Posted on 11/06/2002 7:27:46 AM PST by Jack Black
GOP extends control of Congress
By Sandra Sobieraj, The Associated Press
Exultant Republicans took control of the Senate and strengthened their hold on the House, handing President Bush historic bragging rights and two years to push through an agenda starting with deeper tax cuts. Sweetening the prize, Republicans claimed a majority of the governors' races and left Democrats grumbling about a popular wartime president.
President Bush talks with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, left, and Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, right, while watching election returns. By Eric Draper, AP
Bush made celebratory calls into the early morning hours Wednesday and already was talking of his own 2004 re-election campaign. White House advisers boasted about a new mandate, and said the president would be beckoning Democrats to fall in line.
Republican leaders, in a victory lap on the morning talk shows, credited Bush's aggressive campaigning and a fired-up GOP base of supporters for pushing the party to heights few had thought possible in a midterm election, when the president's party historically loses seats.
"I had a sense or a feel that maybe this would happen but I must say it did exceed our hopes and expectations," said Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott, expected to return as majority leader with the GOP taking clear control of Congress.
Of Bush's role, he said on NBC's "Today" show: "I think it was a referendum on his leadership and he really showed that he was committed — that he was willing to put his prestige on the line."
Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., glumly acknowledged, "This was one tough night," and said the war on terrorism and the prospect of war with Iraq drowned out what the Democrats were trying to say about the shaky economy.
"The president made that his drumbeat," Daschle said. "It resonated."
The trend in the House appeared to be single-digit GOP gains and a possible turnover in Democratic leadership. Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri said Wednesday he had not decided whether to seek a new term as minority leader; a few officials thought he would not do so.
Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., suggested it might be time for Gephardt to step down. "It's obvious that we need some fresh faces and in some cases fresh ideas," Ford said on Don Imus' nationally syndicated radio show. Of Gephardt, he said rank and file Democrats are asking "some pretty tough questions about his leadership."
With four races undecided, the Republicans won 227 House seats, the Democrats, 203, and there was one independent.
When the new Congress is sworn in in January, it will be the first time in 50 years that Republicans take outright control of the White House, Senate and House.
After prevailing in a squeaker in Minnesota, where Senate votes were counted until sunup Wednesday, Republicans will hold at least 51 Senate seats — plus Vice President Dick Cheney's tie-breaking vote. In the House, Tuesday's voting padded the GOP majority by at least two seats.
"Oh, wow," said North Carolina's Elizabeth Dole, one of seven newly elected Republican senators. "What a night!"
Republican Rep. Saxby Chambliss denied incumbent Democrat Max Cleland a second term. And Robert Ehrlich, who will be the first Republican governor of Maryland in nearly four decades, declared, "To Maryland Republicans, our time in the desert is over."
Close Senate races at a glance Race Notes Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman edged former Vice President Walter Mondale (D) in a race to succeed late senator Paul Wellstone (D). New Hampshire Rep. John Sununu (R) won in a tight race with Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D), preserving the seat for Republicans. Missouri Former U.S. Rep. James Talent (R) defeated incumbent Jean Carnahan (D). Arkansas State Atty. Gen. Mike Pryor (D) won in a key race over incumbent Tim Hutchinson (R). South Dakota U.S. Rep. John Thune (R) was leading Incumbent Tim Johnson (D). Colorado Incumbent Wayne Allard (R) beat lawyer Tom Strickland (D). Louisiana Incumbent Mary Landrieu (D) faces a Dec. 7 runoff because she didn't draw 50% to win outright against three GOP challengers. New Jersey Former senator Frank Lautenberg (D) defeated Doug Forrester (R), preserving the seat for Democrats. Georgia U.S. Rep. Saxby Chambliss (R) defeated incumbent Max Cleland (D), giving the GOP a seat. North Carolina Former Labor Secy. Elizabeth Dole (R) defeated former White House staffer Erskine Bowles (D), preserving the seat for the GOP. Texas State Atty. Gen. John Cornyn (R) won over former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk (D).
