Solid South" drifted away from the party. On the other hand, African Americans, who had traditionally given strong support to the Republican Party since its inception as the "anti-slavery party", shifted to the Democratic Party due to its New Deal economic policies. The national party's dramatic reversal on civil rights issues culminated when Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Meanwhile, the Republicans were beginning their Southern strategy, which aimed to solidify the Republican Party's electoral hold over conservative white Southerners. Southern Democrats took notice of the fact that 1964 Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater had voted against the Civil Rights Act on states rights grounds, and in the presidential election of 1964, Goldwater's only electoral victories outside his home state of Arizona were in the states of the Deep South. The degree to which the Southern Democrats had abandoned the party became evident in the 1968 Presidential election when every former Confederate state except Texas voted for either Republican Richard Nixon or independent George Wallace, the latter a former Southern Democrat. Defeated Democrat Hubert Humphrey's electoral votes came mainly from the Northern states, marking a dramatic shift from the 1948 election 20 years earlier, when the losing Republican candidate's electoral votes were mainly concentrated in the Northern states.

1970s

In 1972, the Democrats nominated South Dakota Senator George McGovern as the Party's presidential candidate on a platform which advocated, among other things, U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and a guaranteed minimum income for all Americans. McGovern was defeated in a landslide by incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon, the former winning only Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. By 1976, however, things had changed dramatically. Nixon, under criticism during the Watergate scandal, resigned from the presidency in 1974. Prior to that, his Vice President, Spiro Agnew had been forced out by a separate scandal. After Agnew resigned, Nixon appointed Gerald Ford, a Republican Representative from Michigan as Agnew's replacement. Thus, when Nixon resigned, Ford became the first President in the nation's history to have been neither elected President nor Vice President. Ford soon pardoned Nixon. Mistrust of the administration, complicated by a combination of economic recession and inflation, sometimes called "stagflation," led to Ford's defeat in 1976 to Jimmy Carter, a former Governor of Georgia. In 1980, Carter lost to Ronald Reagan after serving one term in office.

1980s

Instrumental in the election of Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1980, were Democrats who supported many conservative policies. The "Reagan Democrats" were Democrats before the Reagan years, and afterwards, but they voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 (and for George H. W. Bush in 1988), producing their landslide victories. They were mostly white ethnics in the Northeast who were attracted to Reagan's social conservatism on issues such as abortion, and to his strong foreign policy. They did not continue to vote Republican in 1992 or 1996, so the term fell into disuse except as a reference to the 1980s. The term is not used to describe southern whites who became permanent Republicans in presidential elections. Stanley Greenberg, a Democratic pollster analyzed white ethnic voters, largely unionized auto workers, in suburban Macomb County, Michigan, just north of Detroit. The county voted 63 percent for Kennedy in 1960 and 66 percent for Reagan in 1984. He concluded that Reagan Democrats no longer saw Democrats as champions of their middle class aspirations, but instead saw it as being a party working primarily for the benefit of others, especially African Americans and the very poor. Bill Clinton targeted the Reagan Democrats with considerable success in 1992 and 1996. The failure to hold the Reagan Democrats and the white South led to the final collapse of the New Deal coalition. Reagan carried 49 states against former Vice President and Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale, a New Deal stalwart, in 1984. Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, running not as a New Dealer but as an efficiency expert in public adminsitration, lost by a landslide in 1988 to Vice President George H. W. Bush. In response to these landslide defeats, the Democratic Leadership Council was created. It worked to move the Party rightwards to the ideological center. With the Party retaining left-of-center supporters as well as supporters holding moderate or conservative views on some issues, the Democrats became generally a catch all party with widespread appeal to most opponents of the Republicans.

