Posted on 11/09/2006 5:56:19 AM PST by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON -- Democrats wrested control of the Senate from Republicans Wednesday with an upset victory in Virginia, giving the party complete domination of Capitol Hill for the first time since 1994.
Jim Webb's squeaker win over incumbent Sen. George Allen gave Democrats their 51st seat in the Senate, an astonishing turnabout at the hands of voters unhappy with Republican scandal and unabated violence in Iraq. Allen was the sixth Republican incumbent senator defeated in Tuesday's elections.
The Senate had teetered at 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans for most of Wednesday, with Virginia hanging in the balance. Webb's victory ended Republican hopes of eking out a 50-50 split, with Vice President Dick Cheney wielding tie-breaking authority.
The Associated Press contacted election officials in all 134 localities where voting occurred, obtaining updated numbers Wednesday. About half the localities said they had completed their postelection canvassing and nearly all had counted outstanding absentees. Most were expected to be finished by Friday.
The new AP count showed Webb with 1,172,538 votes and Allen with 1,165,302, a difference of 7,236. Virginia has had two statewide vote recounts in modern history, but both resulted in vote changes of no more than a few hundred votes.
An adviser to Allen, speaking on condition of anonymity because his boss had not formally decided to end the campaign, said the senator wanted to wait until most of canvassing was completed before announcing his decision, possibly as early as Thursday evening.
The adviser said that Allen was disinclined to request a recount if the final vote spread was similar to that of election night.
Yes, but he was the only one who threw away what should have been an easy victory.
If your team needs to win one game out of three and they lose all three -- twice to tough competition and once to some pathetic scrub team -- is there going to be a bit of difference in the post-game locker-room speech in that last case?
For Virginia, less than 60% is a surprisingly small margin. That (and the outright defeat in Arizona) suggests that the GOP needs to come up with some new ballot issue.
I am not blaming Virginia... but to deny they made some bad history in this election, is to ignore the truth.
LLS
Not considering the all out campaign against it. It's not at all.
There's a HUGE flux of liberals into Northern Virginia. Virginia is no longer reliably red.
Allen had everything including the kitchen sink thrown at him, the fact he lost by 10k votes is a testament to him. Lets also remember that jim webb is a very conservative democrat, he's not some flaming liberal.
There's no denying that. The wrong choice was made.
Wanna bet that if republicans take the majority again, jim webb will pull a nighthorse campbell and switch back to the republican party? Question is will we take him.
Im guessing jimbo will irritate the democrats as much as he irritates us.
I've been saying that for a while now. The fact is, until the summer and it actually started to look like Webb could win this thing, all the chatter on the blogs was about how dismal a candidate he was and what a sorry, disorganized campaign he was running.
More than once I used the phrase "pig in a poke."
Let's also give a little credit to McCain, Specter, Hagel, Warner and Graham for their fine efforts in leaning over the side throwing grenades at the tires. If nothing else, they gave the DBM hours of great soundbites with which to beat us over the head. Other Republican? Senators also made valuable contributions to the Democrat cause - Ted Stevens with his "bridge to nowhere" and the Voinovich vote against confirming Bolton come to mind.
I really do hope allen runs for governor in '09 and sticks it to the dems.
You did yeoman's duty here and on the ground trying to keep Allen's seat and to defeat this creep Webb. I'm sorry your efforts came up short, but I thank you for them anyway. I guess all we can do is pick up the pieces and move on?
When is John Warner up for re-election, anyway?
John Warner is up in 2008.
If I were a bettin' man, I'd say he'll retire. He's lost his Chairmanship and I'd say he doesn't want to end his time in the minority.
Can't say that I'd be sorry to see him go. OTOH, it would make the task of keeping that seat nominally GOP much more difficult
What I hope is they're saying "he's disinclined" until they discover the ACORN vote fraud is enough to request recount & expose the fraud.
Where and how? 6 years is a long time off to run for his senate seat again. Congress is small time for a former Senator. He won't be governor again. Where do you see it?
I read the other day that 30% of the votes in the state come from Northern Virginia. With that a given, who do you think would have the edge in a Senate race between Democrat Kaine and Congressrino Tom Davis who represents part of NOVA?
I know everyone thinks Mark Warner will run when John Warner retires but I am not convinced. I think the same skeleton(s) that caused him to drop his presidential bid might keep him from making a Senate run.
I am heartsick over this. Losing Allen and Santorum is very bad for the GOP and especially the nation. Got my jihab all ready ;)
But VAGOP does have to look at how we had two easily winning candidates in a row, Kilgore and Allen, who were way up till the August before their election(s), candidates people wanted to support, who then proceeded to lose.
Some advisor has to teach our candidates to stop digging when the first thing goes wrong ... just ride it out, make adjustments, and shut their mouths. Any ideas on how we compensate for the blue tide taking over Fairfax?
As always, Corin, you've been enormously helpful to VA FReepers following VA campaigns. Thanks for your great work.
I'm still puzzled over Mark Warner's drop out. There's more than wanting to spend time with family. That's for certain.
If John Warner retires, Kaine won't run for the seat from the Governor's mansion. And there's no way he'd step down to run.
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