Issue date: 11/4/08 Section: Campus News
Tom Raum & Julie Hirschfeld Davis
Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Democrats fattened their majority control of the Senate on Tuesday, ousting Republican Sens. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and John Sununu of New Hampshire and capturing seats held by retiring GOP senators in Virginia, New Mexico and Colorado.
Democrats also retained control of the House and pushed for historic gains in their majority Tuesday by solidifying their dominance in the Northeast and making inroads in the South and West.
With 29 of 35 Senate races called, Democrats were guaranteed at least a 55-45 majority, including two holdover independents who vote with Democrats. But they were hoping for even greater gains in a political environment that clearly favored Democrats.
North Carolina state Sen. Kay Hagan, little known politically before her run, defeated Dole - a former Cabinet member in two Republican administrations and 2000 presidential hopeful. Dole had tried to tie Hagan, a former Presbyterian Sunday school teacher, to atheists in an ad that appeared to backfire.
In New Hampshire, former Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen defeated Sununu in a rematch of their 2002 contest.
Democrats now exercise a slim 51-49 control of the chamber. Piggybacking on aggressive Barack Obama voter-registration and get-out-the-vote drives in battleground states, Democrats were reaching for a coveted 60-seat, filibuster-proof Senate majority. However, leaders in both parties portrayed that goal as a long shot.
In pair of western races, Reps. Tom and Mark Udall took over Senate seats held by retiring Republicans. Tom Udall, the son of former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, defeated Republican Rep. Steve Pearce to succeed Pete Domenici in New Mexico. Tom's cousin Mark, the son of the late Rep. Morris Udall of Arizona, won the Colorado seat held by Republican Wayne Allard, who did not seek re-election.
Democratic former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner breezed to victory to take a Virginia Senate seat long held for by terms by retiring GOP Sen. John Warner. Warner beat another former governor, Republican Jim Gilmore, in the race to replace retiring five-term Sen. John W. Warner. The two Warners are not related.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden won another six-year term representing Delaware in the Senate. It became moot when Obama won the presidential election.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who had been a target of national Democrats, won re-election against two-time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bruce Lunsford in a contentious race.
With Warner's victory in Virginia, Democrats now control both Senate seats and the governor's mansion. Virginia usually votes Republican in presidential elections, but this year Democrats viewed it as one of their most promising pick ups.
Democrats were counting on a slumping economy, an unpopular war and voter fatigue after eight years of President Bush to bolster that majority, building on the six seats they added in 2006.
Reaching their goal of 60 seats was a stretch. But having a majority in the high 50s would enable Democrats to exercise far more control than they have now, since some Republicans probably would join them in efforts to break Senate logjams on many bills and judicial appointments.
Democrats' hoped that only two Democratic senators would lose their Senate seats as a result of the national elections: Biden and Obama. Democratic governors in Illinois and Delaware are sure to appoint Democrats to replace them.
The Senate seats of Obama and GOP presidential candidate John McCain were not up this year.
Democrats had fewer seats to defend than Republicans. Of the 35 races on Tuesday's ballot, 23 are now held by Republicans, 12 by Democrats.
Another possible pickup for Democrats: Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. Stevens, at 84, the longest serving Republican in Senate history, sought re-election despite calls from GOP leaders to resign after he was convicted last week of seven counts of lying on Senate financial disclosure forms.
He was locked in a tight contest with Democrat Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage. Another closely contested race was in Minnesota, where Republican incumbent Coleman was challenged by Democrat Al Franken, the former "Saturday Night Live" writer and actor. A significant third-party candidate, Independent Dean Barkley, was complicating the race.
Republican Sen. Gordon Smith in Oregon was also on the list of Democratic targets.
Republicans held the Nebraska seat of retiring Sen. Chuck Hagel, with former Gov. Mike Johanns defeating Democrat Scott Kleeb, a cattle rancher. Johanns resigned as Bush's agriculture secretary to make the race.
Going into the election, the only Democratic seat that appeared vulnerable was Mary Landrieu's in Louisiana. Landrieu, however, was leading in early returns against Republican state treasurer John Kennedy.
Republican incumbent senators who cruised to re-election included Lindsay Graham in South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Sessions in Alabama, James Inhofe in Oklahoma, Lamar Alexander in Tennessee, Pat Roberts in Kansas, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, John Cornyn of Texas and Michael Enzi in Wyoming. Sen. John Barrasso, appointed after Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas died, was elected to fill the remaining four years of Thomas' term.
Democratic senators easily winning re-election included Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, Dick Durbin of Illinois, John Kerry of Massachusetts, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Carl Levin of Michigan, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Max Baucus of Montana, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
Democrats set their sights on gaining more seats in the House too.