1990s

catch all party In 1992, for the first time in 12 years, the United States elected a Democrat to the White House. They seemingly revived themselves only to lose both the House and Senate in the mid-year 1994 elections. While President Bill Clinton claimed and got credit for a balanced federal budget and welfare reform, congressional Republicans won on policy throughout the 1990’s. Clinton for example vetoed two welfare reform bills before signing the third, largely the same, right before the 1996 presidential elections. Labor unions, which had been steadily losing membership since the 1960s, found they had also lost political clout inside the Democratic Party: Clinton enacted the NAFTA free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico over the strong objection of these labor unions, much to the disappointment of those on the left of the Party. When the DLC attempted to move the Democratic agenda in favor of more centrist positions, prominent Democrats from both the centrist and conservative factions (such as Terry McAuliffe) assumed leadership of the party and its direction. Some liberals and progressives felt alienated by the Democratic Party, which they felt had become unconcerned with the interests of the common people and left-wing issues in general. Some Democrats challenged the validity of such critiques, citing the Democratic role in pushing for progressive reforms.

21st century

During the 2000 Presidential election, the Democrats chose Vice President Al Gore to be the Party's candidate for the presidency. Although Gore and George W. Bush, the Republican candidate, clearly disagreed on issues such as abortion, gun control, environmentalism, gay rights, foreign policy, public education, trade unionism, alternative fuel research, global warming, judicial appointments, and affirmative action, some critics -- Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader in particular -- asserted that Bush and Gore were too similar because they held the same views on free trade and reductions in government-funded social welfare. On election day, Gore won the popular vote by just over 500,000 votes, but lost in the electoral college by four votes. Some election observers blamed Nader's third-party candidacy for Gore's defeat. They pointed to the states of New Hampshire (4 electoral votes) and Florida (25 electoral votes), where Nader's total votes exceeded Governor Bush's margin of victory. In Florida, Nader received 97,000 votes; Bush defeated Gore by a mere 538. Winning either Florida or New Hampshire would have given Gore enough electoral votes to win the presidency. Florida by 538 votes in Florida in one of the most controversial elections, although he won the national popular vote.]] Republican Senators went from the majority in the 106th Congress to a split minority in the 107th Congress (with a Republican Vice President breaking a tie). However, when liberal Republican Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vermont) changed his party affiliation to unaffiliated and chose to quorum with the Democrats, majoritarian status went to the Democrats but they lost it again in 2002. In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, the nation's focus was changed to issues of national security. All but one Democrat voted with their Republican counterparts to authorize President Bush's 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. Senatorial Democratic leader Tom Daschle pushed for his party to approve the USA PATRIOT Act and the invasion of Iraq. The Democrats were split over the 2003 invasion of Iraq and increasingly expressed concerns about both the justification and progress of the War on Terrorism and the domestic effects including threats to civil rights and civil liberties from the USA PATRIOT Act. In the wake of the financial fraud scandal of Enron and other corporations, Congressional Democrats were integral in pushing for and developing a legal overhaul of business accounting with the intention of preventing further accounting fraud. With job losses and bankruptcies across regions and industries increasing in 2001 and 2002, the Democrats generally campaigned on the issue of economic recovery. The Democrats began fielding Presidential candidates as early as December 2002, when Gore announced he would not run again in 2004. Ex-Governor Howard Dean of Vermont, an opponent of the war and a critic of the Democratic establishment, was the frontrunner leading into the Democratic primaries. Dean had immense grassroots support, especially from the left wing of the Party. John Kerry, a much more centrist figure, was nominated because he was seen as more "electable" than Dean. In the time from 2003 to 2004, layoffs of American workers occurring in various industries due to outsourcing, some Democrats (including Howard Dean and Senatorial candidate Erskine Bowles of North Carolina) began to refine their positions on free trade and some even questioned their past support for it. By 2004, the failure of George W. Bush's administration to find weapons of mass destruction, mounting combat casualties and fatalities in Iraq, and the lack of any end point for the War on Terror were frequently debated issues in the election. That year, Democrats generally campaigned on surmounting the jobless recovery, exiting Iraq, and counterterrorism. jobless recovery Despite strong campaigning, the Republican Party won across the board. Kerry lost both the popular and electoral vote. Republicans gained four seats in the Senate and three seats in the House of Representatives. Also, for the first time since Barry Goldwater of Arizona won his first election to the Senate, the Democratic leader of the Senate lost re-election. In the end there were 3,660 Democratic state legislators across the nation to the Republicans' 3,557, and Democrats had gained governorships in Louisiana, New Hampshire and Montana. However, the Democrats lost the governorship of Missouri and a legislative majority in Georgia - which had once been a Democratic stronghold since Reconstruction. The most common hypothesis for why the Democrats lost was that the Republicans ran in opposition to gay rights and used state ballot initiatives against same-sex marriage to attract more so-called "values voters" to the polls.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_%28United_States%29#ref_4] Other hypothesis include that the Democrats had been tagged with too negative of a public image [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_%28United_States%29#ref_3] and that the Democrats failed to clearly articulate its true values, goals and issue positions.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_%28United_States%29#ref_2] Flaws in the electoral systems in Ohio and Florida led some to speculate the validity of the results (Bush received a majority of votes in both states); these controversies led Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and several Democratic U.S. Representatives (including John Conyers of Michigan) to force a Congressional debate on the issue when the 109th Congress first convened and propose disapproving the election results, a proposal that the neither House approved. (See 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy and irregularities.) Since then, many Democrats have voiced serious concern about the future of their party. Prominent Democrats began to rethink the party's direction, and a variety of strategies for moving forward were voiced. Some have suggested moving towards the right to regain seats in the House and Senate and possibly win the presidency in 2008. Others suggested that the party move more to the left and become a stronger opposition party. These debates were reflected in the 2005 campaign for Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, which Howard Dean won over the objections of many party insiders. Dean sought to move the Democratic strategy away from the establishment, and bolster support for the party's state and local chapters.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_%28United_States%29#ref_6] When the 109th Congress convened, Democratic Senators chose Harry Reid of Nevada as their Minority Leader and Richard Durbin of Illinois to replace Reid as their Assistant Minority Leader. Reid convinced the Democratic Senators to vote more as a bloc on important issues, something which forced the Republicans to abandon their push for privatization of Social Security and instatement of the "nuclear option" to end judicial filibuster. The Senate did not vote on either proposal.

