ShareThisBy MATTHEW B. STANNARD
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Democrats ended a dozen years of political exile tonight, sweeping Republicans from the House of Representatives and gaining seats in the Senate.
"We are on the brink of a great Democratic victory," predicted House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, who will become the nation's first female Speaker of the House, third in line for the presidency, if the Democrats' lead holds.
Hundreds of races are still undecided, but early returns suggested that Democrats had picked up 19 seats in the House, overcoming the Republicans' 15-seat majority. The Democrats also have picked up three of the six Senate seats they need to gain control of that chamber.
Among other closely watched races, newly independent Sen. Joe Lieberman completed a dramatic political comeback by defeating anti-war challenger Ned Lamont _ who beat Lieberman in a bruising Democratic primary _ to win a fourth term. In Pennsylvania, incumbent Rick Santorum, the Senate's No. 3 Republican, was beaten by Democrat State Treasurer Bob Casey.
Incumbent Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., held on to her seat, while Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown beat GOP incumbent Mike DeWine in Ohio, a state where Republican scandals were devastating for the party.
Democrats were counting on voter frustration with the war in Iraq to give them control of the House of Representatives for the first time in a dozen years, while Republicans were hoping to hold off the Democratic surge and retain their hold of the Senate by the measure of Vice President Dick Cheney's tie-breaking vote.
Chief architect of the Democratic resurgence from what seemed like a permanent minority just two years ago, Pelosi marshaled newfound Democratic unity and aggressiveness, starting by holding Democratic ranks against Bush's proposed Social Security overhaul.
In the Senate race, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, San Francisco's former mayor, was aiming for an overwhelming re-election victory in what could be her final time on the California ballot. With just 9 percent of precincts reporting, she was leading her challenger 55 percent to 40 percent.
Two veteran GOP congressmen from Northern California, Richard Pombo and John Doolittle, were struggling to hold their seats before a vigorous challenge by Democratic opponents who tried to link them to "the culture of corruption" in Washington, D.C., and the public's growing unease over the war in Iraq.
In early returns, Pombo, a seven-term congressman from Tracy, was trailing Democratic challenger Jerry McNerney, a wind-energy consultant who has never won elective office before. With 3 percent of precincts reporting, McNerney led 53 percent to Pombo's 47 percent.
The two races, in particular the Pombo-McNerney matchup, put the districts on the national political map. The Democratic Party targeted the two incumbents as part of its national strategy to wrest control of Congress from the Republican Party.
Doolittle was faring better against Democrat Charlie Brown, leading him with 50 percent of the vote to Brown's 45 percent, with 18 percent of precincts reporting. The incumbents each represent districts where Republicans outnumber Democrats, but in an election year when the GOP's dominance in Congress was put to its biggest test in years.
Pombo, who chairs the powerful House Resources Committee, was targeted by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups as an "eco-thug" who once proposed selling off some national parks, led the drive to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, wants to let states drill for oil and gas off their coasts, and has pushed to revamp the Endangered Species Act to provide more rights for property owners.
McNerney, a 55-year-old wind energy consultant and entrepreneur from Pleasanton with little political experience, tried without success to unseat Pombo two years ago. In this year's matchup, he was able to gain traction with his call to set a timetable to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq, attempts to link Pombo to convicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and by embracing the Democratic Party's national mantra that it is time for change.
Many of the issues were the same in the Fourth Congressional District race. Brown, a 56-year-old retired Air Force officer and former Republican from Roseville, ran on an anti-war platform and took aim at Doolittle for his ties to Abramoff.
The district, which encompasses Sacramento's eastern suburbs, reaches to the Oregon and Nevada borders. It is one of the most Republican districts in the state.
The election appears to have become the referendum on President Bush and the war in Iraq _ the two now inextricably linked _ that Democrats had hoped for and Republicans feared. GOP efforts to localize the elections candidate by candidate seemed to be overwhelmed by an unpopular war that most Americans now feel the United States is losing.
