Democrats capture R.I., Pennsylvania, Ohio Senate seats, challenge GOP for control of Congress

That left a fistful of heavily contested races uncalled.

In Virginia, Republican Sen. George Allen and Democratic challenger Jim Webb were locked in a seesaw race, neither man able to break ahead of the other.

In Missouri, Sen. Jim Talent held a lead over Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill with nearly 25 percent of the precincts counted.

Montana Sen. Conrad Burns, seeking a fourth term, battled Democrat Jon Tester.

Among the GOP losers, Hostettler, Santorum and DeWine all won their seats in the Republican landslide of 1994 — the year the GOP grabbed control of the House and Senate from the Democrats and launched a Republican revolution.

"It's very hard to watch," lamented Dick Armey, who was House majority leader in those heady GOP days.

Surveys of voters at their polling places nationwide suggested Democrats were winning the support of independents with almost 60 percent support, and middle-class voters were leaving Republicans behind.

All 435 House seats were on the ballot along with 33 Senate races, elections that Democrats sought to make a referendum on the president's handling of the war, the economy and more.

Democrats piled up early gains among the 36 statehouse races on the ballot.

In Ohio, Rep. Ted Strickland defeated Republican Ken Blackwell with ease to become the state's first Democratic governor in 16 years. Deval Patrick triumphed over Republican Kerry Healey in Massachusetts, and will become the state's first black chief executive. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer won the New York governor's race in a landslide.

Voters in Vermont made Rep. Bernie Sanders, an independent, the winner in a Senate race, succeeding retiring Sen. James Jeffords. Brooklyn-born with an accent to match, Sanders is an avowed Socialist who will side with Democrats when he is sworn into office in January.

Democrat Amy Klobuchar, a county prosecutor, won the Minnesota Senate race to replace retiring Sen. Mark Dayton, a fellow Democrat.

In Maryland, Democratic Rep. Ben Cardin captured an open Senate seat, defeating Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.

Casey, a conservative challenger who opposes abortion rights, ran well ahead of Santorum, a member of the Senate GOP leadership in search of a third term.

Next door in Ohio, Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown was defeating Sen. Mike DeWine by a double-digit margin.

Congressional Democrats, locked out of power for most of the past dozen years, needed gains of 15 seats in the House and six in the Senate to capture majorities that would let them restrain Bush's conservative agenda through the rest of his term.