Published: November 05, 2008 04:05 pm      

Dems expand control of Senate by five seats

Mitch McConnell holds onto Kentucky seat

WASHINGTON — 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.

Piggybacking on the excitement level raised by presidential victor Barack Obama and his voter-registration and get-out-the-vote drives, Democrats increased their effective majority to at least 56 seats in the 100-member Senate.

They did not turn over a single seat to Republicans. All Democratic incumbents on the ballot prevailed.

Four races with Republican incumbents remained to be resolved — in Alaska, Oregon, Minnesota and Georgia.

But Republicans stopped a complete rout, holding the Kentucky seat of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and a Mississippi seat once held by Trent Lott — two top Democratic targets.

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.

“What we were able to accomplish in a little more than a year is a testament to how hungry people are for change,” Hagan told a victory rally in Greensboro.

In New Hampshire, former Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen defeated Sununu in a rematch of their 2002 contest.

In a 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.

Former Democratic Gov. Mark Warner breezed to victory in Virginia to take a Senate seat held for five terms by retiring GOP Sen. John Warner, beating another former governor, Republican Jim Gilmore. 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.

McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, had been a target of national Democrats after leading successful filibusters against much of their legislative agenda the past two years. He won re-election against two-time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bruce Lunsford in a contentious race.

“Winston Churchill once said that the most exhilarating feeling in life is to be shot at — and missed,” McConnell said late Tuesday. “After the last few months, I think what he really meant to say is that there’s nothing more exhausting.”



So you know

• Democrats had fewer seats to defend than Republicans. Of the 35 races on Tuesday’s ballot, 23 were held by Republicans, 12 by Democrats.