News Conference With House Democrats

Federal News Service July 22, 2004 Thursday

HEADLINE: NEWS CONFERENCE WITH HOUSE DEMOCRATS

PARTICIPANTS: REPRESENTATIVE STENY HOYER (D-MD); REPRESENTATIVE ROBERT MENENDEZ (D-NJ); REPRESENTATIVE JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC); REPRESENTATIVE JOHN SPRATT, JR. (D-SC) LOCATION: HOUSE RADIO/TV GALLERY, U.S. CAPITOL, WASHINGTON, D.C.

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REP. CLYBURN: Thank you, Mr. Whip. I thank you so much for having me join you here today.

I think if we were to listen to the backdrop of all of this that you just heard from our whip, I guess the question then becomes what are the American people thinking, and what are they saying.

We have seen over the last two months some dramatic numbers showing up in the polling of the American people. And I think we've experienced some dramatic results in recent elections. You note that we have won all three of the special elections held this year. Most recent, this week in North Carolina. In that election, where we thought that the activity on the Republican side of the primary would draw strongly Independent and Republican voters into that primary, what we saw was the Democrats won the race-in what is it? Fifty- fifty district minority-majority district-won the race with 69 percent. And in the primary, we received 71 percent. We saw the same happen earlier in South Dakota, and before that we saw it in Kentucky.

So, we believe the American people are registering their displeasure with the direction the country is going in at every chance that they get. And if we were to compare what's going on today with what was going on in the country in 1994, we find some shocking contrasts. In 1994 August-I'm sorry, in July of 1994, the LA Times poll had Republicans preferred in the Congressional races by 42 percent of the American people and Democrats by 44 percent.

In June of this year, the same LA Times is reporting that Republicans are at 35 percent, and Democrats at 54 percent, a whopping 19 point spread. Now, we think that there is something to that. Though none of us believe that 19 percent. Maybe we will believe what the Time Magazine poll says: Republicans 37 percent. Democrats 49 percent. That is a 12 point spread. And then we saw New York Times- CBS poll here in July 16th, a few days ago. That poll had Republicans at 37; Democrats at 46, a nine point spread.

So we have seen in recent days anywhere from nine points to 19 points. The people of the United States are saying there must be a change. And if you look at what we need to do. We need to regain the-to regain the House we need eleven seats. We have what we believe to be 33 top tier candidates in the various contests where we think we need to win. That is a three to one ratio, and we will look back where the Republicans were when they took over the House in 1994. They carried only a 1.8 ratio, 1.8 to one ratio when they had their massive sea-change in the leadership here. We think that we're well- poised to regain control of the House, and I do believe that the American people are seeking not just a change in leadership, but a change in direction as well.

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