Voters keep saying they want the partisanship to end in Washington, DC, but in the last month they have voted to increase partisanship. Two respected members of the Senate and House Agriculture Committees were defeated because they were not politically pure.
Senator Dick Lugar (R-IN), former chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, was defeated last week in the Indiana Republican primary by Tea Party-backed candidate State Treasurer Richard Mourdock. Senator Lugar lost in part because he had worked in a bipartisan manner on key issues and believed in comity rather than gridlock. During the campaign, Mourdock had stated he wanted to bring more partisanship to Washington, DC. Earlier, Congressman Tim Holden (D-PA), a member of the House Agriculture Committee and a Blue Dog, lost his Democratic primary after accusations of not being a true Democrat because he had voted against the cap-and-trade bill and the health care bill.
As we have seen, more and more moderates of both parties are being defeated. If this trend continues, the partisanship will continue to increase in Washington, DC after this year’s election.