"Thank you for this great post"
Arise and Shine
Democrats retain, expand control of Senate & House Democrats gain in Northeast and South
Democrats retain, expand control of Senate
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Democrats fattened their majority control of the Senate on Tuesday, ousting Republican Sens. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and John Sununu of New Hampshire and capturing seats held by retiring GOP senators in Virginia, New Mexico and Colorado.
With 29 of 35 Senate races called, Democrats were guaranteed at least a 55-45 majority, including two holdover independents who vote with Democrats. But they were hoping for even greater gains in a political environment that clearly favored Democrats.
North Carolina state Sen. Kay Hagan, little known politically before her run, defeated
Dole — a former Cabinet member in two Republican administrations and 2000 presidential hopeful. Dole had tried to tie Hagan, a former Presbyterian Sunday school teacher, to atheists in an ad that appeared to backfire.
In New Hampshire, former Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen defeated Sununu in a rematch of their 2002 contest.
Democrats now exercise a slim 51-49 control of the chamber. Piggybacking on aggressive Barack Obama voter-registration and get-out-the-vote drives in battleground states, Democrats were reaching for a coveted 60-seat, filibuster-proof Senate majority. However, leaders in both parties portrayed that goal as a long shot.
In pair of western races, Reps. Tom and Mark Udall took over Senate seats held by retiring Republicans. Tom Udall, the son of former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, defeated Republican Rep. Steve Pearce to succeed Pete Domenici in New Mexico.
Tom's cousin Mark, the son of the late Rep. Morris Udall of Arizona, won the Colorado seat held by Republican Wayne Allard, who did not seek re-election.
Democratic former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner breezed to victory to take a Virginia
Senate seat long held for by terms by retiring GOP Sen. John Warner. Warner beat another former governor, Republican Jim Gilmore, in the race to replace retiring five-term Sen. John W. Warner. The two Warners are not related.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden won another six-year term representing Delaware in the Senate. It became moot when Obama won the presidential election.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who had been a target of national Democrats, won re-election against two-time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bruce Lunsford in a contentious race.
With Warner's victory in Virginia, Democrats now control both Senate seats and the governor's mansion. Virginia usually votes Republican in presidential elections, but this year Democrats viewed it as one of their most promising pick ups.
Democrats were counting on a slumping economy, an unpopular war and voter fatigue after eight years of President Bush to bolster that majority, building on the six seats they added in 2006.
Reaching their goal of 60 seats was a stretch. But having a majority in the high 50s would enable Democrats to exercise far more control than they have now, since some Republicans probably would join them in efforts to break Senate logjams on many bills and judicial appointments.
Democrats' hoped that only two Democratic senators would lose their Senate seats as a result of the national elections: Biden and Obama. Democratic governors in Illinois and Delaware are sure to appoint Democrats to replace them.
The Senate seats of Obama and GOP presidential candidate John McCain were not up this year.
Democrats had fewer seats to defend than Republicans. Of the 35 races on Tuesday's ballot, 23 are now held by Republicans, 12 by Democrats.
Another possible pickup for Democrats: Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. Stevens, at 84, the longest serving Republican in Senate history, sought re-election despite calls from GOP leaders to resign after he was convicted last week of seven counts of lying on Senate financial disclosure forms.
He was locked in a tight contest with Democrat Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage. Another closely contested race was in Minnesota, where Republican incumbent Coleman was challenged by Democrat Al Franken, the former "Saturday Night Live" writer and actor. A significant third-party candidate, Independent Dean Barkley, was complicating the race.
Republican Sen. Gordon Smith in Oregon was also on the list of Democratic targets.
Republicans held the Nebraska seat of retiring Sen. Chuck Hagel, with former Gov. Mike Johanns defeating Democrat Scott Kleeb, a cattle rancher. Johanns resigned as Bush's agriculture secretary to make the race.
Going into the election, the only Democratic seat that appeared vulnerable was Mary Landrieu's in Louisiana. Landrieu, however, was leading in early returns against Republican state treasurer John Kennedy.