Factions

Centrists

Centrist Democrats identify with centrism and compromise. Though centrist Democrats differ on a variety of issues, they typically foster a mix of political views and ideas. Compared to other Democratic factions, they're mostly more supportive of the use of military force, and are more willing to end or reduce government sponsored initiatives, as indicated by their support for welfare reform and tax cuts. Prominent centrist Democrats in recent times have included former Arkansas governor and U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton, former First Lady/U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (New York), former U.S. Vice Pres. Al Gore (Tennessee), Gov. Tom Vilsack (Iowa), Gov. Mark Warner (Virginia), U.S. Sens. Joe Biden (Delaware), Joe Lieberman (Connecticut), Harry Reid (Nevada), and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards (North Carolina). This faction of Democrats are also affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council and are usually referred to as New Democrats.

Progressives

Many progressives are descendants of the New Left of Democratic Presidential candidate/Senator George McGovern of South Dakota; others were involved in the presidential candidacies of Howard Dean and U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio. Progressive Democratic candidates for public office have had popular support as candidates in urban areas, the Northeast, the Midwest, and among African-Americans nationwide, though they have also been supported by other groups. Unifying issues among progressive Democrats have been opposition to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, opposition to economic and social conservatism, support for universal healthcare and steering the Democratic Party in the direction of being a more forceful opposition party. Compared to other factions of the party, they've been most critical of the Republican Party, and most supportive of social and economic equality. Progressive Democrats have included Kucinich, Congressman John Conyers (Michigan), Congressman/civil rights activist John Lewis (Georgia), and late U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone (Minnesota).

Labor

One of the most important parts of the Democratic Party coalition is the labor vote. They supply a great deal of the money, grass roots political organization and base of support for the party. While Union membership has fallen over the last four decades, the labor union component of the party is still very important. The Union vote tends to be more protectionist than centrists in the party. The labor wing is concerned with issues such as the minimum wage, as well as protection of pensions, collective bargaining and access to health insurance. Prominent members of this wing include Andy Stern of SEIU. Other important union organizations in the Democratic coalition include AFSCME, UAW, and the AFL-CIO. Most of the members in this faction tend to identify more with the progressive faction of the party.

