The Normandy Chapter of Democrats Abroad France, in partnership with the Association France Etats-Unis and Republicans Abroad France, organized its first Democrat-Republican round table in Caen on Sunday March 21, 2010.  The event provided an opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to share their views on the key issues at stake for each party in the November Congressional elections.

Eric Beaty, the Economic and Commercial Attaché of the US Consulate in Rennes, opened the session with a brief overview of the US electoral system and of the different political offices concerned by the midterm elections.  He told the 35 member Franco-American audience that one important feature of this year’s election is the unusually high number of incumbent Democrat and Republican representatives who will not be seeking re-election in November. Given that 80-90% of incumbents are generally re-elected, the fact that several of them will not participate in the race this year adds an extra element of uncertainty to the outcome. See attachment below for his power point presentation.

Meredith Gowan Le Goff, current chair of Democrats Abroad France and Paul Reen, a Paris based businessman representing Republicans Abroad France, then squared off for a lively discussion moderated by Jeremy Goldstein. Topics included each party’s approach to the midterm elections, health care reform, addressing the different viewpoints and movements within each party, and the importance of these elections as either a validation or a repudiation of President Barack Obama’s economic policies.

Republican Paul Reen stressed the need to find more common ground between the parties and advocated increased bipartisanship. With regard to healthcare reform, he espoused the Republican Party view that the majority of the approximately 30 million Americans without health care purposefully choose not to have it and are not in fact people who cannot afford health insurance.  Mr. Reen also lamented the fact that the health care bill would mean added costs for people who already have health care, and reduced earnings for doctors and other members of the medical profession.

Democrat Meredith Gowan Le Goff countered by stating that Republicans tended to focus primarily on cost and not enough on the fact that the healthcare bill would provide greater access to affordable healthcare to all Americans. Le Goff thought it interesting that Republicans choose to focus on cost now, when during the recent Republican administration, spending was such that a budget surplus at the beginning of their term ended in a significant deficit at the end of the eight years.

She then commented on the Democratic Party strategy for the November elections. In her view, as the party in power traditionally loses seats in the midterm elections, the Democrats will try to hold on to more seats than they are expected to lose, primarily by running locally focused races.

Concerning the impact of the current administration’s track record on the elections, Gowan Le Goff felt that any positive accomplishments made between now and November would certainly help the Democrats, but that as Americans are currently focused on jobs and unemployment, they have difficulty seeing the achievements made so far by the administration. According to Gowan Le Goff, this Congress has in fact passed more legislation than any other since the 1960’s. 

The roundtable ended with a number of questions from the floor – mainly on the Republicans’ opposition to the healthcare bill. The French attendees in particular had difficulty understanding the reluctance of many Americans to extend healthcare to all, even if it means added cost for certain individuals, especially as the French health care system is based on such a mechanism.

The event closed with refreshments and the promise to hold similar round tables in the near future.