Republican incumbent senators who cruised to re-election included Lindsay Graham in South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Sessions in Alabama, James Inhofe in Oklahoma, Lamar Alexander in Tennessee, Pat Roberts in Kansas, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, John Cornyn of Texas and Michael Enzi in Wyoming. Sen. John Barrasso, appointed after Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas died, was elected to fill the remaining four years of Thomas' term.
Democratic senators easily winning re-election included Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, Dick Durbin of Illinois, John Kerry of Massachusetts, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Carl Levin of Michigan, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Max Baucus of Montana, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
House Democrats gain in Northeast and South
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – House Democrats solidified their control of the northeast and made gains in the South on Tuesday by defeating Republicans from Connecticut to Arizona as they pushed for historic gains in their majority.
"It's the night we have been waiting for," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Ousting 22-year veteran Rep. Chris Shays in Connecticut gave Democrats every House seat from New England. And their victory in an open seat on New York's Staten Island gave them control of all of New York City's delegation in Washington for the first time in 35 years.
Democrats ousted four Republican incumbents and captured five open GOP seats. Republicans knocked off two Democratic incumbents.
With nearly 300 of the 435 House races decided, Democrats held leads for more than a dozen other Republican-held seats. Republicans threatened to oust fewer than a handful of Democrats.
Democrats were headed for the first time in more than 75 years that their party rode to big House gains in back-to-back elections.
"This will be a wave upon a wave," Pelosi said.
In the South, high school civics teacher Larry Kissell won election in North Carolina, defeating Republican Rep. Robin Hayes.
In Florida, GOP Rep. Tom Feeney — under fire for ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff — was the first incumbent to fall, losing to former state Rep. Suzanne Kosmas. To the east, Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla., lost to Democratic attorney Alan Grayson, in an increasingly Hispanic district in Orlando.
Democrats capitalized on the uncommonly large number of Republican departures, winning seats long in GOP hands. Former congressional staffer Dan Maffei won election to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Jim Walsh, becoming first Democrat in nearly 30 years to represent the district around Syracuse, N.Y.
In Illinois, Democrat Debbie Halvorson, the speaker of the state Senate, won election to a seat held by retiring GOP Rep. Jerry Weller in the swing exurbs and rural areas south of Chicago.
The news wasn't all good for Democrats. Republican attorney Tom Rooney defeated first-term Democratic Rep. Tim Mahoney of Florida, who had admitted to two extramarital affairs just weeks before Election Day.
And Republican Bill Cassidy dealt Rep. Don Cazayoux, D-La., elected in a special election six months ago, a bruising defeat.
But other freshman Democrats once considered vulnerable cruised to easy re-election.
First-term Democratic Reps. John Yarmuth of Kentucky, Indiana's Joe Donnelly and Brad Ellsworth, and New Hampshire's Rep. Carol Shea-Porter won easy re-election.
They were part of a crop of freshman Democrats in conservative-leaning districts who began compiling campaign war chests and moderate voting records almost from the moment they were elected two years ago, leaving only a few of them endangered on Tuesday.
Former five-term Republican Rep. Anne Northup was unable to mount a comeback in Louisville, Ky., against Yarmuth despite GOP presidential nominee John McCain's decisive victory in the state.
Democrat Jim Himes, a Greenwich businessman, defeated Shays in a wealthy southwestern Connecticut district despite Shays' highly publicized late criticism of McCain's presidential campaign.
In New York, city councilman Mike McMahon won the race on Staten Island to succeed GOP Rep. Vito Fossella, who was forced to resign amid drunk driving charges and revelations that he fathered a child from an extramarital affair.
In 2006, Democrats won 30 seats and control of Congress in a surge powered by voter anger over the Iraq war.
This year the sour economy and public antipathy for President Bush posed the biggest challenges for Republican candidates. The Democrats were aided by a wave of GOP retirements and huge financial and organizational advantages over Republicans.
That's despite voter hostility toward the Democratic-controlled Congress. Just one in five voters Tuesday approved of the job Congress was doing, about as poorly as Bush fared, according to AP exit polling.
Six in 10 voters cited the economy as the most important issue facing the nation. About half said the economy is poor and nearly all the rest said it's not good. The results were based on a preliminary partial sample of nearly 10,000 voters in Election Day polls and in telephone interviews over the past week for early voters.
