http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/11/politics/mcconnell-senate-republican-majority/index.htmlBy Ted Barrett
Updated 6:43 AM ET, Mon January 11, 2016
Washington (CNN)Mitch McConnell is the Senate majority leader -- and he'd like to keep it that way.
Heading into the final year of his first session leading the chamber -- which begins Monday when the Senate returns from its winter recess -- the Kentucky Republican is developing a carefully tailored legislative agenda. It is designed to support his top priority, which is not losing power to Democrats, who controlled the Senate for most of the past decade and who are committed to reclaiming it in the November elections.
To complicate his effort, the soft-spoken and methodical McConnell must accomplish this against the backdrop of a wildly unpredictable 2016 GOP presidential nominating campaign that has two anti-Washington agitators -- businessman Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas -- leading the pack. The controversial tone of their campaigns has mainstream Republicans deeply concerned about the impact on down-ticket candidates -- such as moderate GOP senators from purple states who must be re-elected if Republicans are to hold the Senate -- especially if Trump or Cruz win the Republican nomination.
Read: Takeaways from Ted Cruz's Iowa road trip
Republicans currently have a narrow 54-46 advantage and must defend 24 seats this fall, seven in swing states that voted for President Barack Obama. Democrats need to protect just 10 seats, only one of which is considered competitive.
A constant and challenging task in the months ahead for McConnell will be to protect incumbent senators like Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Rob Portman of Ohio, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin from politically difficult votes on free trade, guns, abortion, and other sensitive social issues that could cause them trouble back home.
McConnell, who is firmly rooted in the establishment wing of the GOP, spent his first year running the chamber with a strategic eye toward the 2016 Senate elections. He believes he made an important down payment to voters by proving Republicans can govern more effectively and successfully than Democrats.
"By any objective standard, I think the Senate is clearly back to work," McConnell said at a year-end news conference.
He pushed through a number of major bills -- such as highway funding and education reform -- that were signed into law by Obama and he diligently prevented any real threat of government shutdowns or other dramatic "fiscal cliffs" that have shaken voters' nerves in recent years.
"I wanted to end those sort of rattling experiences that the American people don't like. It never produces a positive result anyway," McConnell said. "I took those off the table the day after the election and we began to figure out how to get the Senate working again."
McConnell is tight-lipped about exactly which bills he will put on the floor and when ahead of the November election. Aides say many of those decisions need to be made after a joint House and Senate Republican retreat in Baltimore later this week. But he's made clear that restoring a regular appropriations process -- where all 12 government spending bills will be debated and voted on separately -- is key.
Democrats fought that approach last year because Republicans were demanding higher spending for defense needs than domestic programs, a standoff that led to a breakthrough budget deal that set top-line government spending figures for 2016 and 2017. Because of that, Democratic leaders believe McConnell's ambition to take up all the spending bills may be doable.
"That seems to be pretty fertile ground for bipartisan compromise," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York).
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