Liberals

Liberal Democrats are to the left of centrist Democrats. The liberal faction was dominant in the party for several decades, until centrist forces asserted primary control. Compared to conservatives and moderates, liberal Democrats generally have advocated fair trade and other less conservative economic policies, and a less militaristic foreign policy, and have a reputation of being more forceful in pushing for civil liberties. Liberals are increasingly identified as being part of the larger progressive wing of the party. Prominent liberal Democrats include U.S. Sens. Russ Feingold (Wisconsin), Ted Kennedy (Massachusetts) and Tom Harkin (Iowa) and House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi (California).

Conservatives

The Democratic Party was once a very conservative party, with a very influential Southern wing, though this changed as conservatives started to join the Republican Party. Many on the conservative wing of the party were referred to by terms such as "yellow dog Democrats", "boll weevils", "Dixiecrats", and "Reagan Democrats". Conservatives who left the party were known to make candidacies against Democrats who desired ethnic integration; some went as far as to establish third parties in order to run against other Democrats in general elections. Eventually, most of the once large conservative faction switched to the Republican Party as it became more conservative in the late 60s and 70s. There remains, however, a viable conservative wing of the Democratic Party, one which was mostly southern. These Democrats have consisted typically of moderate conservatives who feel the Republican Party does not share the values they hold most important; these mostly include conservatives who disagree with the Republican Party's conservative views on trade, taxes and civil rights, who are critical of the policies and actions of the administration of George W. Bush, and who identify with the populism of past Democratic icons. Prominent conservative Democrats of recent time include U.S. Senators Ben Nelson (Nebraska) and Mary Landrieu (Louisiana) and Congressmen Ike Skelton (Missouri), Gene Taylor (Mississippi), Colin Peterson (Minnesota), and Jim Marshall (Georgia).

Notable groups

There are several ideological groups within the modern-day Democratic Party. As the party is made up of several groups with different ideologies, several sub-groups within the party have been set up to promote the ideologies each respective group holds. Although some of these factions do not have official organizations representing them, they are often well-represented within the party. African Americans have voted consistently for Democratic Party candidates in the 85 to 90% range, and as such can be considered a faction in the party. Democratic African American leadership coalesces around the Congressional Black Caucus and civil rights activists and is generally considered liberal in outlook. Senator Barack Obama, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and Congressman John Conyers are prominent leaders of this faction. The Democracy for America (DFA) political action committee generally supports fiscally responsible and socially progressive candidates at all levels of government. It was founded by ex-Vermont Governor and current Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean during his presidential campaign; its current Chairman is James H. Dean, Howard Dean's brother. The DFA fights against the influence of the far-right on American politics and works to rebuild the Democratic Party "from the bottom up". One of the most influential factions is the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), an influential non-profit organization that advocates centrist positions for the party. Members often self-identify under the word "New Democrat". Centrist party leaders founded the DLC in response to the landslide victory of Republican candidate Ronald Reagan over Democratic candidate Walter Mondale during the 1984 presidential election, believing the Democratic Party needed to reform its political philosophy if it was to ever retake the White House, a goal which had eluded the party since the 1976 election of Jimmy Carter. The DLC hails President Bill Clinton as proof of the viability of third way politicians and a DLC success story. However, critics contend that the DLC is effectively a powerful, corporate-financed mouthpiece within the Democratic Party that acts to keep Democratic Party candidates and platforms sympathetic to corporate interests and the interests of the wealthy. During the 20th century, this included the interests of finance capital with the involvement of the U.S. political families of Kennedy, Rockefeller and Roosevelt. The DLC was founded and continues to be led by Al From. Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa is the current chairman. The 21st Century Democrats is a political organization active since 2000 in assisting candidates it describes as "progressive" or "populist" in winning elections. Its strategy puts emphasis on training large numbers of organizers to work at the grassroots level and targeting specific campaigns it sees as important. It has strong ties to veterans of campaigns for the late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone. The Congressional Progressive Caucus or CPC is a caucus of progressive Democrats, along with one independent, in the U.S. Congress. It is the single largest Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives, although it currently has no members from the Senate. Well-known members include Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The CPC advocates universal health care, fair trade agreements, living wage laws, the right of all workers to organize into trade unions and engage in strike actions and collective bargaining, the abolition of significant portions of the USA PATRIOT Act, the formation of a Department of Peace, the legalization of gay marriage, strict campaign finance reform laws, a complete pullout from the war in Iraq, a crackdown on corporate crime and what they see as corporate welfare, an increase in income tax on the wealthy, tax cuts for the poor, and an increase in welfare spending by the federal government. [http://bernie.house.gov/pc/issues.asp] [http://www.house.gov/lee/CongressionalProgressiveCaucus/] As a key source of political contributions, volunteers, and field organizing expertise, Organized Labor holds significant sway in the Democratic Party. Former House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt was a leading supporter of labor in Congress. Trade unions have often been a considerable source of support for the party, and several elections were lost when the Democratic candidates were viewed as less than sufficiently supportive of their interests. Civil libertarians also often support the Democratic Party because its positions on such issues as civil rights and separation of church and state are more closely aligned to their own than the positions of the Republican Party, and because the Democrats' economic agenda may be more appealing to them than that of the Libertarian Party. They oppose the "War on Drugs," protectionism, corporate welfare, immigration restrictions, governmental borrowing, and an interventionist foreign policy. The Democratic Freedom Caucus is an organised group of this faction. The Blue Dog Democrats are a congressional caucus of fiscal and social conservatives and moderates, primarily southerners, willing to broker compromises with the Republican leadership. They have acted as a unified voting bloc in the past, giving its thirty members some ability to change legislation. The name appears to be both a reference to several well-known Louisiana paintings featuring blue dogs, as well as a reference to the old "yellow dog" Democrats having been "choked blue." Traditionally, the color blue has been associated with conservative ideals, contributing to the caucus' name. The Progressive Democrats of America lends itself to the progressive ideology within the party. Founded by members of Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, it does not hold much sway in the Democratic Party, being considered more radically liberal than other factions.

