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American Morning
Power Shift on Capitol Hill
Aired November 03, 2010 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: That's right and good morning. We want to thank you for being with us as we enter our seventh hour this morning on a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING on this Wednesday, November 3rd, the day after the big elections. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: I love days like this. You have been on the air for seven hours since 3:00 in the morning but it feels like we just started. Good morning I'm John Roberts.
We're covering the midterm elections like no other network possibly can. Correspondents fanned out coast to coast, following races the big and small..
We'll be taking you through all of the key races from "The Best Political Team on Television". Let's get right to it.
First of all, let's take a look at the balance of power. This was the big story line from the 2010 midterm elections: Republicans take control of the House.
Let's take a look at the numbers here for you. Remember how it was. Democrats held 255 seats, and the Republicans were 178. Now look at it. It's 239 for the Republicans, 184 for the Democrats. It looks like John Boehner of Ohio is going to be the next speaker of the House. Let's take a look at what happened in the Senate where it's close but Democrats do retain control of the Senate.
Here are the numbers for you. Democrats have come away so far -- there are three contests left to be decided. 51 seats for the Democrats, 47 for the Republicans. Still contests in Washington and Colorado left, and those will determine whether or not that seat goes to a Republican or a Democrat. The seat in Alaska already taken by a Republican. We just don't know if it's going to be Joe Miller or Lisa Murkowski. That's why Republicans have 47.
Let's look at some of the specific races now in the state of Nevada, Senate majority leader Harry Reid retains his seat. He was in a lot of trouble against Sharron Angle, the insurgent Tea Party candidate but manage to get a pretty good win, five points separated the two of them, 50-45 percent.
In Kentucky, Rand Paul. This was one of the earliest races to be declared last night, handily beats Attorney General Jack Conway 56 to 44 percent. In the Florida Senate, Marco Rubio handily win over Charlie Crist, the independent, by 19 points, Kendrick Meek way back at 20 percent. And in Ohio, this is a very important race, big pickup for Republicans. They scored a knockout punch here, John Kasich, taking out the incumbent governor Ted Strickland, 49 to 47 percent. This is very important because Ohio is so important to the 2012 presidential race. Redistricting is going to take place before that. So to have a Republican in the governor seat will be very important for that party as we go into 2012. Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes, the governor pickups could have a profound effect as we move into the general election in two years. But as we said Republicans have seized control of the House, picking up more than 60 seats. Ohio's John Boehner now stands to become the next speaker, replacing Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
President Obama already called him late in the hours last night and congratulated him. Boehner says that last night's election results should send a very clear signal to the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), OHIO: While our new majority will serve as your voice in the people's House, we must remember it's the president who sets the agenda for our government. The American people have sent an unmistakable message to him tonight, and that message is change course.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: President Obama also has a new reality on his hands this morning. He is getting things done over the next two years could prove to be quite challenging. Ed Henry is live in Washington this morning. And Ed, John Boehner has spent weeks promising basically promising to dismantle just about everything that the president has accomplished, specifically talking about health care and health care reform repeal. Can they realistically work together?
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is the open question. It is going to be extremely difficult because there's a lot of hard feelings there when you talk to each side. Basically, this White House feels that John Boehner and his colleagues spent almost two years now virtually saying no to everything that this president proposed.
On the Republican side, they have hard feelings in thinking that the president was never really serious about bipartisanship and that it was all for show. Trying to bring them together now will be difficult but here's the opportunity this White House sees, which is that in previous years, when there's been divided government, a Democrat in the White House, a Republican on the hill and vice versa, there has been a lot that gets done because each side shares in the responsibility and the accountability of governing, and the White House believes if there is it any silver lining in these results, the results obviously pretty are pretty bad, it's that Republicans can't just say no anymore.
You know, and John Boehner, Eric Cantor is number two, in command is at a photo op a short time ago. They are going to have a news conference in about an hour and a half from now that will be followed by a news conference from the president here at the East Room at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. So kind of dueling news conferences, already getting out there, trying to each lay out their positions but at the end of the day, there is still hope here at this side of Pennsylvania Avenue that they will be able to work together in some way. Kiran.
CHETRY: What about the Democrats this morning? Are they looking to someone to assign blame for losing the House, anybody potentially in the president's inner circle?
HENRY: You know so far, they are not pointing fingers. I think there has already been a lot of reshuffling around here. The national security adviser has left. Larry Summers, the chief economic adviser already announced that he is leaving. They're focused on filling some of those positions. There are expected to be some other moves. People like David Axelrod moving to Chicago in the months ahead to play a bigger role in the re-election campaign for 2012, for example, but he will still be in the fold. He's not going to be thrown overboard.
