Washington – Democrats won control of the House early today after a dozen years of Republican rule in a resounding repudiation of a war, a president and a scandal-scarred Congress.
“From sea to shining sea, the American people voted for change,” declared Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the hard-charging California Democrat in line to become the nation’s first female House speaker. “Today we have made history. Now let us make progress.”
The White House made plans for President Bush to call Pelosi first thing in the morning; he will enter his final two years in office with at least half of Congress in the opposition party’s hands.
“It’s been kind of tough out there,” conceded House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., who won an 11th term.
By early today, Democrats had won 221 seats, enough to control the House, and were leading for another 13, which would give them 234. Republicans, who hold 229 seats in the current House, won 181 and were leading in another 20, which would give them 201.
Democrats had won 25 Republican-controlled seats, and no Democratic incumbent had lost by early today. Races were too close to call in more than a dozen seats, making it impossible to know how large the Democratic margin would be.
Still, it already was an eerie reversal of 1994, when the GOP gained 54 seats in a wave that toppled Democrats after four decades. No Republican incumbent lost that year.
This time, Republicans fell from power in nearly every region of the country – conservative, liberal and moderate – as well as in every type of district – urban, rural and suburban. Middle-class voters who fled to the GOP a dozen years ago appeared to return to the Democrats, according to exit polls.
Casualties of a Democratic call for change, three GOP congressmen lost in Indiana, three more in Pennsylvania, two in New Hampshire, one in North Carolina and one in Kansas. Democrats won open seats in New York, Arizona, Iowa and elsewhere.
Scandals that have dogged Republicans appeared to hurt GOP incumbents even more than Bush’s unpopularity and the nearly 4-year-old war in Iraq.
Republicans surrendered the Texas seat of former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who resigned from the House after being charged in a campaign finance scheme; the Ohio seat once held by Bob Ney, who resigned after pleading guilty in a lobbying scandal; and the Florida district of Mark Foley, who stepped down after the disclosure that he sent sexually explicit messages to male congressional pages.
In Pennsylvania, Democrats defeated Curt Weldon, in the fallout from a federal corruption investigation, and Don Sherwood, who admitted to a long-term affair with a much younger woman who says he choked her.
Midway through the evening, Pelosi, a grandmother five times over, briefly addressed a crowd of party faithful at an election-night fete at a Washington hotel. “I thank all of you for taking us to where we are tonight,” said Pelosi, who won an 11th term.
Ethics woes, the war and overall anger toward Bush appeared to drive voters to the Democrats, according to surveys by The Associated Press and the TV networks of voters as they left voting places. Several traditionally hard-fought demographic groups – independents, moderates and suburban women – were choosing Democrats.
Those exit polls also showed that three out of four voters said corruption was very important to their vote, and they tended to vote Democratic. In a sign of a dispirited GOP base, most white evangelicals said corruption was very important to their vote – and almost a third of them turned to the Democrats.
Two out of three voters called the war very important to them and said they leaned toward the Democrats, while six in ten voters said they disapproved of the war. About the same number said they were dissatisfied with the president – and they were far more likely to vote Democratic.
Additionally, eight in ten voters called the economy very important to their House vote, and those who said it was extremely important – about four in ten voters – turned to Democrats.
