Out of the Shadow

[America Needs R'hllor]

Hopefully this continues America's realignment to a more European and left of center political spectrum.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Hopefully this continues America's realignment to a more European and left of center political spectrum.

Actually John Lindsay losing could change that big time.


Paul Laxalt 1980 or Jack Kemp 1980

[Tron1993]

Hopefully this continues America's realignment to a more European and left of center political spectrum.

Actually John Lindsay losing could change that big time.


Paul Laxalt 1980 or Jack Kemp 1980

Jackson would have to make some serious missteps for that to happen

[Cold War Liberal]

November 3, 1976
12:00 AM

“It’s a new day on the East Coast. In other parts of the country, some states still have not been called. At CBS, we can call California for President-elect Jackson. We can also call Iowa for the President-elect, putting him over 400 electoral votes. And finally, Oregon will also go to President-elect Jackson. Montana and New Mexico are still both too close to call.”

JACKSON/PEDEN: 53%, 413 EVS ✓
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 46%, 114 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS
TOO CLOSE/EARLY TO CALL: 8 EVS
POLLS OPEN: 3 EVS
“Missouri’s Senate race can finally be called; with 99% of the vote in, Jerry Litton has been elected the next Senator from Missouri with 49.97% of the vote to Kit Bond’s 49.81%. This keeps Stuart Symington’s Senate seat in Democratic hands for at least six more years.”

Democrats: 62 seats ( 7)
Republicans: 38 seats ( 7)

1:00 AM

“Polls have officially closed everywhere in the country, and we can make the final calls in the Presidential election. In Alaska, President-elect Jackson has won by around six points. In Montana, we’re going to call President-elect Jackson the victor there, but it will likely go to a recount, as the margin is around 120 votes at the moment, or a margin of 0.04%. And finally, New Mexico looks to have gone to John Lindsay by about 870 votes, or 0.21%.

JACKSON/PEDEN: 53%, 420 EVS ✓
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 46%, 118 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS
“And with those calls, the election is settled. For CBS News, I’m Walter Cronkite. Goodnight.”

[Cold War Liberal]

1976 United States Elections
Final Results

Vice President Henry M. Jackson (D-WA)/Senator Katherine G. Peden (D-KY): 43,738,487, 52.59%, 420 EVs ✓
Fmr. Mayor John V. Lindsay (R-NY)/Senator William D. Ruckelshaus (R-IN): 38,628,862, 46.45%, 118 EVs
Others: 799,983, 0.96%
Total: 83,167,332

House of Representatives

Democrats: 288 ( 14)
Republicans: 147 ( 14)

Notable Freshmen
Sandra Day O’Connor (R-AZ-03)
Leon Panetta (D-CA-16)
Bob Dornan (R-CA-27)
Phil Crane (R-IL-12)
Dan Quayle (R-IN-04)
David Emery (R-ME-01)
Gladys Spellman (D-MD-05)
Ed Markey (D-MA-07)
Carl Purcell (R-MI-02)
Trent Lott (R-MS-05)
Ron Marlenee (R-MT-02)
John Cavanaugh (D-NE-02)
Norman Lent (R-NY-04)
Daniel P. Moynihan (D-NY-12)
Frank Rizzo (D-PA-01)
Ross Bass (D-TN-06)
David D. Marriott (R-UT-02)

Senate

Democrats: 62 seats ( 7)
Republicans: 38 seats ( 7)

Freshmen
Raúl Hector Castro (D-AZ)
Lowell Weicker (R-CT)
Richard Lugar (R-IN)
Lawrence Hogan (R-MD)
Richard Austin (D-MI)
Jerry Litton (D-MO)
John Melcher (D-MT)
Harrison Schmitt (R-NM)
Bella Abzug (D-NY)
Arlen Specter (R-PA)
John Chafee (R-RI)
Robin Beard (R-TN)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Henry Howell (D-VA)
Malcolm Wallop (R-WY)

Governors’ Mansions

Democrats: 35 ( 5)
Republicans: 15 ( 5)

New Governors
Pete du Pont (R-DE)
Donald Rumsfeld (R-IL)
John Danforth (R-MO)
James Holshouser (R-NC)
J. Joseph Garrahy (D-RI)
Vernon Romney (R-UT)
Stella Hackel (D-VT)

[LoneStarDem]

Interesting to see what the transition will look like.

[Cold War Liberal]

MADAM VICE PRESIDENT

11/3/1976 by GLORIA STEINEM
       On November 2nd, America did the unthinkable: elected a female Vice President.

   Katherine Graham Peden - diminutively called "Katie" by some - is the popular, populist Kentucky Democratic Senator who is now the 41st Vice President (elect) of the United States of America. After narrowly winning her 1968 election and then winning again in 1974, Vice President Henry Jackson chose Senator Peden as his running mate in August, making her the first female Democrat (and second woman ever) nominated for a federal executive office at the DNC. A vocal proponent of policies like the comprehensive universal childcare law that went into affect several years ago, upholding a woman's right to choose, and passing the ERA, Peden will undoubtedly be a much-needed voice for American women upon her ascension to the Vice Presidency.

   But lest you think all of the woes afflicting American women will simply go away after Peden is sworn in on January 20th, I’ve got some news for you. Men have been in the business of oppressing women for millennia, and that will not stop simply because one woman got her foot in the door of the United States Executive Branch. From equal pay for equal work to abortion rights, women are still waging battles for equality across the nation, and Peden won't be able to change that no matter how hard she tries...

Continued on page 14.

[LoneStarDem]

On Raul H. Castro: I'm assuming that since he's elected to the United States Senate in 1976, AZ Secretary of State Wesley Bolin (D) would ascend to the Governorship in this TL ?

PS: Looking forward to seeing the opening of the HHH Presidential Center in this TL.

[Cold War Liberal]

On Raul H. Castro: I'm assuming that since he's elected to the United States Senate in 1976, AZ Secretary of State Wesley Bolin (D) would ascend to the Governorship in this TL ?

No.

Senator Barry Goldwater won the 1968 presidential election, and Governor Jack Williams appointed himself to the senate seat he was vacating. Wesley Bolin became governor at that point, and won a term of his own in 1970. Castro was the 1974 gubernatorial nominee, but he lost narrowly to Evan Mecham, who is the current governor (and a controversial one at that).