If anything, the criticism this president may face in the days ahead is that he's not doing enough reshuffling, not pushing out some of the people who have been there a long time, maybe not bringing it up new faces in so far. Kiran.
CHETRY: Ed Henry for us this morning at the White House. Thanks so much.
HENRY: Thank you.
CHETRY: The president, by the way, will be addressing the nation this afternoon. He is scheduled to speak at a news conference at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. CNN will carry it live for you. John?
ROBERTS: Kiran, thanks so much. We did exit polling yesterday and exit polling is always so much fun because you get to really get a sense of how the electorate is feeling about the election, and, of course, one of the big issues, the major issue -- in fact, you can probably say the top 10 issue in yesterday's election, the economy, and who better to talk about that than Christine Romans who has got our app going for our exit polling. Good morning.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pull out the iPad. You're right. The economy, issue number one, has been, still is. We asked people what was going on and here it is again. Clearly, this is the number one issue, and when you stack together people who are worried or somewhat worried about the economy, it's some 86 percent of folks worried or somewhat worried about the economy. In fact, when you talk about people who aren't really worried about it, 10 percent, three percent say there's nothing going on negatively there at all.
So that, you know, clearly, this is the biggest issue. Let me ask you about the stimulus package -- tell you about the stimulus package because this was something that was a real point of contention on the campaign trail. How do people feel about whether this helps the economy overall? Did this do better for them? You can see that about a third of people think that it helped the economy, one-third of people thought that it hurt the economy, and one-third of the people thought it had no bearing whatsoever on the economy.
Also, we asked about who shares the blame. Who shares the blame? You can see it was not a good day for Wall Street bankers. 35 percent blame Wall Street bankers. 30 percent blame George W. Bush, and 23 percent blame Barack Obama, John. So this could be good news for the president, perhaps, if it's still -- if it's still the prior administration getting the blame from the voters.
ROBERTS: Do us a favor, I think we had a technical glitch --
ROMANS: Sure.
ROBERTS: Can you run that first set of numbers again so that everybody at home gets it really clear what we did?
ROMANS: There you go. This is on the economy. How are you worried about the economy?
ROBERTS: Right.
ROMANS: There it is. Look at this. I'm buried by the first one, so many people, that many people, 50 percent think they are worried about the economy, 36 percent somewhat worried, 10 percent not too worried, three percent not worried at all. That three percent is a small little number, I don't -- maybe those people are the Wall Street bankers.
ROBERTS: I love digging down in the weeds with these exit poll numbers. I found something really interesting. When you get above the line of people who are worried about the economy, if they're somewhat worried, you know, they're not apoplectic about it, waking up in a cold sweat. But if they are somewhat worried about it, they voted majority for Democrat. But if they are very worried, they voted, majority, for Republicans.
ROMANS: We do know that --
ROBERTS: It depends on your degree of edge about all of this.
ROMANS: And Democrats and Republicans 50 percent, at least, both parties said they have someone in their family who lost a job. That is clearly driving this thing.
ROBERTS: Yes, so many people are hurting. Great figures this morning.
ROMANS: Thanks.
ROBERTS: Thanks very much. Appreciate it.
It's the day after the midterm elections, and several Senate races were too close to call. Ahead, an update in Alaska and Washington state. Don't forget Colorado still out there as well. And from the party of no to the party of "gotta go." How the Republicans plan to unravel the Obama agenda starting with health care. We'll talk to the man in line to be the next House majority leader, Eric Cantor. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It looks the same on the outside. A whole new world on the inside today as the GOP takes control of the House of Representatives. 12 minutes past the hour right now.
In Alaska, a complicated three-way race is still playing out for Senate there. It has not been called yet. Tea Party backed Republican Joe Miller as well as Democrat Scott McAdams and write-in candidate, incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski. It's a race that could actually take weeks to finalize as we still wait to see what is going on here and whether or not Lisa Murkowski will be the first successful write-in candidate since Strom Thurmond in 1954.
By the way, at least in the amount of polling that -- the votes that they have actually had a chance to count up, 76 percent, you have Lisa Murkowski with about a four-point lead right now. Well, another race that could take a hit while being finalized in Washington is Washington state. Three-term democratic Senator Patty Murray as well as Republican Dino Rossi, in a dead heat right now, with a third of the votes counted. It could take days to declare a winner, and a recount again could be needed in the state of Washington as well.
Well, the Colorado senate race could be headed for a recount as well. Democratic Senator Michael Bennett and Republican candidate Ken Buck, another look right now -- they're separated just by a few thousand votes and again more than 70 percent of the ballots have been counted here in Colorado as well.
