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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Republicans Take Control of Senate; Polls Still Open in Alaska; Louisiana Senate Race Headed to Runoff; What GOP Victories Means to the Balance of Power; Mitch McConnell the Next Majority Leader

Aired November 05, 2014 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BLITZER: And Christine Romans. They're going to pick it up and have a good time.

Thanks very much for joining us.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning. A tidal wave for Republicans. The GOP taking control of the U.S. Senate, advancing their lead in the House of Representatives. And, and taking key governorships in states across the country.

Democrats suffering a major, major backlash this morning.

What does this mean for President Obama's agenda for the next two years? And will Democrats' loss Tuesday night hurt them in 2016?

EARLY START's special election coverage begins right now.

Good morning, everyone. A very early morning. Welcome to EARLY START special election edition. I'm Christine Romans.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Berman. It is Wednesday, November 5th. It is 3:00 a.m. in the East. And as we said, there is major breaking news this morning.

Republicans have taken control of the United States Senate and they did it in a tidal wave fashion.

ROMANS: It was a night many had forecast would be filled with close contests. Instead, it was near to a blowout for Republicans, who picked up more than -- more than the six seats they needed to take control of the Senate.

Now races still remain unsettled in Alaska and Louisiana. But as things stand now, right at this moment, Republicans will hold at least 52 seats in the Senate, picking up seven over the current Congress. Democrats will hold 45 seats.

Let's begin with those Republican pickups. West Virginia has its first female U.S. senator, Republican Shelley Moore Capito defeating the Democrat Natalie Tennant. She'll take the seat of retiring Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller. Capito's victory marks the first time in 56 years West Virginia has elected a Republican senator.

Another key pickup for Republicans is South Dakota, where former Governor Mike Rounds easily, easily defeated Democrat Rick Weiland and independent Larry Pressler to win the Senate seat vacated by retiring Democrat Tim Johnson.

Turning to Montana, Republicans Steve Daines easily defeated Democrat Amanda Curtis to win the Senate sear surrendered by Max Baucus who's been appointed U.S. ambassador to China. Democrats all but conceded this race after their original candidate John Walsh withdrew over revelations he plagiarized parts of his Master's thesis.

Republicans picking up another seat in Arkansas with Republican Tom Cotton defeating the Democratic incumbent Senator Mark Pryor. Pryor had tried running away from President Obama, whose approval rating among Arkansas voters, was just 34 percent.

A history-making night in Iowa. Republican Joni Ernst picking up the seat being vacated by retiring Democrat John Harkin. This was quite a battle. Ernst becoming the state's first female senator in an easier, easier than expected win over the Democrat Bruce Braley. This was a bruising big money battle with the candidates spending nearly $80 million on between them on campaign ads -- John.

BERMAN: Easier than expected is a theme this morning.

In Colorado, a surprisingly easy win for Republican Cory Gardner, unseating the incumbent Democrat Mark Udall. This was supposed to be neck-and-neck. Colorado is a purple state. And Udall is the first Colorado Senate incumbent to be voted out of office in 36 years.

North Carolina. A state that President Obama won once. That was the state that clinched it for Republicans. Thom Tillis defeated the incumbent Democrat Kay Hagan. That was the race that finally gave control of the Senate to the Republican Party.

Now Kansas, that was icing on the cake. One of the most hotly contested races in the country. In the end, Republican Senator Pat Roberts, he won reelection, defeating an independent challenger Greg Orman. Republicans had been nervous and Orman had a real shot there.

Now I want to tell you about a surprise. A nail biter that is too close for us to project still this morning in Virginia. Democrat Senator Mark Warner is claiming victory. He is enjoying a lead right now about 12,000 votes over the Republican challenger Ed Gillespie. Gillespie has not conceded this race. There really is no one in the political world who saw this one being this close.