Democrats now control the House by a 235-199 margin, with one vacancy.
Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the majority leader, breezed to re-election, as did Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the No. 4 Democrat.
GOP lawmakers at risk included Alaska's Rep. Don Young, Colorado's Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, and Michigan's Reps. Tim Walberg and Joe Knollenberg. Rep. Lee Terry of Nebraska, once considered a safe bet for re-election, is also in major trouble.
In some of the first states to report, Rep. Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., who encountered trouble that few expected just weeks ago, easily won re-election. And Republicans held onto the Kentucky seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Ron Lewis, when Republican Brett Guthrie was elected
In Pennsylvania, Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski survived a tough fight. Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., who chairs a subcommittee with the most influence on the Pentagon's spending, who had a scare after calling his district south of Pittsburgh "racist," won easy re-election.
Republicans were fighting on a playing field skewed by the departure of 29 of their members, leaving lesser-known GOP contenders to battle better-financed Democrats in races shaped in large part by antipathy toward Bush.
Both parties took in huge amounts of campaign cash in House races, although Democrats had a clear edge. Democratic candidates raised $436 million, compared with Republicans' $328 million, according to federal data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
The parties' campaign committees also bankrolled the most competitive races, with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee pouring in $76 million and the National Republican Congressional Committee spending $24 million.
Because of hurricanes that delayed October primaries, the winners of two Louisiana seats — one that belonged to retiring Republican Rep. Jim McCrery and another now held by indicted Democratic Rep. William Jefferson — won't be known until December. Those districts held primaries Tuesday.
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Democrats fattened their majority control of the Senate on Tuesday, ousting Republican Sens. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and John Sununu of New Hampshire and capturing seats held by retiring GOP senators in Virginia, New Mexico and Colorado.
With 29 of 35 Senate races called, Democrats were guaranteed at least a 55-45 majority, including two holdover independents who vote with Democrats. But they were hoping for even greater gains in a political environment that clearly favored Democrats.
North Carolina state Sen. Kay Hagan, little known politically before her run, defeated
Dole — a former Cabinet member in two Republican administrations and 2000 presidential hopeful. Dole had tried to tie Hagan, a former Presbyterian Sunday school teacher, to atheists in an ad that appeared to backfire.
In New Hampshire, former Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen defeated Sununu in a rematch of their 2002 contest.
Democrats now exercise a slim 51-49 control of the chamber. Piggybacking on aggressive Barack Obama voter-registration and get-out-the-vote drives in battleground states, Democrats were reaching for a coveted 60-seat, filibuster-proof Senate majority. However, leaders in both parties portrayed that goal as a long shot.
In pair of western races, Reps. Tom and Mark Udall took over Senate seats held by retiring Republicans. Tom Udall, the son of former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, defeated Republican Rep. Steve Pearce to succeed Pete Domenici in New Mexico.
Tom's cousin Mark, the son of the late Rep. Morris Udall of Arizona, won the Colorado seat held by Republican Wayne Allard, who did not seek re-election.
Democratic former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner breezed to victory to take a Virginia
Senate seat long held for by terms by retiring GOP Sen. John Warner. Warner beat another former governor, Republican Jim Gilmore, in the race to replace retiring five-term Sen. John W. Warner. The two Warners are not related.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden won another six-year term representing Delaware in the Senate. It became moot when Obama won the presidential election.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who had been a target of national Democrats, won re-election against two-time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bruce Lunsford in a contentious race.
With Warner's victory in Virginia, Democrats now control both Senate seats and the governor's mansion. Virginia usually votes Republican in presidential elections, but this year Democrats viewed it as one of their most promising pick ups.
Democrats were counting on a slumping economy, an unpopular war and voter fatigue after eight years of President Bush to bolster that majority, building on the six seats they added in 2006.
Reaching their goal of 60 seats was a stretch. But having a majority in the high 50s would enable Democrats to exercise far more control than they have now, since some Republicans probably would join them in efforts to break Senate logjams on many bills and judicial appointments.
Democrats' hoped that only two Democratic senators would lose their Senate seats as a result of the national elections: Biden and Obama. Democratic governors in Illinois and Delaware are sure to appoint Democrats to replace them.