There are thousands of provisional and write-in votes that still need to be factored in that race. So, today, still three races, John, up in the air.
ROBERTS: Yes. And as you were saying, Alaska, it could be weeks before we know.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: Who wins that one so it won't be as bad as Minnesota was, but it could be bad. It's 13 minutes after the hour now.
Joining us now, the man who is in line to be the next majority leader of the House, Eric Cantor of Virginia. Eric Cantor, good morning. Good to see you. Thanks for being with us.
REP. ERIC CANTOR (R), VIRGINIA: Good morning. Good to be with you.
ROBERTS: So a lot of people are wondering this morning, I think it's a legitimate question to ask after a lot of the rhetoric that we heard out there on the campaign trail, now that Republicans have the majority in the House, and we're looking at a split Congress, is this a recipe for cooperation or is it a recipe for two years of gridlock?
CANTOR: Well, there's no mistaking the message from the voters last night. They want to see results. They want to see a Washington that's listening to them and putting their priorities first. For 20 months now, we have seen an administration that has not put jobs first, and that's what people want to see, and that's frankly where I hope to see some movement where we can actually produce results and get more jobs for more Americans.
ROBERTS: Now both sides have their priorities, and both sides have their own way of doing things. On something like the health care bill, you know, we talked to Congressman Mike Pence just a little while ago and he said that his goal is to undo the health care bill that the Democrats passed. We talked with the Senate majority leader who says "hey, I'm open to a little bit of tweaking" but he didn't sound like he's open to a wholesale changes. So what is the debate over health care reform going to look like over the next few months?
CANTOR: Well, there's no question, I think, last night, indicated again that the majority of the American people want to see the repeal of Obama care. They want to see some common sense put back into the equation as far as that's concerned.
But let's remember what the message really was about, it was about this economy. It was about job creation, and, frankly, it was about people's understanding now that we got to stop growing government, hoping to grow jobs, and, instead, we got to start cutting the federal deficit, putting bills on the floor to cut spending so that we can send a signal, we're going to stop Washington's incursion into every aspect of our economy and allow for more economic freedom so investors and entrepreneurs can get back into the game and start creating jobs again.
ROBERTS: All right. In terms of spending cuts, everybody likes to say we're going to cut waste and fraud. But what is the first thing that you want to cut, the first specific thing you want to cut when you take power in January?
CANTOR: Well, specifically, Republicans in the House have come out with a proposal to reduce the discretionary level across the board to 2008 levels. If we're able to do that, that will save the taxpayers $100 billion in the first year alone, and approximately a trillion dollars, nearly a trillion dollars over the 10-year budget window. That's a start. Now we're experiencing $1.2 trillion in deficit this fiscal year alone. So we got a long way to go.
ROBERTS: Let me jump in here, if I could. OK. So you say you want to cut discretionary spending. That's a pretty broad path. Specifically what from discretionary spending would you cut?
CANTOR: For starters, across the board. So everything gets cut on discretionary side and on defense and then we got to put everything on the table to look at where we are spending our taxpayer dollars and frankly whether or not we are getting the bang for the buck.
ROBERTS: OK. CANTOR: That will be the question. Now specifically, I tell you, the federal bureaucracy has grown at a pace unseen certainly in the private sector. We've seen pay scales for federal employees grow nearly double in some cases to those market rates. We got to bring those down to a level which reflects the marketplace today. That will save billions of dollars as well. Republicans have been about the last six months putting specific proposals such as these on the floor.
ROBERTS: Did you mention defense, we talked to Rand Paul yesterday and he said that the sacred cow of defense has to be on the table as well when it comes to cuts? What would you cut in the defense budget?
CANTOR: I don't think there's any question. No one is going to defend every penny, every dollar spent at the Pentagon. We got to ensure that the dollars being spent are maximizing U.S. security or giving our troops what they need to execute the mission that we're asking them to further. So all of these have to be on the table and we got to take an approach that says we are going to have to do more with less.
Frankly, we don't have the money in this country. The people last night demonstrated they want to see results. They want to see an economy that grows again. People in this country want to take responsibility and go out and earn their success again.
ROBERTS: And one of the open questions going into the midterm elections, what happens with the Bush tax cuts? Do they sunset? Do they remain in place for the middle class? Do they remain in place for everyone? When all is said and done, where are the Bush tax cuts going to be in January of 2011?
CANTOR: Let's set the record straight here. Come January 1, one of two things are going to happen, either taxes go up or they stay the same. No one is going to get a tax cut. So let's take that by definition off the table. The question is, are we going to raise taxes on small businesses right now when we're looking to those very individuals, those small business people to create jobs? I don't think many people think that's a good idea.
