Democrats extend majority in Senate
Democrats win key Senate seats on Republicans’ gaffes
Democrats snatched Republican Senate seats in Indiana and Massachusetts on Tuesday and were poised to hold control of the Senate, handing Republicans a string of stinging defeats for the second campaign season in a row.
And despite Congress’ sorry image — and more than $ 1 billion spent to sway voters— Republicans appeared to hold onto their House majority.
In Indiana, Rep. Joe Donnelly did what had seemed impossible by taking a Senate seat for the Democrats in a deep- red state, just weeks after his Republican opponent, State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, said conception by rape was God’s will.
In Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard professor, swept from power Sen. Scott Brown, the Republican whose surprise victory in January 2010 heralded the coming of the tea party wave.
In Missouri, Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, long thought to be one of the most vulnerable incumbents, defeated Republican Rep. Todd Akin, who created a controversy this summer when he said that women rarely got pregnant in cases of “legitimate rape.” A lot of mainline Republican support deserted him as a result.
Republicans lost another state when former Gov. Angus King Jr. of Maine, an independent, won his race to succeed Sen. Olympia Snowe, a moderate who is retiring. King has yet to say which party he will caucus with next year, but he had warned Republicans and Democrats that his treatment during the campaign would bear on that decision. National Republicans and their super PAC allies responded by pummeling him with negative advertisements that did little to shake his lead.
In Wisconsin, Democratic Rep. Tammy Baldwin bested popular Republican former Gov. Tommy Thompson, becoming the first openly gay member of the Senate. She won the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl.
Democrats also retained Virginia’s Senate seat, as Tim Kaine defeated Republican George Allen, a former senator, in the battle of former Virginia governors. Kaine will fill the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Jim Webb.
In New York, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, cruised to re- election. Sen. Robert Menendez, D- N. J., was also easily reelected.
The results suggested that for the second consecutive election cycle, Republicans’ high hopes for a takeover of the Senate were dashed in large part by their own candidates. In 2010 and 2012, the disappointment could be laid at the feet of a very conservative Republican primary electorate that was determined to sweep out the party’s centrists.
More important, the tea party wave that began in 2010 kept rolling early this year, again threatening the Republicans’ chances for a majority. In 2010, primary voters in Colorado, Delaware and Nevada selected tea party- backed conservatives, who may have wrecked the party’s hopes.
This time, conservatives defeated Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, a Republican veteran who was expected to walk to re- election. Instead, they nominated the far more conservative Mourdock, turning the general election into a fight.
Meanwhile, in the House, with the margin separating the parties expected to shift by only a few seats, Democrats were expected to fall short of the net gain of 25 seats they needed to become the majority party.
“The American people have once again given the House of Representatives to Republicans,” Rep. Pete Sessions, R- Texas, chairman of the House GOP’s campaign arm, crowed at a victory party in the capital.
But while the GOP will remain in control, there will be plenty of new faces in the next Congress.
With all 435 House seats up for grabs, 62 had no incumbent running, the most since 1992, said David Wasserman, House editor at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. At least three incumbents, Democrats Ben Chandler of Kentucky and Larry Kissell of North Carolina and Republican Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland, were defeated.
In the House, television networks projected that Speaker John Boehner, R- Ohio, would continue to wield the speaker’s gavel with a majority that might grow once the evening ends. The House results represent a bitter setback for Democrats, who’d hoped to at least make a dent in the Republican majority.
In Utah, Mia Love was seeking to become the fi rst black Republican woman elected to Congress in a race against Rep. Jim Matheson, a leader of a shrinking group of conservative Democrats known as Blue Dogs.
And in Florida, one of the costliest, and nastiest races in the country pitted freshman Republican Rep. Allen West, a tea party favorite, against Democrat Patrick Murphy.
Republicans hold a 240190 majority in the House, with five vacancies, three previously held by Democrats and two by Republicans. The Los Angeles Times and McClatchy Newspapers contributed to this report.