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Democrats Take the House; Senate Up For Grabs
By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 8, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 8, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Since many of New York State's elections were runaways, the real election action was seeing how the House and Senate would turn - with the Democrats taking control of the house, which makes Nancy Pelosi possibly the first female Speaker of the House. The control of the Senate is still in question - votes are being counted and re-counted in the Virginia and Montana races (Democratic challenger John Tester has a narrow lead over incumbent Conrad Burns in Montana; Senator George Allen trails Democrat Jim Webb by just 6,000 votes). In one of last night's too-close-too-call elections, with incumbent Jim Talent conceding to Democrat Claire McCaskill.
With the Democrats picking up much more than the 15 House seats they needed for control (NBC's 6AM count gives the Democrats 234 House seats, to the Republicans' 201), the country signaled to President Bush that they want change. And a lot of that change has to do with Iraq, but some people cited corruption as why they came out to vote. The NY Times reports that "nearly 4 in 10 voters said they saw their ballot as a vote against Mr. Bush, about twice as many as those who said they had cast their ballots for him."
Two New York House seats were won by Democrats, but Rep. Tom Reynolds manage to hang on, even after his involvement with the Mark Foley page scandal. Senator Hillary Clinton won re-election in New York to no one's surprise, but Senator Robert Menendez won a nasty battle with Republican Tom Kean Jr. in NJ. Senator Charles Schumer is credited with doing "a great job" as the head of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. From the Daily News:
"Within the party, his standing has improved," a Democratic operative said, noting that many Democrats remain annoyed by Schumer's personal style. "But he judges his standing against Hillary Clinton - he can't win that fight."
There are also some who are reminding the Democrats that they need to "put up - or shut up".
Editorials about how the House was lost by the NY Times, Post, Daily News and Sun.
Photograph of Representative Nancy Pelosi embracing Senator Chuck Schumer by Gerald Herbert/AP
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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