ROBERTS: So that's the philosophy, but what's going to happen? Will the Bush cuts stay in place? Will they sunset or will they remain in place only for some Americans?
CANTOR: There's no philosophy. There is no tax cuts. There is no tax cuts. People are going to go and either pay higher taxes or their tax rates stay the same. So I'm hopeful we can go and agree in a lame-duck session --
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: Let me try to put it this way. Will tax rates stay the same, will they go up for everyone or will they go up just for some people?
CANTOR: We're going to try to work hard to make sure that they stay the same. They do not go up. No one I think would really think it's a good idea if you want private businesses to create jobs, to increase the cost of hiring people. That doesn't make sense.
ROBERTS: Eric Cantor, good to talk to you this morning. Thanks for joining us.
CANTOR: Good to be here.
ROBERTS: All right. Kiran.
CHETRY: Nineteen minutes past the hour. New York was in the loss column for the GOP. At least 10 governorships went to Republicans. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour is being given a lot of credit for those wins as head of the Republican Governors Association. We're going to be talking to him about the future of the GOP and now that the GOP is in a position to lead in the House, what are some of the first moves to help the economy. 20 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-two minutes past the hour right now. It was a huge night for Republicans as they gained control of the House, and some say, more importantly, they picked up 10 governorships, which could be a huge part of the victory come 2012 if they are indeed able to challenge the president.
Their victory is being credited in large part to the leadership of Mississippi Governor and chairman of the Republican Governors Association Haley Barbour. Governor Barbour joins me now from our D.C. bureau. I guess, I should say congratulations. How are you feeling this morning?
GOV. HALEY BARBOUR (R), MISSISSIPPI: I feel pretty tired, Kiran. I didn't get much sleep last night. But you know, I'm flattered that people would give me credit. The real credit, we had some great candidates. We have super candidates all around the United States. They ran a very good campaigns. Of course, that was pretty easy because this campaign really was a referendum on President Obama's policies, and they're policies that the American people don't like.
CHETRY: And you know, speaking of that, you said that there were good candidates across the country. One notable exception in terms of his ability to win was Carl Paladino in New York. What are your thoughts on that race? I know that you said that, you know, you weren't necessarily throwing money and support behind him but you weren't necessarily not, either, back in September.
BARBOUR: Well, you know, New York is the place from the beginning we had a hard time finding the kind of candidate that we had when we elected George Pataki or Rudy Giuliani as mayor. And I don't know why but we just had a hard time. When Obama and them forced Paterson out of the race, I thought maybe somebody would come forward.
But that turned out not to be the case, and Carl won the primary, and of course, we support the people that our primary voters vote for. They're the ones that choose. They don't need someone from Mississippi to tell them who is going to be the candidate for governor of New York.
CHETRY: Although you are getting credit for helping launch and propel some of these governorships. In some cases, a couple of GOP pundits on our air said today picking up the slack from Michael Steele. Do you agree with that assessment?
BARBOUR: We did have a situation at this time where the RNC was not financially able to do what it has normally done, and the governor's association and others went out and raised extra money and spent money in additional ways in order to make up for that. So that was a consideration, and our donors were very generous in helping us do that.
This was -- while there was a good wave for Republicans here, the labor unions, and the Democrats, and the liberal special interest groups in most key states we were outspent, but our donors did keep it where we weren't outspent enough in most states that it really made the difference.
CHETRY: Well, a lot of people are going to be asking because of some of those issues that you bring up, should Michael Steele remain the RNC chairman?
BARBOUR: Well, that's up to the national committee. But it is important in 2012, there are certain things that under the campaign finance laws only the RNC can do. So this time, if it had not been that we were allowed by law to fill in for some of these gaps, in 2012, some of those gaps, some of those duties are exclusively those of the RNC, and only the RNC by law can do them.
CHETRY: I got you. It's interesting we talked to Christine O'Donnell. She, of course, the Republican candidate in Delaware who did not win, and that was a state that early on had looked like it could be a GOP pickup. She, interestingly enough blamed Karl Rove and in some cases the GOP establishment for saying that she was put in a disadvantage because they didn't back her soon enough. Do you agree that that could have been perhaps a state you could have picked up if there had been more help to Christine O'Donnell?
BARBOUR: Well, she certainly was smeared at the outset and made to look like she was some sort of wacko, which was I think is unfair treatment. It's a hard state for a conservative to win. I mean, you are not going to elect Haley Barbour senator from Delaware very often, and that's why a lot of Republicans felt Mike Castle, a more moderate Republican who had served very well as governor and in the Congress but isn't as conservative as I, that's why a lot of people thought he was so far ahead in the polls.
