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In his press release, Dobson said that "many of the Values Voters of '04 simply stayed at home this year" because congressional Republicans did "very little that Values Voters care about. … Sadly for conservatives, that in large measure explains what happened on Tuesday night."

Dobson and the other panelists stressed that the defeat of Arizona's marriage amendment—the first such time that a state marriage amendment has not passed with voters—should be seen in the context of the seven other states that passed such amendments Tuesday night, and the 20 states that had earlier done so.

Also, Minnery noted, the Arizona amendment effort was hurt by leadership changes. Lynn Stanley, chairwoman for the Protect Marriage Arizona Coalition, died in a July car crash, and Len Munsil quit as the Focus-affiliated Center For Arizona Policy to run for governor.

Minnery also said that the vote "does not mean that there will be gay marriage because Arizona already has a statue, a regular law, defining marriage as one man and one woman. This was just insurance."

Arizona's statute is similar to the federal Defense of Marriage Act signed by Bill Clinton in 1996. Focus on the Family has pushed for a federal marriage amendment because it says the Defense of Marriage Act is not strong enough to beat a court order.

Minnery and Dobson both backed Indiana congressman Mike Pence in his effort to become House Minority leader.

Minnery called Pence "one of the most impressive young, social conservative members of Congress," and said it "would be wonderful if a man like him could get that job."

"No kidding," Dobson replied.

Dobson began and closed the broadcast with words on the nature of the program.

"I want to emphasize to all of our listeners that we are not devoting this program to political matters although it involves the moral issues that have played out in a political arena," he said in the broadcast's first few seconds.

Near the end, he noted that it was not the only recent broadcast to deal with election issues. "I know we have dealt a lot lately with issues related to the election," he said. "We felt we had to do that, but the election is over, and we're going to do what we can to back off of that now and get back to what we do best."

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Christianity Today's previous coverage of the 2006 mid-term election includes:

Declaring Victory | Evangelical Democrats claim credit, leading conservatives find plenty to blame. (Nov 8, 2006)

Speaking Out: Faith-Based Triangulation | Religious moderates propelled the Democrats to victory. by Joseph Loconte (Nov 8, 2006)

Speaking Out: Good News for Democrats, Good News for Evangelicals | And Good News for the world. by George G. Hunter III (Nov 8, 2006)

Margin of Victory | Races where evangelicals play a decisive role in the November election. (Oct. 30-Nov. 2, 2006)

Meet the Patriot Pastors | Ohio leaders draft a 'mighty army' to fight the 'secular jihad.' (Nov. 3, 2006)

High-Impact Leader and Shaker | Harry Jackson says it's time for a new civil rights movement and a new black church. (Oct. 27, 2006)

Christianity Today also had an Election Night weblog rounding up the religion news from the evening.

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November (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50