Aumua Amata lauds election of Boehner as the new U.S. House Majority Leader
February 07, 2006

Aumua Amata offered hearty congratulations to Congressman John Boehner after House Republicans elected him to serve as U.S. House Majority Leader.

"Leader Boehner is a good friend of mine, a courageous man and I congratulate him on a hard-fought campaign which was less about himself and more about ideas," said Amata.

The nine year veteran House Majority Leadership staffer added, "House Republicans are now firmly united behind the Speaker, the new Majority Leader, the Whip and the House Republican Conference Chairman, who are known on the Hill as "The Big Four." These are the four highest ranking Members of the U.S. House. The election was a turning point and an important opportunity to dialogue about where the House is, where it would like to go and what they'd like to accomplish as a Majority."

Amata said that for American Samoa, this has never ever been about partisan politics, "but rather, access -- access to the political decisionmakers who can improve the quality of everyday life for the people of American Samoa."

"Majority Leader Boehner's party controls Congress and they are the people we need to reach out to if we are to give our children a better future and a better chance than we had," she said. "We can and should do much better for our people. It's long overdue."

According to some Washington pundits, as Washington Republicans stake their claim on the 2006 U.S. House, Republicans have taken some hits but should still be able to win a majority this year because there just aren't enough opportunities for Democrats, who would have to win fifteen seats to take control.

Washington pundit Charlie Cook opined, "Like every other credible independent political analyst I know, I think it is very, very unlikely that Democrats can retake control of the House or Senate this year. Yes, I know it is a second-term, mid-term election, and that in five out of the six such "six-year-itch" elections, the party holding the White House incurred devastating losses. In fact, the average outcome in those six elections was a loss of 36 House and six Senate seats, enough to turn over control of both chambers if just an average outcome occurred. But we keep reminding ourselves that the scarcity of vulnerable Republican seats in the House and Senate makes it almost impossible for the GOP to lose control."