But, look, when the Republican voters of a state choose their nominee, regardless of who it is, that's who the party apparatus is supposed to support and that's what I do.
CHETRY: Do you think that they didn't do enough of that in Delaware? BARBOUR: Well, I think a lot of people that gave her the legal limit, the Senate campaign committee, but I do think her point is right out of the blocks, there was some criticism of her that stuck and without that she might have had a better chance. But, again, Christine is very conservative and it's hard to elect somebody that conservative as a senator from Vermont. It would be hard to elect me as a senator from Vermont -- I mean from Delaware.
CHETRY: Governor, speaking of electing you, though, you had said at one point that you just wanted to get through these midterms before you start the 2012 conversation. OK, you got through the midterms, so are you running?
BARBOUR: Well, the midterms are over, but they are going to be over for a while here. So in the next few weeks and months, my wife and family and people who I respect, we're going to sit down and see if there's anything to think about, see if it's the right thing to do or not. But I have not given it any serious consideration. Let me get a little, catch my breath and get a little sleep, OK?
CHETRY: But if I ask you when you're tired, you may just say yes. Governor Haley Barbour --
BARBOUR: I might have a weak moment?
CHETRY: Exactly. From the Republican Governors Association, the chairman. I know you are happy this morning, if not tired. Thanks so much for being with us.
BARBOUR: Sure, Kiran. Thank you.
CHETRY: John.
ROBERTS: I'm not sure he's complaining to the right people about the lack of sleep. But we'll let him have it.
Power shift on Capitol Hill. The Democrats are promising to work with the Republicans. Republicans are promising to work with Democrats. Will they or will it be total gridlock now? Our Brianna Keilar is taking the temperature on the hill. She'll be with us in just a moment.
Twenty-nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: We're back with our special post-election coverage this morning. The balance of power shifting rather dramatically this morning.
Capitol Hill is now split. We got a split Congress. Take a look here. On the Senate side, the Democrats are retaining control, 51 seats to 47 seats right now. There are still three contests yet to be decided, but, really, only two of those will go to either Democrat or Republican. Alaska's going to a Republican regardless of who wins. Then there's still Washington, D.C. and Colorado yet to be decided. Over on the House side, though, big, big, big changes. The GOP really gave a drubbing to the Democrats. The big question is, when the Republicans take over the House, and that's going to be in January of next year, and John Boehner is the speaker of the House, presumed to be taking that position, will this side work with this side, or is it just going to be a clash of cultures, gridlock and nothing gets done?
Brianna Keilar is on Capitol Hill this morning. She's been taking the temperature of folks, knows the lay of the land there. She walks those halls each and every day. So, Brianna, what's going on with Congress? Obviously, both sides have their agenda. Are those agendas always going to be at odds?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't think, John, that anybody is expecting that there won't be some sort of gridlock here, but we did just see a photo opportunity between John Boehner and Eric Cantor, the number two Republican in the House, and both of them were talking about spending cuts. And one of the messages they took away from what happened last night is that America wants smaller government. And they need to reduce spending. They're making that their number one priority.
Now, the other question, what will they do, what won't they do with health care reform, because as you know, Tea Party candidates who swept into power last night, one of the things they wanted to do was completely repeal health care reform. Listening to Republican leaders, they seem to be downplaying that. The reality, of course, is they don't have the support in the Senate to do that, and they are facing President Obama who obviously wouldn't approve any sort of repeal.
But what Eric Cantor told me they might look into doing is through the propose the appropriations process, incrementally chipping away at some of the funding for these items, John.
ROBERTS: You know, it's interesting, because we had Eric Cantor on not too long ago, and maybe he cast it in terms of what the American people want. He said the American people want a repeal of health care reform. And we had Mike Pence on, Republican from Indiana not too long ago who says they want to rip health care up by the roots, tear it apart and start all over again.
So - actually, hold that thought, Brianna, if you would, because we're going to Florida where Alex Sink is holding a press conference. That heat a dead - or that race a dead heat right now. Let's see what she has to say.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
ALEX SINK (D), FLORIDA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: There is no path to victory for us. So, therefore, Rick Scott will be the next governor of the state of Florida. I have just called Rick Scott to congratulate him, and I told him that especially after such a very close election, he will need to work hard. He will need to work very hard to bring our state together. Because for the future of our state, I hope Rick Scott remembers that there are two-and-a-half million Floridians who did not vote for him, and that his highest priority has to be to bring our state together to meet our challenges.
