GOP Completes D.C. Trifecta

Exultant Republicans took control of the Senate and held onto 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 seemed poised to continue to hold a majority of governorships, including the re-election of first brother Jeb Bush in Florida.

When the new Congress is sworn in next January, it will be the first time in 50 years that Republicans take outright control of the White House, Senate and House.

Republicans were assured of 51 seats in the 100-member Senate, leaving two states undecided: In Louisiana, where Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu faces a Dec. 7 runoff, and in South Dakota, where Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson held a narrow lead of a little more than 500 votes over Republican Rep. John Thune.

While CBS was not projecting a winner, Thune campaign officials said they were discussing a recount. Thune had no immediate comment.

Coupled with the GOP's equally satisfying but less surprising retention of its House majority, the Democrats' only snippet of power will be the ability to force procedural delays in the Senate.

Riding on President Bush's popularity, Republicans strengthened their eight-year hold on the House and gained at least two new seats. It was only the fourth time since Abraham Lincoln that the president's party picked up House seats in a midterm election.

Democrats needed seven seats to regain control of the House. But by midmorning Wednesday, Republicans had won 227 seats and were leading for a newly created seat in Colorado. If they win that district, Republicans would hold 228 seats — five more than they do in the current Congress. Majority control requires 218 votes.

Exactly one week after he entered Minnesota's Senate race as a fill-in for the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, former Vice President Walter Mondale conceded that race on Wednesday to Republican Norm Coleman.

The election brought other familiar names to the Senate: Republican Elizabeth Dole, the former secretary of transportation who won in North Carolina; Democrat Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, drafted by his party after Sen. Robert Torricelli quit his re-election race due to ethical problems and former U.S. Education Secretary Lamar Alexander in Tennessee.

Lautenberg, in a broadcast interview, said he was shocked at how poorly the Democrats fared.

"And I can't understand why because I truly believe that the agenda that we have is more appropriate for the citizens across the country," said Lautenberg, who promised to serve the entire six years of his term.

In Georgia, Republican Saxby Chambliss defeated Max Cleland, the Democratic incumbent. Chambliss credited the president with his victory in an interview Wednesday morning on the The Early Show.

"I would say the president coming in and saying that Saxby Chambliss was the man that he wanted to work with in the United States Senate had an awful lot to do with our campaign and with our victory," he said. "The president's very popular in Georgia."

Mr. 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 Mr. 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.

On the heels of the Democratic losses, Rep. Harold Ford suggested that Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri step down as House minority leader. "It's obvious that we need some fresh faces and in some cases fresh ideas," the Tennessee congressman said in a radio interview. Democrats are asking "some pretty tough questions" about Gephardt's leadership, Ford said.

Gephardt said in a broadcast interview that he hadn't decided whether to stay as minority leader. He accepted some responsibility for the Democrats' losses.

"This was a unique election," Gephardt said. "You had the backdrop of 9/11, a lot of patriotism, legitimate patriotism and concern about national security and safety. And the president's popularity is very high, and that undoubtedly was a factor in some of these elections as well. But I think our candidates were out there on the right economic issues."

There was some consolation for Democrats. They broke the Republican grip on governorships in Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania, electoral troves critical to Mr. Bush's designs on a second four-year term. Democrats also captured formerly Republican or independent-held governorships in Kansas, Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

And in Arkansas Attorney General Mark Pryor defeated GOP Sen. Tim Hutchinson, and eight-term Rep. Connie Morella was defeated in Maryland.

Still, Republicans claimed at least 24 of Tuesday's 36 gubernatorial races. But four contests remained unresolved Wednesday because of problems including disputed totals and unopened mail-in ballots.

In Alabama, problems with a single county's results threw the entire race into question.

In Oregon, officials said it may take days to count some 500,000 ballots in the nation's only mail-in election. Democrat Ted Kulongoski led Republican Kevin Mannix by fewer than 6,000 votes.

And in Arizona, with nearly all precincts reporting, Attorney General Janet Napolitano led Republican Rep. Matt Salmon by roughly 20,000 votes — but at least 100,000 votes, including absentee ballots, had yet to be counted. Officials say it could take days.

In Florida, President Bush's younger brother overcame strong efforts to oust him from the state's highest elected office.

New York Gov. George Pataki, riding sentiments from Sept. 11, easily beat Comptroller H. Carl McCall, the only black ever elected to statewide office; McCall was endorsed by former President Bill Clinton.

The president's party typically loses seats in midterm elections. This year, Republicans seemed to have benefited from Mr. Bush's high approval ratings since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"It was very tough at times to get our message out, to break through," Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe said Wednesday in a broadcast interview.

"The president now has to deliver. We have a horrible economy, people worried about their jobs," McAuliffe said. "He has the House. He has the Senate. Now he has to lead."