Issues

The principles and values of any political party are difficult to define and apply generally to all members of the party. Some members may disagree with one or more plank of their party's platform. On the budget, the Democrats in the 2004 platform swore to halve the yearly federal budget deficit by 2009. They stated that they seek "a Constitutional version of the line-item veto to make it easier to root out pork-barrel spending." On a major issue affecting civil liberties, the USA PATRIOT Act, the Democratic agenda is to "change the portions of the Patriot Act that threaten individual rights, such as the library provisions." They further explained in their platform, "Our government should never round up innocent people only because of their religion or ethnicity, and we should never stifle free expression." The party is against racial profiling in the war against terror. On crime, Democrats place more focus on methods of prevention of crime rather than on what penalties are applied to crimes. They emphasize improved community policing and more on-duty police officers in order to help accomplish that. Their platforms for 2000 and 2004 also cite crackdowns on gangs and drug trafficking as preventive methods. The 2004 platform also calls for rehabilitation for prisoners, in order to "reintegrate former prisoners into our communities as productive citizens." Their platforms have also particularly addressed the issue of domestic violence, calling for strict penalties for offenders and protections for victims. On equality and nondiscrimination, citing that "a day's work is worth a day's pay," and that on average a woman continues to earn 77% of what a man does, the Democrats call for laws for equal pay. The Democrats wish to uphold the Americans with Disabilities Act to prohibit discrimination against people on the basis of physical or mental disability. The Democrats cite affirmative action as a method with which to redress past discrimination and to ensure equitable employment regardless of ethnicity or gender. On gay marriage, many Democrats have publicly supported civil unions or same sex marriage, but it is not yet an official position of the party as a whole, or any of the members of the party leadership in Congress. The legal standing of gay marriage is a subject of debate within the Democratic Party. In the campaigns for the Party candidacy for the 2004 presidential election, candidates were divided, with John Kerry supporting civil unions while Howard Dean supported same-sex marriage. Most Democrats support the continued legalization of same-sex marriage and/or unions and progress in their nationwide acceptance. Many Democrats consider gay marriage to be a civil right of Americans. On health care, Democrats typically call for "affordable health care," and many advocate an expansion of government funding in this area. In their 2004 platform, the Democrats affirmed the pursuit of federally funded zygotic stem-cell "research under the strictest ethical guidelines, but we will not walk away from the chance to save lives and reduce human suffering." On abortion, the Democrats believe that privacy is a constitutional right. Thus as a matter of privacy and gender equality, women should be allowed to control their fertility and pregnancy, including access to abortion, legalized under Roe v. Wade. Often supporters refer to a "right to choose," without a direct reference to abortion. Many Democratic politicians include in this right practical access to abortion through government subsidies. The party's proposal (in 2000 and 2004) for public policy on termination of pregnancy is for abortion to be "safe, legal and rare" - namely, keeping it legal by rejecting laws that include governmental interference in any individual matter, and reducing the number performed by promoting both knowledge of reproduction and incentives for adoption. On gun control, the Democratic Party has introduced various gun control measures over the last 100 years. Most notable of these is the National Firearms Act of 1934 (signed into law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt), the 1939 Gun Control Act (also signed into law by FDR), the 1968 Gun Control Act (introduced by Senator Dodd and heavily endorsed by Senator Edward Kennedy), the Brady law of 1993 (signed by President Bill Clinton), and the Crime Control Act of 1994 (also signed by Bill Clinton). However, many Democrats, particularly rural Democrats and especially southern and western Democrats, have dissented and favored more freedom to possess firearms. In the national platform for 2004, the only statement explicitly favoring gun control was a plank calling for renewal of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban .

