Analyst: ‘Irritated’ voters will give GOP the House; Senate a ‘toss up’

It looks like Republicans will take the U.S. House, but the Senate is in question, says local political analyst Ron Dotzauer.

Dotzauer is president and CEO of Strategies 360, a Seattle-based global public affairs and marketing firm. He is also a political analyst who contributes to all major media outlets in Seattle.

He told MyNorthwest that voters “irritation and grumpiness about the state of their world” are driving today’s midterm vote.

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Dotzauer said voters believe those in power are “not doing enough to deal with the crime issues and they don’t want to look at encampments.”

The economy is also a key topic in today’s vote. Dotzauer said the overall situation of voters shrinking personal wealth is having a major impact on the candidate a person is voting for, and it’s going to be “the other guy.” Meaning, the person who is not in office.

As for the outcome tonight, Dotzauer said he’s “pretty convinced the House will go into Republican hands,” predicting that the GOP will win with a majority between 3-30 representatives.

“History teaches us a lot. And this is always what happens. The power of the party that owns a White House in the first midterm elections loses control of the majority of seats and house representatives,” he said.

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In the Senate, Dotzauer predicts it’s going to be “close, close, close, close.”

He said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s prediction that Democrats will get some net gain is shaky at best, and “they may be fortunate to hold on to what they have right now.”

“I think there’s certainly a higher probability that the Democrats hold on to the Senate than there is the Democrats hold on to the House,” Dotzauer emphasized.

Dotzauer predicted that how well the new Congress and president do during the next two years will likely show us a path to the White House in 2024. If the “nonsensical” rhetoric from the Republicans continues, Dotzauer explained, then that plays well for the Democrats.

“We’ve really, really moved away from what matters the most, which is having a good, robust, intellectually honest debate about policy,” Dotzauer said.

We’ve now moved into an era of personal attacks.

“We’ve always had some of it, but today, it’s now taken over our political conversations, and I think that’s unfortunate. And that’s what that’s the kind of deterioration that we’re seeing. That could only be accelerated.”