In New Hampshire, CNN has projected that Democrat Jeanne Shaheen will hold on to her Senate seat. The Republican challenger there Scott Brown has also refused to concede at this point.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, at least for a few more days, cruising to reelection. He defeated Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes to win a sixth term. And with Republicans taking control of the Senate, Mitch McConnell will become the next majority leader -- Christine. There.

ROMANS: John, there are two more Senate races where the outcome is still not known this morning. In Louisiana, neither Senator Mary Landrieu nor any of her opponents got over the 50 percent threshold required to win that seat. That throws the race to a primary on December 6th.

And in Alaska where the polls didn't even close until midnight Eastern Time, they're still counting votes at this hour.

I want to start up in Anchorage where CNN's Drew Griffin is standing by live for us.

Good morning, Drew. How is the vote count going up there?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, 68 percent in Dan Sullivan, the Republican challenger, to the Democratic Mark Begich is leading 50 percent to 44 percent. Given the tone of the evening, Christine, the history of Alaska politics and the results so far, it looks like the Republicans will pick up this seat, and Mark Begich, the Democrat, will be a one-termer.

But nobody is conceding anything here. In fact, I just talked to the Alaska senator, the senior senator from Alaska, Lisa Murkowski. And she says look, we don't count anybody until all those votes are counted. And she said even with all this percentage of the vote in, it's still, you can't call an Alaska Senate race because things can get so quirky here so fast.

But it looks good for Dan Sullivan. It is only 11:00 at night here. The party is still on here. And Dan Sullivan is just down the street. Should he win, he is going to come back to this vote tally center and make the rounds. But right now we are just waiting on all those votes, far-flung regions of Alaska to be counted -- Christine.

ROMANS: Quirky. I think that's a really good way to describe it. Still counting the votes in Alaska.

Drew Griffin, thank you.

The winner of Louisiana Senate race won't be known for weeks. Neither incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu nor the Republican challenger bill Cassidy got 50 percent of the vote they need to win outright. The race then will be decided in a two candidate runoff election.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is there live for us in New Orleans this morning.

This is what many people would forecast, that we wouldn't know the outcome of this vote for some time.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Christine, they called it a jungle primary. But we still expect kind of a wild ride to happen in the next 32 days or so before that runoff. Yes, it was not unexpected here. But certainly it is a lot of anticipation around this. You're talking about Senator Landrieu, who came out late in the evening, really very aggressive against her opponent, Bill Cassidy, challenging him to six debates before the runoff. Also launching a new Web site, a poster, saying look,

wherewasbill.com, challenging him on his record. And then finally saying, Christine, that this race is not going to be about the president, who he was, who he is, or who he will be. She made that very clear. Well, then you had Bill Cassidy coming out, the congressman, saying that exactly that, that he again compared her, linked her to the president, saying that she voted with him 97 percent of the time.

He also boasted that 60 percent of Louisiana voters voted for change. And that is a big challenge for Senator Landrieu. Now what her people told me last night and early in the morning, they said look, anticipate and expect that she is going to fight and fight hard, because she has done this before.

Back in '96, she won the runoff. Back this 2002, won the runoff. Back in 2008, didn't have to actually do the runoff and won then. So this would be her fourth go-around. Not her first rodeo. So they are getting prepared. They're getting excited about this. But clearly, they have huge challenges ahead. Because those who supported the Tea Party candidate, a big portion, 14 percent of the voters, they are going to likely go towards Cassidy, if she cannot actually take some of those votes away. So still 32 days, Christine, to see how this all turns out.

ROMANS: All right. Suzanne Malveaux for us in New Orleans this morning.

And John, big story in the Senate, of course. But this was a night that belonged to the Republicans in the House as well.

BERMAN: Yes. Everywhere, Christine. The House of Representatives Republicans were able to strengthen their hand. A few races do remain undecided this morning but at the moment Republicans will have at least, at least 239 seats in the House of Representatives when the Congress sits in January. That is a minimum of five more than the 234 they hold at the moment. It will probably be much more than -- maybe not much more. Somewhere between 10 and 12 perhaps.