This timeline diverges from our own in 1963. A lot has happened since then that’s had ripple effects.

[Tron1993]

I miss the POV posts…are there going to be some more of those?

[Cold War Liberal]

November 3, 1976

Presidential historians will no longer be able to say "President Jackson" without the possibility of causing some confusion; now they will have to distinguish between "A. Jackson" and "H. Jackson."

The Presidential election of 1976 was closer than some polls showed after the conventions, but Vice President Jackson still won by a little over six points, outperforming the final polls. Lindsay was able to bring a lot of moderate New England Republicans back under the GOP banner, while doing surprisingly well in the South due to a fair amount of black support; Lindsay was expected to lose the region by a landslide, but did not significantly underperform Goldwater’s 1968 performance in the region. Meanwhile, President-elect Jackson did very well in the Manufacturing Belt, running up larger than average margins in states like Minnesota, Ohio, and Michigan. Jackson also did well on the West Coast. Jackson’s victory of a number of large states made his national win wide, but not particularly deep; despite his lopsided win of 78.1% of the electoral college vote, the President-elect only won 52.6% of the popular vote. A number of those states were won by a somewhat narrow margin.

The House elections saw little excitement; Republicans gained 14 seats, an underwhelming performance. One bright point for the GOP is that they robbed Democrats of their supermajority, though they only did so by two votes. Speaker Albert retired, and as such, Majority Leader Phillip Burton is expected to become the next Speaker of the House.

The GOP made gains to the tune of seven seats in the Senate, though they lost several winnable elections, like those in Missouri and Michigan. Nevertheless, the map was atrocious for Democrats, who were defending 27 seats to the GOP’s six, and so GOP gains were virtually assured. The Democrats lost their supermajority in the upper chamber as well, though their filibuster-resistant majority is still in tact. With both the majority and minority leaders retiring, Howard Baker is expected to be the next Senate Minority Leader, while Robert Byrd may be the next Majority Leader.

And finally, in the governors’ races, Democrats were defending literally every state. Republicans made gains of five seats amid bad governance in Illinois and a health scandal in Missouri.

November 5, 1976

After President Humphrey returns from one last trip to Panama, the Senate ratifies the final versions of both treaties. The Torrijos-Humphrey Treaties go into effect.

November 10, 1976

Senator Edmund Muskie (D-ME) announces he will run for Majority Leader, running to the left of Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV). This surprise announcement shakes up the race, as many progressives and some moderates are concerned about Byrd’s past conservatism and Ku Klux Klan membership.

November 17, 1976

President-elect Jackson announces that George Ball will be departing from the Department of State at the end of the Humphrey Administration, and announces that U.N. Ambassador Sargent Shriver will be the President-elect’s choice to be the next Secretary of State.

November 24, 1976

The parties in the House of Representatives vote on their nominees to be the leaders of the incoming 95th Congress.

Speaker: Phillip Burton (D-CA-06)
Majority Leader: Kika de la Garza (D-TX-15)
Majority Whip: John Brademas (D-IN-03)

Minority Leader: Gerald Ford (R-MI-05)
Minority Whip: Bob Michel (R-IL-18)

November 30, 1976

The parties in the U.S. Senate choose their nominees to lead the Senate through the 95th Congress. Senator Muskie wins 33 votes to become the next nominee for Majority Leader, besting Robert Byrd, who won 29 votes.

President Pro Tempore: James Eastland (D-MS)
Majority Leader: Edmund Muskie (D-ME)
Majority Whip: Ted Kennedy (D-MA)

Minority Leader: Howard Baker (R-TN)
Minority Whip: Charles Percy (R-IL)

December 5, 1976

Jackson announces recently-reelected Nebraska Senator Frank B. Morrison will be the nominee for Secretary of Agriculture.

December 7, 1976

UN Secretary General Max Jakobson is easily selected for a second term over Luis Echeverría Álvarez.

December 11, 1976

A private jet carrying Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch crashes shortly after taking off from Idlewild Airport, exploding upon impact. Murdoch, the pilot and co-pilot, and 12 others were aboard; there were no survivors.

Murdoch is survived by his wife and four young children.

December 18, 1976

President-elect Jackson announces his pick for Attorney General is former Kennedy Justice Department official Nicholas Katzenbach. Katzenbach was Robert Kennedy's right hand man throughout the JFK administration, and he will be replacing Ramsay Clark, who is departing.

Jackson also announces that economist Juanita Kreps will be the nominee to be the next Treasury Secretary.

December 26, 1976

Retiring Senator Philip Hart dies of melanoma. Governor Levin appoints his elected successor, Richard Austin, to the now-vacant Senate seat.

January 1, 1977

Virginia Governor Henry Howell tenders his resignation. He will be sworn into his Senate seat on the 3rd. Lt. Gov. Douglas Wilder is sworn in as the first black Governor of the state that was once the seat of the Confederate States of America.

January 3, 1977

The 95th Congress is officially sworn in. They get to work starting the process of drafting a healthcare overhaul bill, and start confirmation hearings on Jackson's Cabinet nominees.

January 7, 1977

Vice President-elect Peden officially tenders her resignation from the Senate. Governor Julian Carroll appoints Lt. Gov. Thelma Stovall to the now-vacant Senate seat, and schedules a special election for the same day as the other November 1977 elections.

January 9, 1977

Senator Frank B. Morrison is confirmed as Secretary of Agriculture, a position he will assume on January 20th. In the meantime, he resigns from Congress. Governor Exon appoints freshman Rep. John J. Cavanaugh (D-NE-02) to the vacant Senate seat, which is considered odd because Cavanaugh had only served six days in the House of Representatives (after serving four years in the Nebraska Unicameral). A special primary is scheduled for April 1, while a special general election is to be held on November 8.

January 17, 1977

President Humphrey gives a televised farewell address from the Oval Office. He thanks the American people for being willing to have him serve as their President, calling it "the honor of a lifetime." He lauds the Humphrey Administration's many accomplishments, and encourages those who approve of him to "keep demanding progressive change from your government; progress will not be made without you."

January 19, 1977

On his last day in office, President Humphrey issues an unconditional pardon of all people who dodged the draft during the Vietnam War. Humphrey says it is "time to move on from that difficult period in our nation's history, and give those who made that perhaps-regrettable decision to dodge the draft a second chance."