There was some consolation for Democrats. They broke the GOP grip on governorships in Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania, electoral troves critical to Bush's designs on a second term. Democrats also captured formerly Republican or independent-held governorships in Kansas, Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Still, Republicans claimed at least 20 of the 36 governorships at stake Tuesday.
Yet undecided early Wednesday was the South Dakota battle between Daschle protege Sen. Tim Johnson, the Democrat incumbent, and Rep. John Thune, the GOP challenger hand-picked by Bush. The governors' races in Arizona and Oregon were also too close to call.
The president's younger brother Jeb easily held onto the Florida governor's office, beating back the full force of a national Democratic Party that had made him its No. 1 target — not only to avenge the 2000 presidential recount debacle in Florida, but also as hopeful prelude to toppling the older Bush in 2004.
Norm Coleman, Bush's recruit to challenge incumbent Sen. Paul Wellstone, narrowly defeated former vice president Walter Mondale, the Democrat named to the ballot after Wellstone's death in a plane crash 11 days before the election.
Tuesday's off-year ballot appeared to draw little more than a third of eligible Americans to the polls, where widely anticipated technical problems amounted to a few hiccups. Only the Alabama governor's race lingered in dispute because of a disagreement over the vote count.
In Florida, Secretary of State Jim Smith was relieved to report a "boring" day of scattered glitches in touchscreen voting machines whose problems delayed Sept. 10 primary results by a week.
"We finally have this monkey off our back that we cannot conduct a proper election in Florida," Smith said.
His predecessor, Katherine Harris — Democratic villain and Republican heroine for her role in the 2000 presidential recount — coasted to election for a House seat representing the Sarasota area.
The Republican majority for a fifth straight election assured Illinois Rep. Dennis Hastert a third term as House speaker.
Gephardt said Americans rallied behind Bush after the terrorist attacks and Democrats could not prevail in that environment. "I think we were in a period where there was a tremendous continuing reaction to this tragedy, and I think that had a big impact on the outcome," he said on CNN.
Asked if he wanted to continue as minority leader, he said: "That's a decision that gets made in the future, and I'll address it at the right time."
Bush's approval ratings, which shot up after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, have hovered in the high 60s, despite a sputtering economy, corporate accounting scandals involving some of his biggest campaign donors and public anxiety about his talk of war with Iraq.
Daschle spoke of common ground, but it was unclear how cowed Democrats would be. Bush will have to reach out to at least some Democrats because Senate rules often require 60 votes to get legislation and nominations approved.
Tuesday's vote marked only the third time in a century that the president's party improved its position in the House at midterm, and the first time for Senate gains in two decades.
In Missouri, Bush's aggressive campaigning helped former Rep. Jim Talent oust incumbent Sen. Jean Carnahan. And Republicans successfully defended open seats in New Hampshire, where Rep. John Sununu triumphed, and in a string of Southern states, the president's Texas among them.
In Louisiana, Republicans forced Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu into a December runoff.
Democratic incumbent governors fell in Georgia and South Carolina.
Already, Bush advisers have been at work on a possible set of new tax cuts whose centerpiece would be the permanent extension of his 10-year reduction in income and inheritance taxes. And Bush is eager to bulldoze objections by Senate Democrats and labor unions to parts of his plan for a new Department of Homeland Security.
Bush's post-Sept. 11 agenda obviously found some resonance.
"I believe that right now in our country we need protection and I don't want to see President Bush get stalemated by another party's views as far as protecting our country," Dan Wessels of Lakewood, Colo., said after voting for successful Republican incumbent Sen. Wayne Allard.
Ballot initiatives to legalize or lighten up on marijuana use were rejected in Nevada, Arizona and Ohio. Cigarette smokers were slapped in Florida, with a ban on smoking in restaurants and virtually all other workplaces, and in Arizona with a sharp spike in cigarette taxes — from 58 cents to $1.18 per pack.
We needed every bit of it, but we have won a slim majority for Bush and the GOP. Now we shall see what they make of it. Should be fun.
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