Symbols

Assault Weapons Ban On January 19, 1870, a political cartoon by Thomas Nast appearing in Harper's Weekly titled "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" for the first time symbolized the Democratic Party as a donkey. Since then, the donkey has been widely used as a symbol of the Party. The DNC's official logo, pictured above, depicts a stylized kicking donkey. In the media, Democrats (and states which consistently vote Democratic) have relatively recently been depicted as blue, while Republicans, and the states in which they dominate, as red. In the early 20th century, the traditional symbol of the Democratic Party in Midwestern states such as Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Ohio was the rooster, as opposed to the Republican eagle. This symbol still appears on Kentucky and Indiana ballots. For the majority of the 20th Century, Missouri Democrats used the Statue of Liberty as their ballot emblem. This meant that when Libertarian candidates received ballot access in Missouri in 1976, they could not use the Statue of Liberty, their national symbol, as the ballot emblem. Missouri Libertarians instead used the Liberty Bell until 1995, when the mule became Missouri's state animal. From 1995 to 2004, there was some confusion among voters, as the Democratic ticket was marked with the Statue of Liberty, and it seemed that the Libertarians were using a donkey. The Democratic Party draws on its history of politicians (Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton), programs (Social Security, minimum wage, Medicare) and goals (expanded health insurance, greater incomes for average U.S. citizens, progressive taxation, and an internationalist December 15, 1954) is an American politician from the U.S. state of Virginia. Warner, a Democrat, is the current Governor of Virginia. As he begins the final months of his gubernatorial term, Warner's poll ratings indicate that he is the most popular Virginia governor in a generation, with record approval ratings of nearly 75 percent. Warner is considered one of the top contenders for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 2008 because of his wide appeal to independents and moderate Republicans, and his high popularity in a relatively Republican state. Some have compared him to Bill Clinton, another moderate Southern Democratic governor who had strong appeal to moderates and independents. In November 2005, Time magazine named Warner one of the "five best governors" in the United States.

Early life and career

Warner was born in Indianapolis, Indiana and was raised in Vernon, Connecticut where he graduated from Rockville High School. He attended George Washington University and in 1977 became the first person in his family to graduate from college. Warner went on to graduate from Harvard Law School in 1980. In the early 1980s, Warner served as a Senate staff member. He used his knowledge of federal telecommunications policies as a broker of cellular phone franchise licenses, making a large fortune. As managing director of Columbia Capital Corporation he helped found or was an early investor in a number of technology companies. He co-founded Nextel, as well as Capital Cellular Corporation, and built up an estimated fortune of over $200 million. Around the same time, he married Lisa Collis. The couple has three daughters, Madison, Gillian, and Eliza. Warner involved himself in public efforts related to health care, telecommunications, information technology, and education. He managed Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder's successful 1989 gubernatorial campaign, served as state chairman of the state Democratic Party and ultimately made his own bid for public office, unsuccessfully running for the Senate in 1996 against Republican Senator John Warner (no relation) in a "Warner vs. Warner" election. John Warner was unpopular in rural Virginia for opposing the 1994 Senate candidacy of controversial right-wing Republican Oliver North, and Mark Warner seized on this to perform impressively in the state's rural areas.