Gallup Poll
January 20, 1977
Do you approve of the job President Humphrey did as President?
Yes: 65%
No: 26%
No opinion: 8%
Not sure: 0%
Do you approve of President Henry Jackson?
Yes: 62%
No: 30%
No opinion: 3%
Not sure: 5%
American Economic Report
January 20, 1977
United States Unemployment Rate: 6.1%

United States Inflation Rate: 5.2%

United States GDP Growth Rate: 1.7%

Crude Oil Price per Barrel: $25.47

Average U.S. Gas Price per Gallon: $0.42

[LoneStarDem]

Keeping my fingers crossed Mecham gets impeached & removed from office in AZ.

[Cold War Liberal]

INAUGURATION 1977

January 20, 1977 was a chilly day, with a temperature that felt like it was in the teens. The special guests on the East Portico wore multiple layers of coats, as did the 7,500 onlookers who had amassed in front of the east front to watch their new President get sworn into office.

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Shirley Hufstedler, the first woman to be appointed and confirmed to the highest court in the land, was chosen to swear in Katherine Peden, the first woman to ever be elected Vice President.

"I, Katherine Graham Peden, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."

Cheers arose from the crowd as the 41st Vice President finished her oath. Now, it was time for Henry Jackson's oath. As is mostly the norm, Chief Justice Thurgood Marshall administered the soon-to-be 38th President's oath.

"I, Henry Martin Jackson, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God."

Receiving the customary "congratulations, Mr. President" and a handshake from the Chief Justice, President Henry M. Jackson stepped up to the podium and prepared to give his first address to the people of America.

"My fellow Americans, today is the day we take the successes of the past four years and start to expand them...

"...the America of tomorrow is an America that provides for its citizens while letting them have the space to be their own people. It's an America where no veteran is in poverty, where no child is without ample food, and where no American has to worry that an unexpected medical expense will rob them of their financial security...

"...we have been a nation in the grips of complex progressive social change over the past two decades, and while that must continue, we must also create progressive economic change in this country as well. We should put unemployed and underemployed Americans to work and improve our nation's infrastructure while we're at it!

"...America's image around the globe has taken a hell of a hit since 1971, and the previous administration did some much needed cleanup. But if 'cleanup' is defense, it is now time to go onto the metaphorical offensive, reinforcing American prowess and dominance over Communism on the world stage!"

"...so, America, I am confident that, together, we will overcome the barriers to our success and build upon our nation's prosperity so we shall all share in it. Thank you!"

President Henry Jackson and First Lady Helen Hardin Jackson then escorted former President Hubert Humphrey and former First Lady Muriel Humphrey to what was once Marine One; the ritual is more of a photo-op than anything else. As the Humphreys flew to Andrews Air Force Base (and subsequently back to their home state of Minnesota), Jackson rode in the presidential state car (a 1972 Lincoln Continental) down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

Outgoing President Humphrey created a media controversy when he invited newly-elected, openly gay California Assemblyman Harvey Milk to the inauguration. Milk attended the inauguration, to the delight of some and the discomfort of many.

Jackson Cabinet
President: Henry M. Jackson
Vice President: Katherine Peden
-------
Secretary of State: Sargent Shriver
Secretary of the Treasury: Juanita Kreps
Secretary of Defense: Clark Clifford
Attorney General: Nicholas Katzenbach
Secretary of the Interior: Frank Church*
Secretary of Agriculture: Frank B. Morrison
Secretary of Commerce: Ivan Allen, Jr.
Secretary of Labor: Walter Reuther*
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare: Claude Pepper*
Secretary of Housing: Patricia Roberts Harris*
Secretary of Transportation: Brock Adams
Secretary of Environmental Affairs: Douglas Costle*
Secretary of Peace and Global Development: Harold Brown
-------
FBI Director: Mark Felt
Director of Central Intelligence: Vernon A. Walters
-------
Chief of Staff: Anne Wexler
Press Secretary: Douglas Feith
Director of the Bureau of Budget: Paul Wolfowitz
United States Trade Representative: Richard Perle
United States Ambassador to the United Nations: Jeane Kirkpatrick
White House Counsel: Elliot Abrams

*Retained from the Humphrey Administration

[LoneStarDem]

This is likely the last time the East Front of the US Capitol will hold Presidential Inaugurations, considering in 1981, it was moved to the West Front (which was the right thing to do).

[Tron1993]

 Are we going to See the entire Jackson administration in this chapter or is it going to cut off in 1978.   Either way I’m really excited to see more and I Hope to see More POV segments especially for Scoop

[Cold War Liberal]

1977

Upon his inauguration, President Henry Jackson radiated hope. He was confident that his Administration would be a continuation of the wildly successful presidency of Hubert Humphrey, except Jackson wanted to finish what Humphrey started on healthcare and be tougher on foreign policy. His first initiative was to make good on his promises to the American people regarding health insurance.

The Office of the Vice President had been working with Congress for quite some time on a draft of Jackson's vision for healthcare reform. So, when many of those Vice Presidential staffers (who had, in 1973, mostly come from Jackson's Senate office) made the transition to the West Wing, the plan came with them, allowing for Jackson to immediately have Senator Tom Foley (D-WA) and Congressman John Kerry (D-MA-05) introduce the bill into Congress. The American Universal Heathcare Act of 1977 was met with opposition from conservatives and some liberals, such as Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), who didn't think it went far enough. The AUHA would create a national marketplace where insurers would be required to sell their plans, plans that would be regulated by the federal government. The plan passed the House with 264 votes. In the Senate, Senators Kennedy and Bernard Sanders (D-VT) amended the bill to include a government-run option put onto the national marketplace, a requirement that people with so-called "pre-existing conditions" be protected from losing their coverage, and a penalty for those who opt not to have health insurance through either their employer or the marketplaces. This plan passed the Senate, and the House cast 247 votes in favor of reconciling the differences. President Jackson signed the healthcare bill on February 8, 1978.

In addition to healthcare, President Jackson also pushed for welfare reform, passing the Social Security Amendments of 1977, which created the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program to provide income to poor elderly and disabled people, and relaxing the eligibility standards for the food stamp program. President Jackson signed the Mondale-Hawkins Full Employment Act in 1977, which attempted to preempt the slowing economy by creating thousands of government jobs and steered the economic policy of the United States towards combating rising inflation.