The Senate seats of Obama and GOP presidential candidate John McCain were not up this year.
Democrats had fewer seats to defend than Republicans. Of the 35 races on Tuesday's ballot, 23 are now held by Republicans, 12 by Democrats.
Another possible pickup for Democrats: Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. Stevens, at 84, the longest serving Republican in Senate history, sought re-election despite calls from GOP leaders to resign after he was convicted last week of seven counts of lying on Senate financial disclosure forms.
He was locked in a tight contest with Democrat Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage. Another closely contested race was in Minnesota, where Republican incumbent Coleman was challenged by Democrat Al Franken, the former "Saturday Night Live" writer and actor. A significant third-party candidate, Independent Dean Barkley, was complicating the race.
Republican Sen. Gordon Smith in Oregon was also on the list of Democratic targets.
Republicans held the Nebraska seat of retiring Sen. Chuck Hagel, with former Gov. Mike Johanns defeating Democrat Scott Kleeb, a cattle rancher. Johanns resigned as Bush's agriculture secretary to make the race.
Going into the election, the only Democratic seat that appeared vulnerable was Mary Landrieu's in Louisiana. Landrieu, however, was leading in early returns against Republican state treasurer John Kennedy.
Republican incumbent senators who cruised to re-election included Lindsay Graham in South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Sessions in Alabama, James Inhofe in Oklahoma, Lamar Alexander in Tennessee, Pat Roberts in Kansas, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, John Cornyn of Texas and Michael Enzi in Wyoming. Sen. John Barrasso, appointed after Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas died, was elected to fill the remaining four years of Thomas' term.
Democratic senators easily winning re-election included Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, Dick Durbin of Illinois, John Kerry of Massachusetts, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Carl Levin of Michigan, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Max Baucus of Montana, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
House Democrats gain in Northeast and South
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – House Democrats solidified their control of the northeast and made gains in the South on Tuesday by defeating Republicans from Connecticut to Arizona as they pushed for historic gains in their majority.
"It's the night we have been waiting for," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Ousting 22-year veteran Rep. Chris Shays in Connecticut gave Democrats every House seat from New England. And their victory in an open seat on New York's Staten Island gave them control of all of New York City's delegation in Washington for the first time in 35 years.
Democrats ousted four Republican incumbents and captured five open GOP seats. Republicans knocked off two Democratic incumbents.
With nearly 300 of the 435 House races decided, Democrats held leads for more than a dozen other Republican-held seats. Republicans threatened to oust fewer than a handful of Democrats.
Democrats were headed for the first time in more than 75 years that their party rode to big House gains in back-to-back elections.
"This will be a wave upon a wave," Pelosi said.
In the South, high school civics teacher Larry Kissell won election in North Carolina, defeating Republican Rep. Robin Hayes.
In Florida, GOP Rep. Tom Feeney — under fire for ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff — was the first incumbent to fall, losing to former state Rep. Suzanne Kosmas. To the east, Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla., lost to Democratic attorney Alan Grayson, in an increasingly Hispanic district in Orlando.
Democrats capitalized on the uncommonly large number of Republican departures, winning seats long in GOP hands. Former congressional staffer Dan Maffei won election to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Jim Walsh, becoming first Democrat in nearly 30 years to represent the district around Syracuse, N.Y.
In Illinois, Democrat Debbie Halvorson, the speaker of the state Senate, won election to a seat held by retiring GOP Rep. Jerry Weller in the swing exurbs and rural areas south of Chicago.
The news wasn't all good for Democrats. Republican attorney Tom Rooney defeated first-term Democratic Rep. Tim Mahoney of Florida, who had admitted to two extramarital affairs just weeks before Election Day.
And Republican Bill Cassidy dealt Rep. Don Cazayoux, D-La., elected in a special election six months ago, a bruising defeat.
But other freshman Democrats once considered vulnerable cruised to easy re-election.
First-term Democratic Reps. John Yarmuth of Kentucky, Indiana's Joe Donnelly and Brad Ellsworth, and New Hampshire's Rep. Carol Shea-Porter won easy re-election.