Governor of Virginia

Oliver North In 2001, Warner campaigned for Governor as a moderate Democrat after years of slowly building up a power base in rural Virginia. He defeated the Republican candidate, then-State Attorney General Mark Earley, by a margin of almost 100,000 votes. In the same election, Republican Jerry Kilgore was elected Attorney General, and Democrat Tim Kaine was elected Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. Although Virginians rejected Warner's bid to raise the sales tax in 2002, state revenue has increased significantly from $19 billion in Fiscal Year 1999 to nearly $30 billion in Fiscal Year 2005. Warner worked with moderate Republican legislators to reform the tax code, lowering food and income taxes, and increasing the sales and cigarette taxes in 2004. He is a former chairman of the National Governors Association and the Southern Governors' Association. Southern Governors' Association Warner's popularity paid off for the Democrats when, in 2003 and again in 2005, the party made a net gain in the Virginia House of Delegates for the first time in generations (although the House remained under Republican control.) He succeeded in passing a tax bill to improve the state's financial balance sheet. He won the support of several key Republican legislators and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce for the proposal, although the effort also led to an attack ad campaign from conservative seniors who opposed raising taxes. Warner has also made a major push to reform high school to offer more college credit or technical training options. He has encountered some criticism for being too low-key and not leading on hot button issues, but maintains he is trying to avoid unproductive posturing and partisanship. In January 2005, after a two-year study, the Government Performance Project, in conjunction with Governing magazine and the Pew Charitable Trust, ranked the states in four management categories: money, people, infrastructure, and information. Virginia and Utah tied with an A- overall, but Virginia got A's across the board, prompting Warner to dub Virginia "the best managed state in the nation." Kaine and Kilgore both sought to succeed Warner as Governor of Virginia. (The Virginia Constitution forbids any Governor from serving consecutive terms, so Warner could not have run for a second term in 2005.) On November 8, 2005, Kaine, the former Mayor of Richmond, won with 52 percent of the vote. Kilgore, who had resigned as Attorney General in February 2005 to campaign full-time, and who had previously served as Virginia Secretary of Public Safety, received 46 percent of the vote. Russ Potts, a Republican State Senator, also ran for Governor as an independent, receiving 2 percent of the vote. Warner had supported and campaigned for Kaine, and many national pundits considered Kaine's victory to be further evidence of Warner's political clout in Virginia, as well as a signal of his viability as a presidential candidate. On November 29, 2005, as is his prerogative as governor, Warner commuted the death sentence of Robin Lovitt to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Lovitt was convicted of murdering Clayton Dicks at an Arlington pool hall in 1999. After his trial in 2001, a court clerk illegally destroyed evidence that was used against Lovitt during his trial, but that could have exonerated him upon further DNA testing. Just a few weeks earlier, Virginia implemented a law requiring the preservation of DNA evidence in death row cases. Lovitt's death sentence would have been the 1,000th carried out in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment as permissible under the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution in 1976. In a statement, Warner said, "The actions of an agent of the commonwealth, in a manner contrary to the express direction of the law, comes at the expense of a defendant facing society's most severe and final sanction." Warner has denied clemency in 11 other cases that have come before him as governor.

