The House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will look very different when the 112th Congress convenes in January. In this week's mid-term elections, 18 Democratic committee members lost their congressional seats to Republican challengers, including committee chair James Oberstar (Minn.). As the Republicans will assume majority control of the House, Oberstar's chairmanship would have ended even had he won re-election.
Oberstar lost a narrow race to former Northwest Airlines pilot Chip Cravaack after serving since 1974, the longest tenure of any congressman in Minnesota's history. From 1989 to 1995, Oberstar served as chairman of the aviation subcommittee and in 2007 became chairman of the full Transportation and Infrastructure committee. In recent years, Oberstar advocated for legislation that would after three years " sunset all immunity grants" given to airline alliances, argued against loosening rules governing foreign ownership of U.S. airlinesand generally opposed mergers between U.S. carriers.
Other Democrats who serve on the Transportation and Infrastructure committee that were ousted by Republican challengers include Michael A. Arcuri (N.Y.), John A. Boccieri (Ohio), Christopher P. Carney (Pa.), John J. Hall (N.Y.), Phil Hare (Ill.), Steve Kagen (Wisc.), Betsy Markey (Colo.), Michael E. McMahon (N.Y.), Harry E. Mitchell (Ariz.), Solomon P. Ortiz (Texas), Thomas S.P. Perriello (Va.), Mark H. Schauer (Mich.), Gene Taylor (Miss.), Harry Teague (N.M.) and Dina Titus (Nev.). Democrat Brian Baird of Washington did not run. His House seat was won by Republican Jaime Herrera.
Boccieri, Hall, Mitchell, McMahon, Oberstar, Ortiz, Perriello, Schauer and Titus each have been serving on the aviation subcommittee. Subcommittee chair Jerry Costello, D-Ill., kept his seat.
Most Republican committee members won re-election, including ranking committee member John Mica (Fla.) and aviation subcommittee ranking member Tom Petri (Wis.).
Meanwhile, most Democrats serving on the House Committee on Homeland Security retained their congressional seats, including chairman Bennie Thompson (Miss.) and vice chair Loretta Sanchez (Calif.). Along with Carney and Titus, however, Mary Jo Kilroy (Ohio) and Ann Kirkpatrick (Ariz.) lost their re-election bids.
In the Senate, all members of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs either won re-election or were not up for re-election this year.
Meanwhile, the National Business Travel Association's Political Action Committeethis year contributed to the campaigns of several winners, including Sens. James DeMint, R-S.C., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Reps. Thompson, Peter King, R-N.Y., Bill Pascrell, D-N.J, and Lamar Smith, R-Texas. NBTA PAC also contributed to Titus' unsuccessful re-election campaign.