President Jackson asked Congress to pull education out of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and make it its own Cabinet department. The Department of Education was created on February 12, 1977, and Housing Secretary Patricia Roberts Harris was made the first Secretary of Education. Former Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes replaced Harris at Housing, while Claude Pepper remained Secretary of Health and Welfare.

While Jackson staunchly supported civil rights for black Americans and women, he was mostly indifferent to gay rights. On the one hand, he did not personally support homosexuality, but on the other, he believed that discrimination of all kinds were bad and made America weaker. Regardless, gay rights groups, headed by California State Assemblyman Harvey Milk, gained traction during his administration, mostly in retaliation to Anita Bryant's "Save Our Children" organization repealing gay rights ordinances in cities across the country. At an October press conference a gay rights activist threw a pie in Bryant's face, causing her to have an outburst in which she used anti-gay slurs, said God does not love gay people, and said that all gay people deserve to die. Her outburst galvanized gay rights activists and hurt her cause among social liberals and many social moderates; however, she nevertheless came to be seen as heroic by social conservatives.

NASA, no longer working with the Soviet space program, launched its first solo missions in the form of the Voyager I and II probes. There were also two manned missions to the Moon. President Jackson announced that he would like to see an “international coalition” establish a base on the moon by 1985, in addition to President Humphrey’s goal of a manned mission to mars by 2000. Preparations were also made for several more unmanned missions to Mars and two more

Moving on to world events, the world was shocked and saddened when Pope Paul VI died on September 8, 1977. The Papal conclave to choose his successor began on September 27, and produced a new pope the following day. Cardinal Sergio Pignedoli was selected as the 263rd Pope, taking the Papal Name Boniface X.

1977 was a test of the new administration’s foreign policy. The famine in southern Asia had started to lead to small leftist groups popping up in the region, though they did not gain major traction at first. However, both of India’s communist parties made gains in the 1977 elections, even as the election overall was a landslide for the Janata alliance. President Jackson took a harder stance in the escalating Cold War conflict, especially since his Soviet counterpart, Mikhail Suslov, did the same. The USSR under Secretary Suslov cracked down on dissent in eastern Europe, and in retaliation, President Jackson announced that the United States would enact a grain embargo against the USSR, hoping to weaken the Soviet economy and food supply.

North Africa and the Middle East were also foreign policy challenges. In July, Iraq was thrown into a few days of turmoil when a man, allegedly a Syrian national, shot Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr in the chest, badly wounding (but not killing) the man. Vice President Saddam Hussein, who had already begun to grow his influence in the Iraqi government, took control of Iraq for the months al-Bakr remained hospitalized, and began a massive military buildup supplemented by a mandatory draft.

Also in July, Egypt invaded Libya, after Muammar Gaddafi declared that all Egyptians in Libya must return to their home country or face possibly imprisonment. This followed years of Egyptian suspicion that Gaddafi was planning to overthrow the Egyptian government, suspicion that lead to heightened tensions and border skirmishes. After five days of fighting, President Jackson and the other Arab nations asked Egyptian President Anwar Sadat not to go ahead with a planned full-scale invasion of Libya, which Sadat agreed to if the Libyans signed a ceasefire agreement. Gaddafi yielded, and the war ended on July 26 - the day the Egyptians planned on invading.

While tension built up in the Middle East, President Jackson attempted to cool tensions in Kashmir. On his first international trip, Jackson attended an April summit in Srinagar with Chairwoman Jiang of China, Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai, and Pakistani Prime Minister Ali Bhutto. President Jackson claimed to have made “substantive progress towards lasting peace,” but Chairwoman Jiang used the summit to hold backroom meetings with Prime Minister Bhutto. The outcome of these secret meetings would later prove Jackson’s statement false. Tensions only rose in the region, with China and India armed with nuclear weapons and Pakistan making strides towards functioning nuclear weapons themselves.

The final major foreign policy event of the year was on November 19th. What was intended as a gesture of goodwill turned into tragedy when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat travelled to Jerusalem to meet new Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin for the first time. While Sadat was there, an Israeli nationalist detonated a car bomb near Sadat’s motorcade, tossing the President’s vehicle onto its side and engulfing it in flames. Sadat was killed instantly, and newly-sworn-in President Hosni Mubarak promised revenge on Israel. Declaring war on November 23rd, Egypt started to invade their neighbor, and were initially successful. Egyptian planes bombed several Israeli Air Force bases, knocking roughly 40% of Israel’s airplanes out of commission for the time being. However, Israel’s superior ground forces, supplemented by “advisors” from the US military, pushed Egypt’s army out of Israel and back into Sinai. By this time, the rest of the Egyptian army (which had been stationed near the Libyan border) moved into the region, and trench warfare began on the Sinai peninsula. The United States gave men and supplies to Israel, while the Soviet Union supported Egypt in much the same way.

While the other Arab nations stayed out of the Egypt-Israeli War, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) was outraged at US support for the Israelis. Hence, they declared an oil embargo against the United States on December 5th, which caused oil prices to skyrocket in an “oil shock.”

President Jackson wasn’t the only President making news in 1977. President Goldwater's Presidential library finally opened in Phoenix in March of 1977, which was followed in September by the breaking of ground on the Hubert H. Humphrey Presidential Library and Museum in Minneapolis. Seeing as it was unlikely that Humphrey would live to see the building completed (it was finished in 1979), a celebratory ceremony was held at the groundbreaking instead, where the former President greeted many of the friends he'd made in politics over the course of his quarter-century long career. President Humphrey died six weeks later, on October 29, 1977. An estimated two hundred thousand Americans came to pay their respects while Humphrey’s body laid in state in the Capitol Rotunda.

In addition to the passing of President Humphrey, another important US political death occurred in 1977: Senator John McClellan (D-AR) died on November 28. Governor Dale Bumpers appointed Congressman Bill Clinton (D-AR-03) to serve out the rest of his term, ending on January 3, 1979. Senator Clinton announced his intention to seek a term of his own in 1978 after an appropriate amount of time had past since McClellan’s passing.