For me, it has been an honor and a privilege to serve the people of Florida for the last four years as their chief financial officer. And I have both honored and humbled by the incredible support that I receive in this campaign for governor. It is remarkable and it is truly overwhelming. Seventy thousand contributions to our campaign. More than 1 million volunteer calls were made over the course of the last three weeks to get out the vote.
We fought very, very hard. And I drew strength every day from the enormous numbers of people who believed in me, who believed in our campaign, who believed in my vision for the future of our state. And we heard those voices in every one of these 67 counties here in Florida that I visited and campaigned actively in, along with my lieutenant governor running mate, Rod Smith.
So many people who love our state and care deeply about our future gave their time, their money, their toil, their sweat and, yes, as of this morning, even their tears, for a successful campaign. And words just fall short of expressing my gratitude.
And I do want to say something about the enormous numbers of press and media in this room. I want to thank all of you for covering the race, for reporting on the race fairly. I want to thank the members of the 17 editorial boards that I met with and talked with and spent incredible amounts of time with talking about policy. And those newspaper editorial boars that all endorsed me and our campaign for governor and for the future of our state.
But I have a perspective. I've lived a long time and I have seen lots of ups and downs, and I know that because of my stage in life that every morning we will wake up to a new day and to another day. And let's think about today as we look out this window. The sun is shining in Florida. And my greatest hope is that the sun will continue to shine on the state of Florida.
Again, thank you so much to the people of Florida --
ROBERTS: Wow. Well, there's a real surprise. This was a race that we hadn't called because it was oh-so-close. Forty-nine, 48 percent. Rick Scott ahead of Alex Sink. But it was the vote count, I guess, that really did it and said to the Sink campaign, we have lost this. With about 89 percent of the votes counted, the margin was 53,000. So, I guess they took a look at what was left and figured they couldn't get it over the top and narrow that gap.
So, Alex Sink right there conceding defeat to Rick Scott, who will be the next governor of the state of Florida.
Let's go over to Kiran, who's with our political panel.
CHETRY: So, that makes it 11 governorship pickups for the GOP. ROBERTS: Yes, that's a lot.
CHETRY: And as you said, this one could have dragged on, but she conceded just moments ago. Alex Sink the Democrat. Robert, we will talk with our panel right now, and you mentioned that you thought this was a very honorable thing to do because she could have dragged it out in court.
ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: She could have challenged in court. There are always absentee ballots. You can contest. You can always try to get the vote blocked --
CHETRY: Not in Florida!
ZIMMERMAN: Not in Florida! Never. But she showed a lot of personal grace. But let's understand, this is not just a loss for the state of Florida in my opinion, but certainly is a problem for the Democrats in the country. Another key electoral state that was critical to the realignment of 2008 that is now in the Republican column.
CHETRY: This is, again, Rick Scott, we had a chance to speak to him as well on our show. He is a businessman -- a wealthy businessman. We asked him about that whole issue. But he was also backed by Sarah Palin and considered a Tea Party movement. I mean, Andy, what does this mean for the power of the Tea Party again in a state like Florida?
ANDY CARD, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, again, the Tea Party is it a movement, not a political party, and the movement certainly benefits by his success.
There are a lot of people that are going to emerge as people that made a difference in the Tea Party movement. Certainly Jim DeMint is someone who made a difference in the Tea Party movement. Sarah Palin is the most visible difference in the Tea Party movement. But I think you are going to find that the new governor of Florida will emerge as a Tea Party movement activist that will make a difference. So, there are going to be a lot of people like that traveling around the country.
So, let's see what happens with the Tea Party movement in the context of presidential politics. We don't know what it will be mean, and it will clearly not be monolithic in its view.
CORD JEFFERSON, REPORTER, "THE ROOT": I am very interested also in sort of who's been successful with the Tea Party backing. We see Rick Scott, who has ties to George W. Bush, who has ties to a lot of the Republican establishment and is not one of these fringe candidate. We've seen when the Tea Party backs a fringe candidate like Christine O'Donnell, like Joe Miller in Alaska, they're not as successful as these people who are actually more centrist and tied to the Republican establishment.
FOREMAN: He also had a bottomless pit of money, which also doesn't hurt in a gubernatorial election. (LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: He is a veteran. No, a veteran also. He was in the Navy. He was -- some would argue he was an easier first candidate to run than a Christine O'Donnell. I mean, I'm not sure. What does it say for the state of Florida because we talked about the other big battle. And we know the Senate went to Marco Rubio, as well, who is a Tea Party favorite.