They were part of a crop of freshman Democrats in conservative-leaning districts who began compiling campaign war chests and moderate voting records almost from the moment they were elected two years ago, leaving only a few of them endangered on Tuesday.
Former five-term Republican Rep. Anne Northup was unable to mount a comeback in Louisville, Ky., against Yarmuth despite GOP presidential nominee John McCain's decisive victory in the state.
Democrat Jim Himes, a Greenwich businessman, defeated Shays in a wealthy southwestern Connecticut district despite Shays' highly publicized late criticism of McCain's presidential campaign.
In New York, city councilman Mike McMahon won the race on Staten Island to succeed GOP Rep. Vito Fossella, who was forced to resign amid drunk driving charges and revelations that he fathered a child from an extramarital affair.
In 2006, Democrats won 30 seats and control of Congress in a surge powered by voter anger over the Iraq war.
This year the sour economy and public antipathy for President Bush posed the biggest challenges for Republican candidates. The Democrats were aided by a wave of GOP retirements and huge financial and organizational advantages over Republicans.
That's despite voter hostility toward the Democratic-controlled Congress. Just one in five voters Tuesday approved of the job Congress was doing, about as poorly as Bush fared, according to AP exit polling.
Six in 10 voters cited the economy as the most important issue facing the nation. About half said the economy is poor and nearly all the rest said it's not good. The results were based on a preliminary partial sample of nearly 10,000 voters in Election Day polls and in telephone interviews over the past week for early voters.
Democrats now control the House by a 235-199 margin, with one vacancy.
Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the majority leader, breezed to re-election, as did Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the No. 4 Democrat.
GOP lawmakers at risk included Alaska's Rep. Don Young, Colorado's Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, and Michigan's Reps. Tim Walberg and Joe Knollenberg. Rep. Lee Terry of Nebraska, once considered a safe bet for re-election, is also in major trouble.
In some of the first states to report, Rep. Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., who encountered trouble that few expected just weeks ago, easily won re-election. And Republicans held onto the Kentucky seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Ron Lewis, when Republican Brett Guthrie was elected
In Pennsylvania, Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski survived a tough fight. Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., who chairs a subcommittee with the most influence on the Pentagon's spending, who had a scare after calling his district south of Pittsburgh "racist," won easy re-election.
Republicans were fighting on a playing field skewed by the departure of 29 of their members, leaving lesser-known GOP contenders to battle better-financed Democrats in races shaped in large part by antipathy toward Bush.
Both parties took in huge amounts of campaign cash in House races, although Democrats had a clear edge. Democratic candidates raised $436 million, compared with Republicans' $328 million, according to federal data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
The parties' campaign committees also bankrolled the most competitive races, with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee pouring in $76 million and the National Republican Congressional Committee spending $24 million.
Because of hurricanes that delayed October primaries, the winners of two Louisiana seats — one that belonged to retiring Republican Rep. Jim McCrery and another now held by indicted Democratic Rep. William Jefferson — won't be known until December. Those districts held primaries Tuesday.
About
We are serious about your spiritual/physical health & well being~~~
Thank you for joining and adding value to the quest of the meaning of life/chayim
~Shalom/Welcome to SHEKINAH~LIFE'¬ Your hosts Jim and Terry Hamilton
B"H.
As The Zohar itself proclaims: "Woe unto those who see in the Law nothing but simple narratives and ordinary words .... Every word of the Law contains an elevated sense and a sublime mystery .... The narratives of the Law are but the raiment within which it is swathed."
Shalom to one and all/.....Your host:
Jim and Terry
http://ShekinahLife.ning.com/m (mobile)\
TZEDAKAH / donations
SHALOM ALEICHEM
join us here Shekinah~Life
Leaving Comments: The Comments section of ShekinahLife-is provided in the interests of free speech only.
It is mostly moderated, however comments that are off topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying-and-or-spamming stand a chance of being edited or deleted
Enjoy your Journey~"Y&T"
Latest Activity
- Top News
- Everything
Rose sharon -shekinahlife
In the beginning of the "Zohar" the Article, the Rose,..it says: "Just as the rose among thorns is…
© 2025 Created by James and Terry Hamilton.
Powered by
