With a recount coming in the Virginia U.S. Senate race, it could be that national Democrats could fall just one seat short in their attempt to take control of the Senate.

So Hatch and Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, may barely hang on in the majority. Bennett told the Deseret Morning News editorial board this week that he won't seek a formal leadership position but that if Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, should become majority leader, he has told Bennett he will be an informal member of the GOP leadership team. Hatch won't have a shot at chairman of the Finance Committee until 2009.

Hatch said that as a conservative in the Senate for 30 years, he has never been in a majority with other conservatives. "I'll just do the best I can" with the House going to the Democrats and the Senate so close to parity, said Hatch.

With the projected Democratic victories in the U.S. House, Utah's three congressmen will find themselves in new positions: Matheson has never been in the majority, and Bishop and Cannon have never been in the minority.

Cannon loses a subcommittee chairmanship on the House Judiciary Committee. It's yet to be seen if GOP House leaders will keep Bishop on the powerful Rules Committee (Republicans will get fewer seats now).

Matheson, now a four-term Democrat, will most likely not get a subcommittee chairmanship — too many senior Democrats ahead of him. But he is co-chairman of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, and with a number of new, conservative Democrats coming into the 2007 House, Matheson could play a larger behind-the-scenesrole in U.S. House policymaking.

Brigham Young University political science professor Kelly Patterson says that exit polling done by his students Tuesday tells him that Utah — long a very red state — turned out to be even more Republican this year than in 2004. "We still have to go through some of the numbers, but it looks like (Utahns) were even more Republican in their voting, by a few percentage points, than two years ago."

Utah gave Bush his highest majority victories of any state in 2000 and 2004.

Utah Democrats believed they had some real shots in the county and legislative races this year. First off, even Bush was suffering in the polls in Utah — above 50 percent but way down in his job-approval ratings over recent years.

It was a midterm election — no Republican presidential candidate on the ballot.

And unlike 2004 where an anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment was on the ballot, there were no moral statewide issues for Democrats to face.

Utah seemed to weather use of the new video electronic voting machines well.

There were some glitches early Tuesday. But as polling places became crowded in the evening, things seemed to work well.