November 8, 1977
New Jersey Gubernatorial Election, 1977
Brendan Byrne*: 54.98% ✓
Ray Bateman: 42.17%

Virginia Gubernatorial Election, 1977
William Wampler Sr.: 59.77% ✓ [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
L. Douglas Wilder*: 39.46%

Nebraska Special Senate Election, 1977
Charles Thone: 51.03% ✓ [REPUBLICAN GAIN]
John Cavanaugh*: 48.97%

Kentucky Special Senate Election, 1977
Thelma Stovall*: 53.75% ✓
Tim Lee Carter: 46.11%

New York City Mayoral Election, 1977
Herman Badillo*: 47.47% ✓
Ed Koch: 39.79%
Allard Lowenstein: 8.74%
Gallup Poll
January 1, 1978
Do you approve of President Henry Jackson?
Yes: 55%
No: 40%
No opinion: 2%
Not sure: 3%
What party do you plan on voting for in the 1978 midterms?
Republicans: 42%
Democrats: 41%
Others: 1%
Not sure: 16%
American Economic Report
January 1, 1978
United States Unemployment Rate: 6.7%

United States Inflation Rate: 5.9%

United States GDP Growth Rate: 1.5%

Crude Oil Price per Barrel: $30.16

Average U.S. Gas Price per Gallon: $0.55

[Tron1993]

Don’t stop this is so good

[Cold War Liberal]

1978

If problems started to arise for President Jackson in 1977, then 1978 was the year that they came to a head.

Though the Egypt-Israeli War ended in an Israeli victory in late January after the IDF regrouped and overwhelmed Egyptian forces, the Arab oil embargo against the US did not end when the war did. As a punishment to the US for supporting Israel, OAPEC voted to continue the embargo. This hurt the economies of both the OAPEC nations and the United States. Seeing as the US economy was already slowing, the oil embargo was a punch to the gut.

Despite the White House’s defiant rhetoric and President Jackson’s signature on an executive order to open up more land for oil drilling, the price of gasoline skyrocketed and supplies began to run low. Americans struggled to get to work as cars frequently ran out of gas due to fuel rationing. Anger grew as American wallets began to hurt. While the economies in the Middle East began to slump as well, most of the pain was felt by the middle, working, and lower classes, not the wealthy leaders of the global oil cartel who controlled the supply and price of that precious black liquid.

President Jackson, for his part, at least tried to do something to help the economy. In addition to the aforementioned executive order to increase oil drilling, Jackson’s administration started a campaign to attempt to get the public to conserve energy, lowered the speed limit on federal highways to 55 miles per hour, increased funding for nuclear power plants, increased the budget for Amtrak and other mass transit systems, and, with Congress’s approval, dumped several hundred million dollars into research and development of new alternative renewable energy sources. Jackson also promoted solar power by having photovoltaic solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. However, none of this stopped the economy, which was already slowing down, from declining sharply; after two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth, the US economy officially entered recession in July of 1978.

While most of President Jackson and Congress’s political willpower was focused on the energy crisis in 1978, there were a few other domestic accomplishments. The unoriginally-named Minimum Wage Act of 1978 increased the minimum wage for the first time since the Kennedy Administration, from $1.50 an hour to $3.00 an hour. The wage applies to all workers in all industries. While President Kennedy had created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1965, it had been neutered in that year by the need to appease Southern Democrats to get the larger Civil Rights Act passed, and in subsequent years by President Goldwater; the Civil Rights Act of 1978 gave the EEOC more power to investigate and prosecute claims of workplace discrimination. President Jackson also vetoed a deregulation of the airline industry proposed by conservatives in Congress, on the grounds that it would lead to cheaper flights and potentially more oil consumption at a time when oil was scarce and needed elsewhere. These three actions strengthened Jackson’s already strong support from labor unions.

Another initiative that President Jackson wholeheartedly supported was the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment, which passed the House in March and the Senate in August. It read as follows:

Section 1. For purposes of representation in the Congress, election of the President and Vice President, and article V of this Constitution, the District constituting the seat of government of the United States shall be treated as though it were a State.
Section 2. The exercise of the rights and powers conferred under this article shall be by the people of the District constituting the seat of government, and as shall be provided by the Congress.
Section 3. The twenty-third article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
Section 4. This article shall be inoperative, unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.

Three states - New Jersey, Michigan, and Ohio - ratified the Amendment by the end of 1978. The legislatures of ten additional states were considering ratification.

President Jackson also okayed a new type of reusable space vehicle engineered by NASA known as the “space shuttle.” With the Soviets electing to go their own way with regard to space exploration (and with Secretary Suslov asking for the Soviet space program’s budget to more than double), Jackson viewed continued space exploration as an imperative in beating Communism. A new space race had begun.

Back on Earth, the stability of the world order was starting to deteriorate. For decades, the world was locked into a bipolar system, with the US on one side and the USSR on the other. The Sino-Soviet split and the rise of the non-aligned movement in the 1950’s and 60’s complicated that order, but the US still had a “capitalism vs. communism” mindset - a bipolar system - under President Jackson. It turns out, that worldview was ill-equipped to deal with the situations in Central America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

Ever since the declaration of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, the United States saw Central America as within its sphere of influence - and no one else’s. So when, as President Jackson saw it, the outside influence of Communism came knocking on Nicaragua’s door in the form of the Sandinistas, it caught the attention of the White House and the Pentagon. In early January, anti-government newspaper publisher Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal was assassinated, allegedly by the Somoza regime. Anti-government protests, at times violent, started all over the country. The protests in the capital turned to riots, and the Sandinistas stepped up their guerilla war against the Somoza regime. Meanwhile, President Jackson publicly denounced the government’s alleged murder to the American press, but gave aid to them behind the scenes.

In the Middle East, tensions flared after Iraqi President al-Bakr died in a hospital after being shot by a Syrian national months before. Newly-sworn-in President Saddam Hussein, who had been the de facto leader of Iraq for several years at this point, had quickly amassed a large army. Hussein declared to the angry Iraqi public that he had evidence that al-Bakr’s death was in fact an “inside job,” an assassination orchestrated by Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. Thus, Iraq invaded Syria in late February, and caught al-Assad off guard. As the Syrian militia was dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood’s Sunni insurgency at the time, they were caught off guard, and Saddam’s military invaded with a speed that shocked the world. By November, al-Assad surrendered, and in December Saddam announced the foundation of the Socialist Arab Republic, the name of the unified Iraq and Syria. The Jackson Administration was in a state of shock regarding the speed at which these events played out. The US began supporting its regional allies more, as the President railed against the “relentless creep of socialism throughout the world” in foreign policy speeches.

