A Blessing in Disguise

[Don Vito Corleone]

So this is gonna be a Mini-TL of sorts, stretching from the 2004 election to the 2012 election. I hope you enjoy it.

[Don Vito Corleone]

The year was 2004, and Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold had just started his own party. Feingold, a lifelong Democrat, after being the only Senator to vote against the USA PATRIOT Act and seeing the majority of his Party in Senate vote to authorize the Iraq War had decided that, as much as he loved his party, he could no longer be a Democrat. On January 17th, 2004, Feingold announced he was going to leave the Democratic Party and instead become a Senator of his own newly founded Progressive Party, but would caucus with the Democrats. The Democratic Party in Wisconsin figured that running a Democrat would only risk splitting the liberal vote and decided instead to endorse Feingold in his upcoming re-election bid. So begins our story.

[The Govanah Jake]

I assume he runs as a Progressive in the 2008 Elections judging by those infoboxes.

[Don Vito Corleone]

I assume he runs as a Progressive in the 2008 Elections judging by those infoboxes.

Those Infoboxes were actually where I got the idea for this TL from.

[TheSaint250]

F E I N G O D

[Don Vito Corleone]

The 2004 Elections

In the race for the Presidency, George W. Bush was re-elected after a very bitter campaign where he successfully portrayed his opponent John Kerry as an elitist and soft on Terrorism. He also, controversially, ran a series of ads called "Swiftboat Veterans for truth" where a group of Veterans questioned Kerry's militaty heroics. Regardless of whether the ad was true or not, it was effective and was undoubtedly a factor in his re-election. In the end, the election came down to Ohio, which President Bush carried by about 2 points. There was some controversy about the vote in Ohio, with 33 representatives voting against certifying Ohio's electoral votes. Nevertheless, Kerry did not contest the results and George W. Bush was sworn in for a second term on January 20th, 2005.

The results in the House of Representatives maintained Republican control of the Chamber.

The results in the Senate not only maintained Republican control, they made it very unlikely the Democrats would retake the chamber in 2006. The Republicans picked up open seats in Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, and South Carolina. On top of this, and worst of all for the Democrats, they unseated their Leader Tom Dashale in South Dakota, the first instance of a party Senate Leader being unseated since 1952. The sole bright spot for the Democrats in the Senate that year was picking up Seats in Colorado and Illinois, having failed to pickup targets in Kentucky, Alaska, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire. The new Progressives won their first statewide race with their Leader Russ Feingold winning election to a third term in Wisconsin.

The Gubernatorial races of 2004 resulted in no change in party standing, both party's picked up 2 Governorships.

[TheSaint250]

Will Bernie be joining the new party?

Excited for this!

[Don Vito Corleone]

The 2005 Elections

There were 2 Gubernatorial race in 2005, and in both cases the Democrats held on, leaving the amount of Governorships each party held at 31 for the Republicans and 25 for the Democrats.

However, the biggest political news of that year was not these Gubernatorial races. No, it was the defection of New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg to the Progressive Party, doubling the Progressive's Senate numbers......

[Don Vito Corleone]

The 2006 Elections

With President Bush becoming more unpopular by the day, the Iraq War becoming a mess, the President receiving harsh criticism for his Administrations response to Hurricane Katrina, and his party receiving a severe backlash due to attempting Social Security reform, it was widely expected that the Republicans would lose seats in the 2006 Midterms. However, many Republicans said that they would still hang on to control of congress. Naturally, the Democrats (and the Progressives) disagreed. The results... Well, they were interesting to say the least.

In the race for the House, the Democrats were able to retake control of the chamber for the first time since 1994.

The Race for the Senate was much more interesting then the race for the House. After 2004, most analysts considered it very unlikely the Democrats would retake the chamber in 2006, however the Democrats did retake control, despite having only 47 Senate Seats (which was still an increase of 5 over the 42 they had held prior to the election) to the Republican's 49. This was made possible because the 4 Progressives caucused with the Democrats. This Senate cycle was also interesting because it featured the first race where a Progressive and a Democrat competed against each other, the first 2 in fact, in New Jersey and Connecticut respectively.

In Connecticut, the race came down not to a Democrat and a Republican, but a Progressive and a Democrat. This was made possible because the Incumbent Democrat Joe Lieberman was challenged in the Democratic primary by Ned Lamont, who argued Joe Lieberman was both too Conservative and too close to President George Bush to be a Democratic Senator. In the end Lieberman very narrowly won the Democratic primary, but Lamont did not end his bid to become the next Senator for Connecticut, instead running on the Progressive ticket (the Progressives had scheduled their primary after the Democratic primary in case this very scenario played out). Lamont had the support of the majority of Democrats, but Lieberman had support from enough Republicans (many of whom thought that their own candidate had no chance, and that in a race between Lieberman and Lamont, Lieberman was much better) to ensure his re-election.

The race in New Jersey, like the one in Connecticut, came down to a Progressive and a Democrat. However, unlike in Connecticut, the race was not a replay of the Democratic primary. The incumbent Democrat Bob Menendez had been appointed to his position after the previous Senator Jon Corzine had resigned to become Governor of New Jersey, and in the mind of a lot of Liberal Democrats, he was both too Hawkish on foreign affairs and not Liberal enough on domestic issues. This led the Progressives to run their own candidate, namely Frank Pallone, who had served as Representative for New Jersey's 6th Congressional district since 1988. Despite this, Menendez was expected to dispatch Pallone until the final week when it was uncovered he had gone on multiple week long vacations with a wealthy eye doctor and (allegedly) had been bribed. Whether or not this was true, it certainly had an impact and was undoubtedly the single biggest factor in Pallone's victory. This election, along with Frank Lautenberg's defection to the Progressives the previous year made New Jersey the first state with 2 Progressive Senators.

In Vermont, Bernie Sanders, who had served as Mayor of Burlington and the State's sole Representative, won on the Progressive ticket.

The various Gubernatorial races held that year drew massive amounts of media attention, both because the Democrats won control of the majority of Governorships for the first time since 1994, and because the first Governor from the Progressive party was elected, the Governor in question being Elliot Spitzer of New York.

[Don Vito Corleone]

The 2007 Elections

In the 2007 Gubernatorial Races, the Republicans and Democrats both made a gain of one seat, leaving the governorship total unchanged.

The Progressives did not contest either of these races, deciding it would be better to not split the anti-Republican vote in Louisiana and Kentucky. Instead, they spent all their time and energy trying to convince Senators Chris Dodd, Jon Tester, Jeff Bingaman, Sherrod Brown, Patrick Leahy, Tom Harkin and Ben Cardin to defect to the Progressives. Only one Senator out of this group (Dodd) defected in the end, though Senator Tester came very close to defecting when Russ Feingold reminded him that the Progressives were committed to repealing the USA PATRIOT Act (a cause in which Tester strongly believed), whereas the Democrats were silent on the issue. However, Tester didn't end up defecting, simply because he thought becoming a Progressive less then a year after being elected as a Democrat would be wrong.

[Don Vito Corleone]

I think I'm going to continue this TL on alternatehistory.com, as Wikiboxes look much better on that site.

[GoTfan]

Could you post the link for us?

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Could you post the link for us?

[Don Vito Corleone]

Could you post the link for us?

https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/a-blessing-in-disguise.429450/