My Party lost control of the Senate

YOu get your morale up sufficiently that you get voted back in the next election.

You generally need your approval rating on the order of about 60% or higher to ensure a victory. Ways of improving morale are the +morale planet improvements, reducing taxes, or for a really quick fix propeganda. Using propeganda while being quite immediate does steal those BCs that would otherwise normally go into your social/militray/research production for that planet.

Now that you lost the senate, you got to pay the piper for 24 turns until the next election. Depending on the party, it could sting pretty badly.

Oh it's stinging alright! Basically crippled me and put me at the mercy of the Torians. I figured it was the morale thing. GOT to pay more attention to the happiness of those slaves!

This is why I rate morale resources second only behind military resources. I just love those morale resources to keep that pop happy and a growin'. Besides, relying on the War Party is a little dangerous. It may be good for hit points, but I will remind folks that hit points mean little if the enemy seriously outclasses your weapons or defenses. It is better to choose another party and a +weapon add in my opinion than to go with purely extra hits. A five point advantage in either category can change everything, it seems.

Also, you'll lose an election if you are too far in debt. This causes morale to fall. This is a common problem for me when playing the war party, cause wars can be expensive - partially when you need to move fast to keep a stronger opponent offguard.

I'm becoming inclined to agree with you Gerakken about the War Party. I'd much rather have a Dreadnought with 50 hit points than a Frigate with 72.