Democrats have at least 172 seats. This will almost definitely strengthen John Boehner's hand when dealing with the president. The question remains will it change the partisan gridlock situation in Washington. We're going to have to wait and see what the leaders say over the next few days.

I want to bring in our political analysts right now. Joining us, John Avlon, editor in chief for the "Daily Beast," Republican political strategist Margaret Hoover, and Errol Louis, political anchor at New York News and Sally Kohn progressive columnist for "The Daily Beast."

Margaret Hoover, you were a card carrying member of the Republican Party. We'll let you start tonight. There is no other way to put it. This was a tidal wave. Everything that we thought was close wasn't nearly as close. Things that we didn't think were going to be close, like Virginia, way close. What happened? MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: The map was laid out and very

favorably from the beginning for Republicans. There was some six-year itch. The electorate is disenchanted with the president who has very low approval ratings. And Republicans ran incredibly strong candidates. I think between all of those things, the option on the table was to change the status quo in Washington by moving one element, making the Senate Republican, give some chance of changing from the status quo.

And by the way, it wasn't an entire tidal wave. Scott Brown lost. If Scott Brown had won in Massachusetts then we could legitimately say yes, we swept the country. And there's still a couple of --

BERMAN: So it wasn't a big kahuna, it was just a really, really large kahuna.

HOOVER: It was a storm surge. It was like a super storm surge.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: It had to be a long, long night for you and progressive activists around the country.

SALLY KOHN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean I kind of try and sugarcoat it.

BERMAN: Yes is the right answer to that question.

KOHN: Margaret just gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling that it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I mean, look, the reality is that, you know, there is a sort of emotional roller coaster if you will for Democrats this cycle because from the beginning, Margaret is right, it didn't look like a race Democrats were going to do well in.

And the change if anything was that suddenly it looked like things were closer than they might be. But this is the sixth term of a Democratic president. Sixth year -- I'm sorry, sixth year of Democratic president and six-year elections, the party in power almost always loses seats. This was expected to happen. If anything the news is it wasn't as close, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. You got to find a silver lining somewhere.

BERMAN: So, Errol, you're in the White House tonight. You're President Obama. What are you thinking? Are you thinking gosh, look at what I did to all these guys in my party? Are you thinking, gosh, I'm going to go out there and be aggressive tomorrow and change things. Gosh, I'm going to try to find ways to compromise with the Republicans.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, compromise has always been in the DNA, literally, of this president. I mean, he campaigned on it. He has talked about it at times without number. He is accused of being, you know, an entrenched partisan. We'll put that to the test now. I think he is going to want to see some things get done. I think he is going to probably dig in his heels on appointments and some other sort of issues if they want to try to repeal or dismember any part of Obamacare.

I think he's going to probably to pull out the veto pen. But other than that, there is plenty that needs to be done. I mean, look, there is a huge backlog of very routine work that has not done over the last two Congresses.

BERMAN: John, "The New York Times" has a quote today from a White House official saying they don't see this as a repudiation. How can you see this as anything but a repudiation of the White House?

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Look, I think among other things, one of the things you mentioned tonight is simply turnout. You know, if turnout is high, you get different results in the midterm turnout. That's something that the parties need to deal with. Republicans should feel good tonight, particularly about their pickups in places that didn't look too hospitable.

There were a lot of countervailing forces going into this election. Republicans seem to have won almost them all. That said, it just a fundamentally different slice of the electorate. Now Mitch McConnell's closing argument was all about I'll help them gridlock. The president is going to have to rise up and say I'll find areas of common ground and then actually both of them follow through. They both should be held accountable.

BERMAN: All right. Guys, stick around. We have a lot more to talk about because there were a lot of other races that we need to get to. But we're going go to over Christine now.

ROMANS: A lot of other races, a lot of governors mansions that changed hands last night. The GOP also sweeping most of the competitive contests for governor across the country. We're still holding off on projecting winners in a few of these races. But as of now Republican candidates taking over the governor's office in Arkansas, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland. While the Democrats only pick up this morning is in Pennsylvania.

