Good Morning Tech: Midterm morning after, Tech race roundup

Net-neutrality opponent Blunt to the Senate

Rep. Roy Blunt (R) will represent Missouri in the Senate after defeating Democratic Secretary of State Robin Carnahan on Tuesday. Blunt has been a consistent vote against net-neutrality policies and heavily involved in other telecom issues such as the transition from analog to digital television.

Terry wins handily

Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) won a seventh term handily over Democrat Tom White on Tuesday. A member of the House Communications Subcommittee, Terry teamed up Boucher on a bill to reform the FCC’s $8 billion Universal Service Fund.

Blumenthal downs McMahon to win Senate seat

Richard Blumenthal (D) overcame a controversy surrounding his military service during the Vietnam war to defeat World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder and GOP opponent Linda McMahon, who spent more than $40 million of her own money on the Connecticut race, on Tuesday. As Attorney General Blumenthal has lead a coalition of 37 states in investigating the collection of private e-mails and passwords by Google’s Street View cars. He will succeed the retiring Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.).

Feingold goes down

Liberal Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) lost on Tuesday to Republican Ron Johnson. Feingold had been a consistent opponent of media consolidation and was vocal about his opposition in the 1990s to the deregulation of radio ownership rules.

Other can’t-miss news.

Allbritton backs broadband reclassification, net neutrality. Allbritton Communications, the parent company of NewsChannel 8 and Politico, is backing the FCC’s plan to reclassify broadband Internet service in order to enforce net neutrality.

In comments filed with the FCC on Friday, Allbritton argues that without net-neutrality rules Internet service providers will be able to discriminate against competitors and control what news reaches consumers. 

Roadblocks could worsen for FCC wireless efforts. Election results could make it harder for the FCC to move on its central proposal for helping the wireless industry thrive.

The commission recommended in March to offer incentives to broadcasters to give up spectrum that would be devoted to mobile broadband. But that proposal depends on legislative authorization from Congress.

GSA releases government-wide guidelines for cloud computing. The federal government’s gradual embrace of cloud computing took another step Tuesday when the General Services Administration proposed a set of comprehensive guidelines for agencies looking to shift operations to the cloud.

Supreme Court hears arguments on violent video games. “The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed sympathy for a California law that aims to keep children from buying ultra-violent video games in which players maim, kill or sexually assault images of people. But justices seemed closely split on whether the restrictions are constitutional. The high court has been reluctant to carve out exceptions to the First Amendment, striking down a ban on videos showing graphic violence to animals earlier this year.” 

Indian firms seek relief from Obama on visas. “Indian software executives plan to press President Barack Obama to avoid further tightening of U.S. visa requirements for foreign workers that threatens the growth of the industry.”

Said. 

“For legislative leaders the job just went from difficult to almost impossible.”

— TechAmerica President Phil Bond on the prospect of a divided Congress after the Republicans captured the House on Tuesday.