Demos post gains in Congress, statehouses

WASHINGTON — Resurgent Democrats swept control of the House and grabbed Republican Senate seats in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Rhode Island on Tuesday in elections shaped by an unpopular war in Iraq and scandal at home.

Aided by public dissatisfaction with President Bush, Democrats won gubernatorial races in New York, Ohio and Massachusetts for the first time in more than a decade, then put Colorado, Maryland and Arkansas in their column as well.

Bush monitored the returns from the White House as the voters picked a new Congress certain to complicate his final two years in office. He arranged to call Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California — in line to become the first woman House speaker in history — this morning, then hold an afternoon news conference.

Charlie Crist was a rare bright spot for Republicans, winning the Florida governorship now held by the president's brother Jeb, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger won a new term in California, the nation's most populous state.

But that was cold comfort for the Republicans, who have controlled the White House and both houses of Congress for most of the time since Bush took office and used their majority to pass large tax cuts and back the war in Iraq.

By early today, Democrats had picked up at least 20 House seats now in Republican hands, in all regions of the country. They had needed 15 to end a long turn in the minority, and a final result would depend on dozens of races yet uncalled.

If the outcome of the House battle seemed preordained, not the struggle for Senate control.

Two races — Virginia and Montana — remained to be called. Democrats needed to win them to win control.

Indiana was particularly cruel to House Republicans. Reps. John Hostettler, Chris Chocola and Mike Sodrel all lost in a state where Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels' unpopularity compounded the dissatisfaction with Bush.

Republican Rep. Nancy Johnson lost in her bid for a 13th term in Connecticut; Anne Northup fell in Kentucky after 10 years in the House; and Rep. Charles Taylor was defeated in North Carolina.