In Illinois, wow, Republican Bruce Rauner defeating the incumbent governor Pat Quinn. That's according to a CNN projection and a big upset there. Another stunning upset in heavily Democratic Maryland. Republican businessman Larry Hogan winning the governor's race. He defeated the Democrat Anthony Brown, the state's lieutenant governor.

And another deep blue blow for Democrats in Massachusetts, Republican Charlie Baker winning the governor's race over the Democrat Martha Coakley. It comes after eight years of Democratic rule in Massachusetts under Governor Deval Patrick.

There is a new Republican governor in Arkansas. Former homeland security official Asa Hutchinson defeating the Democrat Mike Ross, giving the GOP control of that same top office after eight years in the hands of Democrats.

The GOP also taking some other tight races where Democrats were given decent odds to win. Florida voters reelecting Republican Rick Scott to a second term as governor, delivering a stinging rebuke to Democrat Charlie Crist. Scott pumped nearly $13 million of his own money into his campaign in its final days. He becomes just the second GOP governor in Florida history to win reelection.

In Wisconsin, the Republican Scott Walker easily won reelection to his second term by double-digits over the Democrat Mary Burke. That victory keeps Walker in the mix for a possible presidential run in 2016. Walker angered many voters and had to win a recall election in 2012 after he ended collective bargaining rights for the state's public employees.

Republicans hold on to the state House in Georgia. Voters gave incumbent Governor Nathan Deal four more years. He defeated the Democratic challenger Jason Carter, the grandson of former president, Jimmy Carter.

In Arizona, Republicans maintained control with Doug Ducey, defeating the Democrat Fred Duval in the -- in the governor's race. He'll replace Jan Brewer who decided to retire rather than challenge the state's term limit law. Ducey is best known for building the Cold Stone Creamery ice cream chain. A businessman before selling that company in 2007 and entering politics.

Democrats have only one pickup in their column this morning. Businessman Tom Wolf is the new governor of Pennsylvania. The Democrat defeating the Republican incumbent Tom Corbett in his bid for reelection.

I want to check in with our panel of experts on the significance of the Republicans expansion of the governors' offices across the country. I want to start in Illinois.

What happened in Illinois? I want to listen to something that Bruce Rauner said. He is a Republican who defeated Pat Quinn. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE RAUNER (R), ILLINOIS GOVERNOR-ELECT: This is an historic time in Illinois. The voters have spoken. The voters have asked for divided government for the first time in many years. We'll have a Republican governor and a Democratic legislature.

And the voters -- the voters have chosen to have a divided government not so we can fight, not so we can bicker, not so we can get angry with each other, but it's to find solutions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Deep sighs from Sally Kohn.

(LAUGHTER)

Deep sighs, a lot of deep sighs for me this morning.

KOHN: A lot of sighs.

ROMANS: A lot -- this is a big loss for Democrats.

KOHN: Yes. I mean, you know, Illinois was a big surprise. I mean, again, you know, I really have nothing positive to offer here on the case of Illinois. I'm sorry. It's not pretty.

AVLON: Let me offer something positive. Look, I mean, this is something that seemed possible a few months ago, and then Quinn seemed to have an improbable surge. In Illinois and Massachusetts, two of the most Democratic states you can get have Republican governors today. But what's just as significant is the message they gave. They both said elect a Republican executive as a check on an otherwise entirely Democratic state.

ROMANS: Right.

AVLON: And people responded to that message. Charlie Baker returning that legacy of Bill Weld. Deval Patrick actually is an aberration in terms of Democratic governors in Massachusetts in recent years.

And so that's a really interesting sign. It's not just a Republican wave in this case. It's actually an interesting sign of some voters in blue states wanting divided government as a check on overwhelming legislation.

(CROSSTALK)

LOUIS: You've got to point out also in Illinois the handwriting was really always on the wall. Pat Quinn won that seat with a 500,000 vote margin, all out of Cook County, out of the Chicago area. He was in some ways sort of the governor of Chicago.

