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Ambassador Graber

Ambassador Graber Speaks About U.S. Elections

On November 7, Americans will also go to the polls to elect 435 members of the House of Representatives -- the entire “lower” house of the U.S. legislature – as well as 33 Senators, 36 state governors, and hundreds of local officials.

We asked U.S. Ambassador Richard Graber, who arrived in Czech Republic September 23, 2006, how he would compare Czech and U.S. elections.  Before coming to Prague, Ambassador Graber headed the Republic Party in the state of Wisconsin.

I think there are more similarities than contrasts when we compare our elections,” he began.  “I witnessed a hard-fought election over the past couple of weekends and, at times, some negative campaigning.  Certainly, there has been a lot of that in the United States over the past several years.  Mid-term elections in both countries have lower turnouts, which is unfortunate but true.

To look at some contrasts, there seems to be a tremendous emphasis in the Czech Republic on billboards and print media, as opposed to the greater emphasis in the United States on television, radio and recently the Internet.  But a lot is the same, especially people-to-people contact, which is very, very important.  And the conversation that surrounds elections – speculation about who will win, what will happen after the election – is very similar.

For the past seven years I served as chairman of the Republic Party in Wisconsin.  That role involves sitting down with the different campaigns, working on strategy and fund raising for the party itself.  We spend a tremendous amount of time focusing on getting out the vote, making sure our supporters get to the polls.  We do that through many means including phone calls, door-to-door contacts and volunteer efforts.  We also spend time ensuring that there would be no election fraud on Election Day.”

And what are Ambassador Graber’s predictions for November 7? 

“I think it’s hard to tell at this point.  Much like here, it’s a closely fought race.  I think almost certainly that the Republicans will lose seats in the House and the Senate.  History tells you that in the mid-term of a second term presidency, the president’s party loses seats.  Whether or not majority control will switch remains to be seen,” he said. 

Ambassador Graber does believe the November 7 results will very be close.  He is used to close races.  He hails from a “purple state,” where voters elect their new leadership from both the Democrat and Republic parties.  The American media will often refer to a state as a “red state” for voting Republican, or a “blue state” for voting Democratic.  These terms grew out of election night television graphics used in presidential races. 

What does a purple state look like?  Ambassador Graber explains, “Wisconsin is a very evenly divided state.  Republicans control both Houses of the legislature; the Democrats control the governor’s office and presidential elections are often as close a one percentage point of each other.”