"It's the night we have been waiting for," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Ousting 22-year veteran Rep. Chris Shays in Connecticut gave Democrats every House seat from New England. Their victory in an open seat on New York's Staten Island gave them control of all of New York City's delegation in Washington for the first time in 35 years.
Democrats also rode the coattails of a decisive victory by Barack Obama in New Mexico to win one House seat they haven't controlled in four decades and another the GOP had held for 28 years. Both were left up-for-grabs by GOP retirements.
Democrats unseated a half-dozen Republican incumbents and captured eight open GOP seats, capitalizing on the unusually high 29 Republican departures. Republicans knocked off three Democratic incumbents.
With more than 380 of the 435 House races decided, Democrats held leads for a dozen other Republican-held seats. Republicans were leading in fewer than a handful of seats held by Democrats.
For the first time in more than 75 years, Democrats were headed for big House gains in back-to-back elections. The picked up 30 seats in 2006.
"This will be a wave upon a wave," Pelosi said.
In the first sign of what promises to be a bitter round of GOP recriminations, Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida, the No. 3 Republican, told colleagues in a letter released near midnight that he was "reluctantly" stepping down from his post.
In the northeast, GOP Reps. John R. "Randy" Kuhl of New York and Phil English of Pennsylvania were defeated. Democrat Eric Massa unseated Kuhl in New York's southern tier, and Kathy Dahlkemper, a 50-year-old mother of five, toppled English in a swing district of rural communities and old industrial steel towns in Pennsylvania's northwest corner.
In Connecticut, Democrat Jim Himes, a Greenwich businessman, defeated Shays despite the Republican's highly publicized late criticism of McCain's presidential campaign.
In upstate New York, former congressional staffer Dan Maffei won election to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Jim Walsh, becoming first Democrat in nearly 30 years to represent the district around Syracuse. Downstate, Democratic city councilman Mike McMahon won the race on Staten Island to succeed GOP Rep. Vito Fossella, R-N.Y., who was forced to resign amid drunk driving charges and revelations that he fathered a child from an extramarital affair.
New Jersey Democratic state Sen. John Adler won election to succeed retiring Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., in the state's Pine Barrens region.
In the South, too, Democrats made inroads. High school civics teacher Larry Kissell won election in North Carolina, defeating Republican Rep. Robin Hayes. Democrat Gerald Connolly, a former chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, was elected to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Thomas M. Davis III in a northern Virginia district that's trending more Democratic because of an influx of new voters. And in a far more conservative district further south, Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr.,R-Va., was in a too-cloe-to-call race for survival against Democrat Tom Perriello.
In Florida, GOP Rep. Tom Feeney - under fire for ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff - was the first incumbent to fall, losing to former state Rep. Suzanne Kosmas. To the east, Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla., lost to Democratic attorney Alan Grayson, in an increasingly Hispanic district in Orlando.
Democrats also made inroads in the West, where they captured the two New Mexico seats and one left open by retiring GOP Rep. Rick Renzi, who's awaiting trial on corruption charges.
In Illinois, Democrat Debbie Halvorson, the speaker of the state Senate, won election to a seat held by retiring GOP Rep. Jerry Weller in the swing exurbs and rural areas south of Chicago.
The news wasn't all good for Democrats. Republican attorney Tom Rooney defeated first-term Democratic Rep. Tim Mahoney of Florida, who had admitted to two extramarital affairs just weeks before Election Day.
Republican Bill Cassidy dealt a bruising defeat to Rep. Don Cazayoux, D-La., elected in a special election six months ago.
And in Texas, Republican Pete Olson, a former chief of staff to Sen. John Cornyn, beat Democratic Rep. Nick Lampson.
But other freshman Democrats once considered vulnerable cruised to easy re-election.
In 2006, Democrats won 30 seats and control of Congress in a surge powered by voter anger over the Iraq war.
This year the sour economy and public antipathy for President Bush posed the biggest challenges for Republican candidates. The Democrats were aided by a wave of GOP retirements and huge financial and organizational advantages over Republicans.
Democrats now control the House by a 235-199 margin, with one vacancy.
GOP lawmakers at risk included Alaska's Rep. Don Young, Colorado's Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, and Michigan's Reps. Tim Walberg and Joe Knollenberg. Rep. Lee Terry of Nebraska, once considered a safe bet for re-election, was also in major trouble.
Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., who chairs a subcommittee with the most influence on the Pentagon's spending, who had a scare after calling his district south of Pittsburgh "racist," won easy re-election.
Democratic candidates raised $436 million, compared with Republicans' $328 million, according to federal data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee poured $76 million into competitive races and the National Republican Congressional Committee spent $24 million.