ROMANS: Right.

LOUIS: And if you don't turn out -- the Cook County organization doesn't turn out the vote out there, this is what happens.

ROMANS: Can we talk about Maryland? Maryland, a big deal in Maryland.

AVLON: Yes, big deal.

HOOVER: But what we're seeing in the DNA of these Republicans that are winning in blue states is actually a different kind of Republican.

AVLON: Yes. Centers.

ROMANS: That's right.

HOOVER: And I think that that's -- you know, that's some silver lining for my progressive friends on my left because I think even though they don't want to like Republicans, if they had to pick one, they'd like this kind of Republican.

ROMANS: Do you like Larry Hogan?

HOOVER: As opposed to -- as supposed to a Sam Brownback kind of Republican. And so you're getting a moderated version, a more modernized version --

LOUIS: We're getting a centrist Republican.

HOOVER: -- who is on social issues, certainly more temperate. Fiscal issues are conservative. And this is a new breed of Republican that frankly I think the National Republican Party has been thirsting for, for some time.

AVLON: Yes.

KOHN: Margaret is pointing to the broader silver lining here for Democrats. And frankly, for the majority of the American people who support marriage equality, who support raising the minimum wage, who support access to reproductive choice and abortion, which overwhelmingly the majority of Americans support. And in not only in electing these moderate governors, but in the ballot measures and all these instances, they supported that even in cases where they put Republicans in the senator in the electoral elections.

ROMANS: Well, you're talking about these different kinds of Republicans. What kinds of Republicans are going to be running Congress? What kind of tone is the Republican Party going to have in Washington?

HOOVER: I'm so glad you mentioned it. What we're starting to see in a lot of these House races is actually because we've grown our margin so much, it's a lot of suburban districts who have elected again socially moderate Republicans to the House of Representatives, which means John Boehner is going to have a caucus that will help buttress his crazy caucus, as my husband calls it.

ROMANS: All right.

Lots to talk about this morning. So much deep sighs from Sally and a lot to talk about this morning -- John.

BERMAN: So much breaking news going on all morning long. Republicans taking control of the U.S. Senate. They have swept the midterm elections across the country. But will the Republican Party and Mitch McConnell, will they be able to get their agenda through?

President Obama of course has the veto pen. And as you just heard, some members of their own party already looking ahead to 2016.

So much more ahead as EARLY START special election coverage continues, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back to EARLY START in our special election coverage.

This was a very tough night for Democrats. A very big night for Republicans. How big? Well, the state of Georgia, this was a state where people thought it might go into overtime, where neither candidate might break the 50 percent threshold that didn't happen. Instead, Republican David Perdue, he beat the Democrat Michelle Nunn

and by some eight points over 50 percent. There will not be a runoff in the state of Georgia.

Live now from the heart of Georgia and the CNN center in Atlanta, Nick Valencia.

Good morning, Nick. We thought it might be a long morning. It hasn't turned out that way.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, John. So many people had this going down to the wire with the likely prediction being that this was going go to a runoff because it was going to be impossible that either candidate was going to get that 50 percent plus one vote necessary to avoid a runoff in Georgia.

And very early on, I spoke to somebody within the Michelle Nunn campaign who said that they were confident about an outright victory. But just a couple of hours after polls closed at 7:00 p.m. Eastern in Georgia, it became very clear from the trans that Perdue was going to pull away with this. And that's exactly what he did.

Just check out those numbers right there on your screen. Perdue in an interview after his victory told CNN that this was about voters being dissatisfied or unsatisfied, I should say, with the presidency of Barack Obama, and Nunn, in her concession speech, she was upbeat. She said that she proved a lot of people wrong in this red state. She showed that a Democrat can be competitive. But in the end, John, she came up short.

BERMAN: A lot of people writing this morning that Republicans recognized this as a possible problem race for them, and they sent in help and they got David Perdue headed in the right direction in time, in the right direction in time to take this seat for the Republican Party.