This “relentless creep” spread in Asia too. While the cold war between India, Pakistan, and China continued (and as Pakistan successfully tested a crude nuclear bomb due to a series of new breakthroughs), the famine in Southeast Asia finally pushed many people to support drastic measures. In September, the Cambodian government fell to Communist revolutionaries led by Pen Sovan, who promised that Cambodia’s food and wealth would be shared among all, including the peasants and farmers who were hit hardest by the famine. Cambodia joined Vietnam and Laos as Communist Indochinese countries, while protests continued in Thailand, Burma, and Malaysia. Communist movements also gained steam in India and Indonesia, which felt the effects of the famine but at a lesser scale.

Focusing back on American politics, 1978 was an eventful year. Senators Lee Metcalf (D-MT) and James Allen (D-AL) died and were replaced with Paul G. Hatfield and Albert Brewer, respectively. Meanwhile, Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) found himself in the middle of a massive political scandal early in the year. Senator Thurmond travelled to Los Angeles for “personal matters” in late 1977, and the staunch segregationist was secretly photographed interacting rather intimately in public with an African-American woman about twenty years his junior. When this news made its way back to his home state of South Carolina, rumours started instantly. Who was the woman? Was Thurmond having an affair? Reporters tracked down the woman and identified her as 52 year old Essie Mae Washington-Williams, a teacher in the LA school system. While both Washington-Williams and Thurmond remained mum on the issue at first, reporters discovered in 1978 that Essie was Storm’s illegitimate daughter. Washington-Williams acknowledged this fact, though Thurmond did not. However, the Senator decided to retire in 1978 to let “the next generation of leadership take hold in South Carolina.”

Besides these events, the big political news of 1978 was the midterm elections. By November of 1978, the oil embargo and unstable world events had tanked the economy, and inflation, oil prices, and unemployment soared. President Jackson’s approval rating was underwater and Republicans had a clear polling edge over the President’s party. Republicans, however, were split. On the one hand, veterans from John Lindsay’s 1976 campaign, lead by former campaign manager and chairman Roger Stone, founded the Moderate Republican Political Action Committee. Designed to exploit loopholes in campaign finance laws to support Republicans in the mold of Rockefeller and Lindsay, MRPAC backed candidates like Elizabeth Dole, Charles Evers (running as an independent in a three-way race), and Manuel Lujan Jr. in their Senate races, along with Sandra Day O’Connor, Houston Flournoy, and Elliot Richardson in their gubernatorial races.

Meanwhile, Senator Spiro Agnew (R-MD), believed to be preparing a 1980 Presidential run, travelled across the country to support candidates more aligned with the conservative worldview. Senate candidates John Buchanan Jr., Gordon Humphrey, and William Westmoreland got Agnew’s stamp of approval, and he also gave fiery stump speeches for gubernatorial candidates Philip Ruppe, Alexander Haig, and Ron Paul. By the time all was said and done, Senator Agnew was the most in-demand Republican speaker, eclipsing Senators George Bush and Paul Laxalt, Governor Chuck Grassley, and even the party’s most recent Presidential nominee, John Lindsay.

Another polarizing issue was California Proposition 6, or the Briggs Initiative. The Briggs Initiative would ban gay people from working in any public school in the state, mandating their firing if they should come out of the closet. While public opinion was initially mixed (it was associated with Anita Bryant, who was not the most popular figure after her outburst in 1977), a large number of politicians from both sides of the aisle voiced the opinion that Prop. 6 went too far. Prop. 6 opponents included Governor Unruh, Senators Brown, both of the major party nominees for the 1978 California gubernatorial election, Vice President Reagan, and Presidents Goldwater and Jackson. Activists in San Francisco and openly gay State Assemblyman Harvey Milk played major roles in shifting public opinion on Prop. 6 as well.

The Mississippi Senate race was thrown into turmoil when the Republican nominee, Rep. Jon Hinson (R-MS-04), was publicly outed as gay in the general election. This provided a boost to both Independent Republican Charles Evers and Democrat Maurice Dantin. However, Dantin was little-known and Hinson retained some support, so the race was seen as extremely unpredictable.

Gallup Poll
November 6, 1978
Do you approve of President Henry Jackson?
No: 55%
Yes: 43%
No opinion: 1%
Not sure: 1%
What party do you plan on voting for in the 1978 midterms?
Republicans: 52%
Democrats: 43%
Others: 1%
Not sure: 4%
American Economic Report
January 1, 1978
United States Unemployment Rate: 8.6%

United States Inflation Rate: 7.7%

United States GDP Growth Rate: -0.7%

Crude Oil Price per Barrel: $62.27

Average U.S. Gas Price per Gallon: $0.89

[Cold War Liberal]

Expert Ratings
November 7, 1978
House of Representatives
Safe Democratic: 187 seats
Likely Democratic: 39 seats
Lean Democratic: 37 seats
Tossup: 27 seats
Lean Republican: 7
Likely Republican: 12
Safe Republican: 126

Most Likely Outcome
Democrats: 251 ( 37)
Republicans: 184 ( 37)

House Control: Safe Democratic

Senate

Safe D - Likely D - Lean D - Tossup - Two Tossups in one state - Lean R - Likely R - Safe R

Most Likely Outcome
Democrats: 55 ( 6)
Republicans: 45 ( 6)

