NRF Report: Election 2012 in review: The impact on retail

 

 

 

NRF Report: Election 2012 in review: The impact on retail

By Craig Shearman, VP, Government Affairs PR |

November 7, 2012

After $6 billion in campaign spending and a barrage of political ads in an election that hinged largely on jobs and the economy and which will impact a wide variety of public policy issues important to the retail industry, Americans woke up this morning to a familiar government. President Obama won a clear victory over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, with a 50-48 percent lead in the popular vote and a total of 303-206 electoral votes, but voters left Congress divided.

While some news organizations reported slightly conflicting numbers this morning, the New York Times said Republicans retained their majority in the House 232-191 while Democrats remained in control of the Senate 52-45. Some races remain undecided but are not expected to affect the majority in either chamber.
While Obama’s win was decisive, it was built on slim majorities in just a handful of battleground states, and Obama is the first president reelected since Woodrow Wilson with a smaller margin in the Electoral College than his first-term election. Out of more than 120 million votes cast, the final margin of victory hinged on fewer than 360,000 votes in Florida, Ohio, Iowa, and Virginia.
As a status-quo election, it is difficult to discern a clear message from the results. The narrow nature of Obama’s reelection margin suggests more of a validation of his campaign strategy than a vindication of his first term policies, and House and Senate leadership are likely to return to familiar scripts in the next session of Congress.
Down the ballot, Senate Democrats defended their majority thanks to strong recruits in open-seat races and a series of self-inflicted wounds among Republican Senate candidates.

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