Nick Valencia at the CNN center, thank you so much.

Of course, the Republican victory in the Senate means that Mitch McConnell will become the majority leader. But it's not going to be easy for him necessarily. He may have a hard time getting his agenda through with so many members of his caucus planning to run for president. Of course, they're going to have ideas of their own.

CNN's Tom Foreman in the virtual Senate with more -- Tom.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John. You know, if you think about it, Harry Reid as majority leader for the Democrats had a real advantage by having Barack Obama in the White House. Because when the same party has the White House and the Senate, it has a way of tamping down that enthusiasm among other members to take that office.

This will not be the case for Mitch McConnell, if all goes through as planned and he becomes the majority leader over here. Why? Well, he just has to look across the chamber. And you can see why. There's Rand Paul over the corner, his fellow Kentucky senator. Just last year it wasn't clear that Rand Paul would even endorse McConnell for reelection.

And back in the corner, there is Ted Cruz back there. Ted Cruz has a way of getting headlines that make it very tough for Republicans sometime. And earlier this evening he was asked about backing McConnell to be the majority leader. He wouldn't even say that at the time.

And of course there's Marco Rubio back there. He's got his own ambitions. What about the people outside here, like -- if you go across the way to Paul Ryan coming from the House of Representatives, former vice presidential candidate. He has ideas about the economy.

And then you have all these governors and former governors. People out there like Jeb Bush and Bobby Jindal and Chris Christie. Even Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee.

The bottom line is what's going to happen for McConnell is he is going to look out into a very different Senate, into a very different political landscape than what Reid looked at. He is going to look at a lot of people with a lot of ideas about what should be going on in this chamber in the name of the Republican Party.

That might make it very tough for him. And frankly, it could make it tough for the Republican Party in 2016 if they can't come together with a clear message of what they're going to do with all this newfound power -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Tom Foreman for us in the virtual room. Looks like the hall of presidents there. Thank you so much, Tom -- Christine.

BERMAN: John, turning now to some of the big ballot initiatives across the country. An increase in the minimum wage, a big priority for the president. And more liberal marijuana laws. Those gained wide voter approval.

In Arkansas, another ringing endorsement for a higher minimum wage. Nearly two-thirds of the voters approving incremental increases to $8.50 an hour by the year 2017. Voters in Illinois approving a non- binding ballot measure to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour next year. Supporters are hoping the outcome will add momentum to a legislative proposal to officially raise the minimum wage there in Illinois.

The minimum wage in Nebraska increases to 9 bucks an hour in 2016 after voters in the Cornhusker State approved initiative $4.25. That is the state's first minimum wage hike in five years.

And there will be pay raises for minimum wage workers in South Dakota, too. Voters narrowly approving an increase to $8.50 an hour starting January 1st along with incremental hikes in the years to come that could be tied to inflation.

Oregon now the third state in the U.S. to legalize recreational marijuana. Starting next summer, residents will be allowed to carry up to one ounce. They could possess up to eight ounces at home. Households can also grow up to four plants per household.

In Florida, voters narrowly rejected a proposal to legalize medical marijuana. That initiative received more than 50 percent of the vote. But you know 60 percent was needed to pass. And Washington state voters did approve easily initiative 594. That measure mandates background checks on all gun sales and transfers, including at gun shows and online.

In Washington state, voters tightened gun control with two ballot measures, initiative 591 rejected by voters. It would have loosened gun control laws by prohibiting background checks on gun purchases.

John, so interesting, those minimum wage -- those minimum wage raises in those states, those are red states. Four or five of those states were red states and they went with what President Obama's big priority this year, has been to raise the minimum wage. Couldn't do it federally. The states are doing it themselves.

BERMAN: A fascinating part of the story. Of course, the big part of the story, the breaking news, the Republicans winning big in these midterm elections. Congress will be drastically changed.

EARLY START continues right now.