Republicans retain control of Senate

WASHINGTON — Republicans renewed their grip on the Senate Tuesday night and reached out for more, capturing a string of Democratic seats across the South. Democratic leader Tom Daschle struggled for political survival in South Dakota.

Democratic State Sen. Barack Obama, a political star in the making, easily won a seat formerly in Republican hands in Illinois, and will be the only black among 100 senators when the new Congress convenes in January. "I am fired up," he told cheering supporters in Illinois.

But Republicans did most of the celebrating by far.

"We ran as a team," said Sen. George Allen of Virginia, chairman of the GOP senatorial committee. He referred to his party's challengers for open seats in the South and West who ran as allies of President Bush — often in states where Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry made no effort.

"It looks like we're going to have a much strengthened Republican majority," Allen predicted.

With Republicans assured of 51 seats in the new Congress — the same as the old — that depended on the outcome of races still unsettled in Florida, Colorado, Louisiana, Alaska and South Dakota.

Rep. Johnny Isakson claimed Georgia for the Republicans, and Rep. Jim DeMint took South Carolina. Rep. Richard Burr soon followed suit in North Carolina. In each case, Democratic retirements induced ambitious lawmakers to give up safe House seats to risk a run for the Senate.

GOP candidates mounted strong challenges in two more southern states where Democrats stepped down.

In Florida, former HUD Secretary Mel Martinez held a narrow lead over Betty Castor, a former state legislator, with votes counted in more than 90 percent of the precincts.

In Louisiana, Republican Rep. David Vitter led several Democratic rivals comfortably with more than 90 percent of the precincts counted, and flirted with an outright majority that would allow him to avoid a Dec. 4 runoff.

In many races with no incumbents on the ballot, Democrats ran as conservatives in hopes of separating themselves from Kerry in their conservative states.

Interviews with voters leaving their polling places suggested it was less than successful.

In North Carolina, Burr gained the votes of nearly nine in 10 of Bush's supporters. Vitters' level of support was nearly as high in Louisiana, as was DeMint's in South Carolina.

Most incumbents cruised to new terms. But not all.