JOHN HEILEMANN, COLUMNIST, "NEW YORK MAGAZINE": Florida is a red state now. And as Bob was saying before, it's a very painful thing for the Obama administration. They had these two governorships, Ohio and Florida, central in every presidential election. Really important to both in terms of the electoral landscape and in terms of the actual machinery of winning the presidency. Both races Democrats thought they could win.
Alex Sink, a very strong candidate. Ted Strickland closed very strong. Two days ago, the White House thought they could end up having both of those, and now they have neither. It's a big problem for Barack Obama over the next two years.
CHETRY: Will?
WILL CAIN, "NATIONAL REVIEW" ONLINE: I think one of the things that we're talking ability that's interesting is the whole concept of the Tea Party and what it means to be Tea Party. And Mark and I were talking backstage. The most interesting thing for me tomorrow is how these freshmen senators, like Rand Paul, like Mike Lee, like Ron Johnson in Wisconsin -- will interact with traditional Republicans starting in January. Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn.
Will they all get along and do business as usual? Or will they be a real --
MARC LAMONT HILL, POLITIAL ANAYLST: I'm pretty cynical about that. I mean, I think a funny thing happens when you get to Washington and you have to fall in line. When you talk about fiscal policy, when you start talking about reigning in Wall Street, when you even talking about the war, will you align yourself with Mitch McConnell? Will you be on the other side of the line with the president and his team?
I mean, I don't see it happening. I think the Tea Party will run into the Republicans soon.
ZIMMERMAN: I don't think we have any illusion that that they're going to be associated with the president and his team. I think the question is going to be are they going to a solution-based caucus? That's the real challenge. Mike Pence's interview with John Roberts made it clear that his focus is going to be undoing what President Obama and the Democratic Congress did. And he does not feel they have an agenda to work with the president.
The question is going to be whether they want to spend their time debating health care, a debate they cannot win because they cannot repeal it. Or do they want to spend time focusing on jobs and jobs -- and putting the economy back on track? I'm willing to bet they'll focus on their old rhetoric.
CHETRY: Let's get the last word to Cord. Sorry.
JEFFERSON: No, I think that when we're talking about sort of the Tea Party movement and what effect it's going to have on things, I personally think we're going to start looking -- it's not a valid third party. It's never going to be a valid third party, I don't thin.
I think we have to start looking at the Tea Party as a sort of -- the way we look at ethnic voting blocks. So, the way we look at African-American voting bloc that consistently votes for Democrats. I think we're going to start looking at the Tea Party voting bloc as a bloc that votes consistently for Republicans --
CHETRY: It'll be interesting to see, though, because the candidates are not - the candidates are very different. I mean, Tea Party candidates in various states are different. And also when you ask people why you went out to vote, there are different issues, as well. So, it will be certainly interesting as we set it up for 2012.
I want to thank everybody on the panel. Great conversation. And, you know, a surprise concession by Alex Sink, the Democrat for governor in Florida.
All right. We're going to take a quick break. It's 44 minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: We're back with our special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. We will continue our election coverage in just a moment. But first, lots of other things making news this morning. And with those, here's Alina Cho. Good morning, Alina
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there. Good morning, John. Here's what's happening outside the world of politics. A powerful 6.1 earthquake has struck off the coast of Indonesia. It is the second such quake to rock that region in as many weeks.
Meanwhile, on Indonesia's island of Java, there is been another powerful volcanic eruption on Mount Merapi. That eruption lasted just seven minutes, but it was enough to send tens of thousands of people running for cover. At least 39 people have been killed by volcanic eruptions there in the past week.
Good news and some bad news from some new reports on the job market. The good news first. According to a payroll processing firm, employers added 43,000 jobs in October. At the same time, another report found that employers plan to cut nearly 38,000 jobs. The official word, the Labor Department's monthly jobs report, comes out this Friday.
And growing concerns in Haiti this morning as tropical depression Tomas closes in. The storm is scheduled to make landfall in Haiti on Friday where a million people are still living in tents after January's devastating earthquake. Look at the windy conditions there in Haiti. Tomas is already blamed for at least a dozen deaths in Saint Lucia.
So, how is that storm tracking? Rob Marciano is in the Extreme Weather Center with a look at that. Hey, Rob. Good morning.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Alina. As you mentioned, it did weaken overnight. It is just a tropical depression now, so there's a little bit of hope there. And the guys at the National Hurricane Center are kind of scratching their heads as to why that exactly happened.
Nonetheless, with winds of 35 miles an hour, it is over some toasty water. And most of our computer models say it will strengthen. So, and common sense will tell you that, but that didn't work last night.