Senate Control: Likely Democratic

Alabama: State Sen. Donald Stewart (D) vs. Rep. John H. Buchanan Jr. (R) - TOSSUP
Alabama (special): Sen. Albert Brewer* (D) vs. Rep. Ann Bedsole (R) - TOSSUP
Alaska: Sen. Ted Stevens* (R) vs. Donald Hobbs (D) - SAFE R
Arkansas: Sen. Bill Clinton* (D) vs. Tom Kelly (R) - SAFE D
Colorado: Sen. Floyd Haskell* (D) vs. Rep. James P. Johnson (R) - LIKELY R FLIP
Delaware: Sen. Joe Biden* (D) vs. State Treasurer Janet Rzewnicki (R) - LIKELY D
Georgia: Sen. Jimmy Carter* (D) vs. John Stokes (R) - SAFE D
Idaho: Sen. William Davis* (D) vs. Rep. Orval Hansen (R) - TOSSUP
Illinois: Sen. Charles Percy* (R) vs. Alex Seith (D) - SAFE R
Iowa: Sen. Dick Clark* (D) vs. Lt. Gov. Roger Jepsen (R) - TOSSUP
Kansas: Rep. Elizabeth Dole (R) vs. Fmr. Rep. William Roy (D) - LEAN R
Kentucky: Sen. Walter Huddleston* (D) vs. State Rep. Louie Guenthner (R) - SAFE D
Louisiana: Sen. John McKeithen* (D) vs. State Rep. Woody Jenkins (R) - SAFE D
Maine: Sen. William Hathaway* (D) vs. Rep. David Emery (R) - LEAN R FLIP
Massachusetts: Sen. Edward Brooke* (R) vs. Rep. John Kerry (D) - LIKELY D FLIP
Michigan: Sen. Frank Kelly* (D) vs. Rep. Carl Purcell (R) - LIKELY D
Minnesota: Sen. Orval Freeman* (D) vs. Fmr. Gov. Harold Stassen (R) - SAFE D
Mississippi: Lawyer Maurice Danton (D) vs. Rep. Jon Hinson (R) vs. Mayor Charles Evers (I) - TOSSUP
Montana: Sen. Paul Hatfield* (D) vs. Larry Williams (R) - LIKELY D
Nebraska: Sen. Philip Sorensen* (D) vs. Rep. Virginia Smith (R) - TOSSUP
New Hampshire: Sen. John W. King* (D) vs. Activist Gordon Humphrey (R) - LIKELY D
New Jersey: Sen. Clifford Case* (R) vs. Rep. Andrew Maguire (D) - LIKELY D FLIP
New Mexico: Sen. Jack Daniels* (D) vs. Rep. Manuel Lujan Jr. (R) - TOSSUP
North Carolina: Sen. Nick Galifianakis* (D) vs. State Rep. Harold Brubaker (R) - LIKELY D
Oklahoma: Sen. Ed Edmondson* (D) vs. OSU Pres. Robert Kamm (R) - SAFE D
Oregon: Sen. Robert Duncan* (D) vs. Fmr. Rep. John Dellenback (R) - LIKELY D
Rhode Island: Sen. Claiborne Pell* (D) vs. James Reynolds (R) - SAFE D
South Carolina: Gov. William Westmoreland (R) vs. Fmr. Gov. Fritz Hollings (D) - LEAN R
South Dakota: Fmr. Sec. George McGovern (D) vs. State Sen. Clint Roberts (R) - LIKELY R FLIP
Tennessee: Sen. Howard Baker* (R) vs. Jane Eskind (D) - SAFE R
Texas: Rep. Charlie Wilson (D) vs. Rep. James Collins (R) - TOSSUP
Virginia: Sen. William Spong* (D) vs. Fmr. Gov. A. Linwood Holton (R) - TOSSUP
West Virginia: Sen. Jennings Randolph* (D) vs. Fmr. Gov. Arch A. Moore Jr. (R) - TOSSUP
Wyoming: Fmr. Gov. Stanley Hathaway (R) vs. Raymond Whitaker (D) - SAFE R

Governors' Mansions

Safe D - Likely D - Lean D - Tossup - Lean R - Likely R - Safe R

Most Likely Outcome
Republicans: 26 ( 10)
Democrats: 24 ( 10)

Gubernatorial Control: Tossup

Alabama: Gov. Bill Baxley* (D) vs. H. Guy Hunt (R) - SAFE D
Alaska: Gov. Jay Hammond* (R) vs. State Sen. Chancy Croft (D) vs. Fmr. Com. Tom Kelly (I) - SAFE R
Arizona: Rep. Sandra Day O’Connor (R) vs. State AG Bruce Babbitt (D) - TOSSUP
Arkansas: Gov. Dale Bumpers* (D) vs. State GOP Chair Lynn Lowe (R) - SAFE D
California: Fmr. Mayor Joseph Alioto (D) vs. Fmr. Controller Houston Flournoy (R) - LEAN R FLIP
Colorado: Gov. John Vanderhoof* (R) vs. Fmr. WHCoS Gary Hart (D) - TOSSUP
Connecticut: Rep. Ella Grasso (D) vs. Rep. Ronald Sarasin (R) - TOSSUP
Florida: State Sen. Buddy MacKay (D) vs. Businessman Jack Eckerd (R) - LEAN D
Georgia: Gov. George Busbee* (D) vs. State Rep. Rodney Cook (R) - SAFE D
Hawaii: Gov. George Ariyoshi* (D) vs. State Sen. John Leopold (R) - LIKELY D
Idaho: Lt. Gov. William Murphy (D) vs. Fmr. State Rep. Butch Otter (R) - LEAN R FLIP
Illinois: Gov. Donald Rumsfeld* (R) vs. Comptroller Michael Bakalis (D) - SAFE R
Iowa: Gov. Chuck Grassley* (R) vs. State Rep. Jerome Fitzgerald (D) - SAFE R
Kansas: Gov. Robert Bennett* (R) vs. State House Speaker John Carlin (D) - TOSSUP
Maine: Gov. George Mitchell* (D) vs. State Rep. Linwood Palmer Jr. (R) vs. Herman Frankland (I) - LEAN D
Maryland: Fmr. Rep. John G. Beall, Jr. (R) vs. Rep. Paul Sarbanes (D) - LIKELY D FLIP
Massachusetts: Gov. Michael Dukakis* (D) vs. State AG Elliott Richardson (R) - LEAN R FLIP
Michigan: State Sen. William Fitzgerald (D) vs. Rep. Philip Ruppe (R) - TOSSUP
Minnesota: Lt. Gov. Rudy Perpich (D) vs. Rep. Al Quie (R) - LIKELY R FLIP
Nebraska: Lt. Gov. Gerlad Whelan (D) vs. Fmr. Rep. John McCollister (R) - LIKELY R FLIP
Nevada: Fmr. Rep. James Bilbray (D) vs. Rep. David Towell (R) - LEAN R FLIP
New Hampshire: State Rep. Hugh Gallen (D) vs. Rep. James C. Cleveland (R) - TOSSUP
New Mexico: Fmr. Rep. Ed Foreman (R) vs. Fmr. Gov. Bruce King (D) - TOSSUP
New York: Gov. Robert Kennedy* (D/L) vs. Mary Jane Tobin (R/C/RTL) - SAFE D/L
Ohio: Gov. Jim Rhodes* (R) vs. Lt. Gov. Dick Celeste (D) - LEAN R
Oklahoma: Lt. Gov. George Nigh (D) vs. Fmr. State AG G. T. Blankenship (R) - LEAN R FLIP
Oregon: Gov. Robert Straub* (D) vs. State Sen. Victor Atiyeh (R) - TOSSUP
Pennsylvania: Mayor Peter Flaherty (D) vs. Fmr. UN Amb. Alexander Haig (R) - LEAN R FLIP
Rhode Island: Rep. Edward Beard (D) vs. States Attorney Lincoln Almond (R) - SAFE D
South Carolina: Rep. Jack Edwards (R) vs. Rep. Williams J. B. Dorn (D) - TOSSUP
South Dakota: Lt. Gov. Harvey Wollman (D) vs. State House Speaker Lowell Hansen (R) - LIKELY R FLIP
Tennessee: Gov. Jake Butcher* (D) vs. Lawyer Lamar Alexander (R) - LEAN D
Texas: Fmr. State Rep. Dolph Briscoe (D) vs. Rep. Ron Paul (R) - TOSSUP
Vermont: Gov. Stella Hackel* (D) vs. Fmr. State Rep. Richard Snelling (R) - TOSSUP
Wisconsin: Lt. Gov. Martin Schreiber (D) vs. Rep. Bob Kasten (R) - LIKELY R FLIP
Wyoming: Gov. Edgar Herscheler* (D) vs. State Sen. John Ostlund (R) - TOSSUP

