Washington – Republicans struggled Wednesday to prevent a Democratic takeover of the Senate after losing GOP-held seats in Ohio, Rhode Island, Missouri and Pennsylvania.
Seizing on voter discontent with President Bush and the war in Iraq, Democrats mounted challenges for Republican-held seats in two other states. They held slim margins in Virginia and were leading in Montana.
“I think we will hold control of the Senate,” Republican national chairman Ken Mehlman said on CNN.
In Pennsylvania, Democrat Bob Casey, son of a popular former governor, soundly defeated incumbent Sen. Rick Santorum, a conservative and third- ranking member of Senate GOP leadership.
Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown easily beat GOP incumbent Mike DeWine in Ohio, a state where Republican scandals were devastating for the party.
Former state Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse defeated incumbent Sen. Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island. Chafee is an openly anti-war Republican who consistently voted against President Bush on legislation.
But Republican Bob Corker, a former mayor of Chattanooga, defeated Democratic Rep. Harold Ford for the seat held by retiring Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Ford had sought to become the first black Southerner elected to the Senate in more than a century.
If Democrats were to win two more seats, it would produce a 50-50 Senate, like the one that existed in early 2001, when Vice President Dick Cheney wielded tie-breaking authority.
Even if they don’t get a majority, Democrats will make it harder for Bush to enact his agenda his final two years in office by holding more seats in the Senate.
Americans “have come to the conclusion, as we did some time ago, that a one-party town simply doesn’t work,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told party workers early today.
Reid said a strong Democratic turnout in both Senate and House races shows “we must change course in Iraq.”
In races still undecided early today, Democrat Jim Webb, a Navy secretary under President Reagan, held a slim lead over Republican incumbent George Allen with 10 percent of the absentee ballots still uncounted. A recount was possible.
In Missouri, Republican Sen. Jim Talent was defeated by Democrat Claire McCaskill, the state auditor.
A Democrat also was ahead in Montana. With more than half the vote in, state Senate President Jon Tester held a 4-percentage-point lead over incumbent three-term Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, who became caught up in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the Democrats’ vice presidential candidate in 2000 but running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary, kept his seat from Connecticut.
In New Jersey, Sen. Bob Menendez held off a strong challenge from Republican Tom Kean Jr., son of a former governor, to keep the seat in Democratic hands. Menendez, appointed to the seat in January after Jon Corzine gave it up to become governor, had been viewed as the most vulnerable of 17 Senate Democratic incumbents.
Democrats also kept their seats in another important race in Maryland, where Rep. Ben Cardin held off a surge by Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele to succeed retiring Sen. Paul Sarbanes.
Former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, considering a Democratic bid for the White House in 2008, easily won re-election to a second term from New York.
Lieberman will be one of two independents in the new Senate.
Rep. Bernie Sanders, an eight-term congressman who calls himself a socialist, won the seat of retiring Sen. Jim Jeffords, also an independent. Both Lieberman and Sanders have said they will align themselves with Democrats.
Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California, Maria Cantwell of Washington and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan were re-elected.
Democrats also kept seats in Wisconsin, North Dakota, New Mexico, Michigan, Nebraska, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Florida, Delaware, Wisconsin and Hawaii.
Republican Sen. John Kyl won re-election in Arizona despite Democratic hopes for an upset by wealthy businessman Jim Pederson.
Republicans also won re-election in Indiana, Maine, Mississippi, Wyoming, Texas, Utah and Nevada.
In Florida, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson handily rebuffed a challenge from Republican Rep. Katherine Harris, a two-term House member.
Democrats needed a net gain of six seats to take control of the Senate, which, except for a 19-month period in 2001 and 2002, has been run by Republicans since 1995.
Exit polls showed that almost six in ten voters disapproved of the war in Iraq, and an equal percentage said they disapproved of how President Bush was handling his job.
Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, who leads the Senate Republican campaign effort, said that voter turnout was heavy. She said it was particularly big in Montana and Missouri.
“I think this is great for us,” she told reporters.