Nonetheless, here's the forecast from the National Hurricane Center, which will be updated within minutes. This is as of 5:00 a.m. Eastern time. Do expect it to gain strength, potentially getting back to hurricane status as a Category 1 storm, bringing stormy conditions to Jamaica and, yes, Haiti. Haiti either way, whatever conditions this storm is in will get a tremendous amount of rain and that may be enough to do damage. Even tropical-storm force winds, where they are trying to rebuild that nation is going to be a problem.
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CHO: Not news I want to hear, Rob. Thank you very much for that.
That's a look at this morning's other Top Stories. John, back over to you.
ROBERTS: Alina, thank you very much.
And coming up next on The Most News in the Morning, we are going to bring together the brotherhood of the Crimson Hexagon to find out what Americans are saying about this election in the Twitter-verse. Stay with us.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO (R), SENATOR-ELECT, FLORIDA: Our nation is headed in the wrong direction and both parties are to blame. And what Americans are looking for desperately are people who will go to Washington, D.C. and stand up for this agenda that is taking us in the wrong direction and offer a clear and genuine alternative.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHETRY: That's senator-elect Republican Marco Rubio after his runaway win in Floridai, talking about the wave of anger that the GOP rode in last night. And we have been taking a look at many different ways to gauge how voters felt, why they voted the way they did.
One is through tweets. Very interesting. They find out how people feel based on analyzing the tweets that go out on candidates.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. We had a lot of help from a company called Crimson Hexagon working with CNN analysts as well to analyze all these tweets, all the things that people are saying. It's as if you could just parachute into diners and jut listen in on the conversation. It's not scientific --
CHETRY: And you don't get to eat well.
FOREMAN: Yes, exactly. You could get a burger while you're there. It's good.
This is that very race we are talking about down there in Florida with Meek and Crist and Rubio. Look at the numbers. Basically, this is the flow, the amount of tweets happening here. If you bring it on down the way here, you can see how there's a big surge right here. That was the primary. Then you bring it down here, what do you suppose happened down ? This is when the story came out that they were trying to get Meek to drop out of the race.
CHETRY: Right. And perhaps throw support behind Crist.
FOREMAN: But look at what some of the people said here about Crist at the time. Here's one of the people who posted. "Charlie Crist bickering about the bickering in Washington." Here's what they were saying about Rubio. "Rubio's assessment of why people aren't hiring is largely and irrationally pessimistic and defeatist. To some extent, a lie."
CHETRY: We're looking at the negatives.
FOREMAN: Negative ones, right down here. And then Meek down here, look what people were saying. "Hey, somebody needs to drop out. It's time for Kendrick Meek to drop out." That's the negative. That's a sense of some of the conversation going on.
Let's move over to Nevada, where Harry Reid held on. This is different and interesting because if you crank this back to the beginning here, look at his negatives. My gosh.
CHETRY: This is 62 percent of the tweets going out were anti- Reid, and the interesting thing is this is when they said he was all but done.
FOREMAN: Right. They were eating him alive back here between in April and May. Boy, he was being torn up here. But then watch this, change, change, change -- they don't get really good, but they ease up some. And by the time you get here, a couple of really interesting tweets that I find at the end here. About Reid here, the negatives on him. "Harry Reid's lifetime appointment is shovel ready." People weren't happy about it. Other people felt a little bit better about it. They were saying - well, here's Angle up here -- this is an interesting parallel here. On one side someone said, "Love my girls, Christine O'Donnell, Sharron Angle, Sarah Palin. Republican women rock! Do it better! Good night, Twitter's long day at work." So here's somebody. Big thrill.
Exact opposite, bookend over here. Here's what somebody on the negative side said about Angle at the same time. They tweeted, "Worst case scenario, Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell and Carly Fiorina." They say - Fiona (sic) is a little different - "All women, 2010, and Palin wins the presidency in 2012."
So, really, the analysis of this has been fascinating to watch. Like I said, not scientific but interesting to be able to dabble in all of the conversations around the country. We don't really know. Maybe it all tilted more Republican or more Democratic. We don't really know, but we do know this is a lot of the people who felt they wanted to be part of the conversation, the thoughts they posted. And this is how we've been able to analyze it this election.
I think in future elections, as this technology moves on --
CHETRY: Yes, we weren't talking Twitter in 2008.
FOREMAN: Exactly. Real conversations.
CHETRY: Cool. Thanks, Tom Foreman.
Also, how did Republicans do last night? Christine Romans is here breaking down the exit polls. What was on the mind of voters as they went into voting booths and came out to talk to our pollsters?
Still ahead. We're going to break all that down. It's 57 minutes past the hour.
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