Future political career

clemency Warner's home-state popularity is high, polling in the final year of his term with an 80% approval rating from Mason-Dixon Political Media Research, published in newspapers statewide. According to Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker, that gives Warner the highest approval rating for an outgoing governor in the firm's two-decade history. Warner is considered to be a potential Presidential candidate in 2008, as Virginia limits its governors to a single consecutive term in office. After John Kerry's 2004 presidential election defeat, Warner has been regarded by some Democrats as a Clinton-like figure around whom the party could rally in the 2008 election. His business experience, Southern base, fundraising connections within high-tech and venture capital circles, and record of working with black leaders add up to what some see as an attractive political résumé. Having served only one term as an elected official, however, Warner may be considered too inexperienced to move to the Presidency; the same point was raised about John Edwards' one Senate term. If he did run for president in 2008, his first test might be a comparison with several others, possibly including Evan Bayh, John Edwards, John Kerry, and/or Tom Vilsack, who would vie for support from moderate Democratic voters seeking a fresh voice. [http://www.demstore.com DemStore], a website that manufactures official and unofficial campaign paraphernalia for Democratic office-seekers (including the 2004 presidential campaigns of Howard Dean, Dick Gephardt, and Wesley Clark), has already begun manufacturing "Warner for President" buttons and bumper stickers. It is not clear, however, if their services have been retained by Warner, by his emissaries, or by some sort of "Draft Warner" movement similar to that which surrounded Clark. On June 10, 2005, Warner hired Monica Dixon, a former top-political aide to 2000 Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore, and also formed a political action committee which has been dubbed "Forward Together." Both of these actions could be indicative of a run for the presidency in 2008. On August 29, 2005, Warner announced that he would not challenge George Allen for his Senate seat in 2006, even though a poll commissioned by the Roanoke Times and other papers across Virginia had recently shown that voters would prefer Warner in a head-to-head matchup with Allen. [http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/xp-28179] If not elected President, Virginia law would not bar Warner from running for Governor again in 2009 – the law only prevents consecutive terms. Warner would have been likely to pursue Virginia's second Senate seat in 2008 if John Warner had decided to retire (the elder Warner has indicated he will stay on.) According to the Washington Post, "one of the Democratic Party's most experienced Internet specialists formally signed on" with Warner's Forward Together PAC. Jerome Armstrong, who "served as a key member of Howard Dean's Internet team in 2004, will be Warner's Internet Director." [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/29/AR2005082901175_pf.html] Jerome Armstrong On December 6th, 2005, Warner held the kickoff gala of his [http://www.forwardtogetherpac.com Forward Together PAC] in Virginia, where he raised over $2.5 million dollars. In attendence were Governor-elect Tim Kaine, and former Senator John Breaux. Following the Forward Together PAC Gala, Warner headed down to South Carolina for the Democratic Dinner honoring South Carolina's four Democratic Governors where he [http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=57701§ion=localnews impressed] South Carolina Democrats. Warner was also the guest speaker at the Florida Democratic Party Conference on the weekend of December 9.

References


- Clift, Elenor (December 9, 2005). [http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10401164/site/newsweek/ "Hillary vs Warner]. Newsweek
- Gelineau, Kristen (Nov. 29, 2005). [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/29/AR2005112901090.html "Va. Gov. Grants Clemency for Condemned Man"]. The Washington Post.
- Przybyla, Heidi (Nov. 10, 2005). [http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=alzoQPiW_xxc&refer=us "Warner's Star in Presidential Politics Rises on Virginia Vote"]. Bloomberg.com.
- Polman, Nick (Nov. 10, 2005). [http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/13130424.htm "A new face for 2008? Yes, Virginia"]. The Philadelphia Inquirer.

External links


- [http://www.governor.virginia.gov/ Governor Warner's website]
- [http://draftmarkwarner.com/ Draft Mark Warner for President 2008]
- [http://www.forwardtogetherpac.com/ Forward Together PAC] Warner, Mark Warner, Mark Warner, Mark Warner, Mark Warner, Mark Warner, Mark Warner, Mark Warner, Mark Warner, Mark Warner, Mark Category:Pro-choice politicians

2006

2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. It corresponds to the years 5766-5767 of the Hebrew Calendar. It has been designated:
- The International Year of Deserts and Desertification
- The Rembrandt Year, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the birth of Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Holland's greatest 17th-century painter.
- The Mozart Year, celebrating the 250th birthday of the Austrian composer Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
- The Tesla Year, celebrating the 150th birthday of the world known electrotechnician Nikola Tesla.

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