[America Needs R'hllor]

Woah this is a mess. The Iraq-Syria situation would be VERY worrying for Israel, it'd probably start a military preperation to defend against Hussein.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Wouldn't control of the House be Likely D if the tipping point seat (i.e. #218) is in the likely D category? (187+39 would mean Dem control, while 187 wouldn't. See also: 126+12+7+27+37+39 is GOP control, 126+12+7+27+37 isn't)

[Cold War Liberal]

Wouldn't control of the House be Likely D if the tipping point seat (i.e. #218) is in the likely D category? (187+39 would mean Dem control, while 187 wouldn't. See also: 126+12+7+27+37+39 is GOP control, 126+12+7+27+37 isn't)

I'm not a math person (like at all) but if the odds of Republicans winning a tossup is 50% and the odds of them winning a Lean D race is 45% (and a likely D is 40%), then the odds of them winning every single tossup is 1.85%, the odds of them winning every Lean D race is 1.22%, and the odds of them winning 9 likely D races (to get them to 218 seats) is 4.44%. The odds of doing all three of those combined is 0.001%. Thus, the odds of the Republicans flipping the house are pretty low, hence the rating of Safe Democratic.

Now, the likelihood of Democrats maintaining the House is not in fact 99.999%, because races are not truly random probability and are, arguably, connected in a way, but the odds of a Republican takeover are slim nonetheless.

Again, I'm bad at math, and I probably made a mistake. If so, correct me. And as always, thank you for reading and for the input.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

MacKay in '78? I feel like Eckerd could win in a favorable midterm. He was one of the first Republicans people were comfortable voting for around here

[Cold War Liberal]

November 7, 1978
6:00 PM

“Good evening, from CBS Evening News, I’m Walter Cronkite, and this is election night 1978. With a failing economy, long gas lines, and uncertainty growing around the world, tonight will serve as a kind of referendum on the first half of President Jackson’s term in office - and potentially a preview of what is to come in 1980. Polls have the Democrats down, but the accuracy of such polls remains to be seen.

“It is now 6 PM on the east coast, and polls have just closed in parts of Kentucky and Indiana. We have some clear results out of Kentucky, but we have a policy of not projecting a result until all polls have closed.”

Democrats: 35 ( 26)
Republicans: 31 ( 8)
7:00 PM

“Welcome back. Polls have just closed in the rest of Indiana and Kentucky, all of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, and Vermont, and parts of Florida. In the Senate, we can project that Senator Walter Huddleston of Kentucky has handily beat State Senator Guenthner, a hold for the Democrats. In Georgia, Senator Jimmy Carter has won in a landslide. The races in South Carolina and Virginia are too close to call."

Democrats: 37 ( 24)
Republicans: 31 ( 8)

“As for the gubernatorial elections, polls are now closed in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Vermont. Florida is too close to call. Governor Busbee has won a landslide reelection in Georgia. Both South Carolina and Vermont are too close to call at this hour.”

Democrats: 9 ( 25)
Republicans: 6 ( 10)
7:30 PM

“Welcome back to CBS News coverage of Election 1978. Polls have closed in North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia. Senator Nick Galifianakis of North Carolina has won reelection by roughly 10 points, by our estimates. In West Virginia, the race between Senator Jennings Randolph and former Governor Arch A. Moore is a nail-biter. The other races are too close to call as well.

Democrats: 38 ( 23)
Republicans: 31 ( 8)

“As for the gubernatorial elections, Ohio is another example of a nail-biter on display tonight. Governor Rhodes is seeking a fourth term, but whether or not he will get one is far from certain, as this race is too close to call.”

Democrats: 9 ( 25)
Republicans: 6 ( 10)

“Stay tuned to CBS News for more poll closings as we near the highly-consequential 8 PM hour…”

[Tron1993]

1978

Ever since the declaration of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, the United States saw Central America as within its sphere of influence - and no one else’s. So when, as President Jackson saw it, the outside influence of Communism came knocking on Nicaragua’s door in the form of the Contras, it caught the attention of the White House and the Pentagon. In early January, anti-government newspaper publisher Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal was assassinated, allegedly by the Somoza regime. Anti-government protests, at times violent, started all over the country. The protests in the capital turned to riots, and the Sandinistas stepped up their guerilla war against the Somoza regime. Meanwhile, President Jackson publicly denounced the government to the American press, but gave aid to them behind the scenes.

I thought it was the Sandinistas who were against the Somozas. The Contras fought the Sandinistas and were backed by the US