Republicans are poised to take eight of the Senate's nine hotly contested seats. Alaska, Florida, North Carolina and Kentucky all appeared ripe for Republican victory at press time, though candidates were holding off Democratic opponents by as little as two or three percent of the vote. Two clear Republican winners emerged early on in the evening: Jim DeMint in South Carolina and Tom Coburn in Oklahoma.

Colorado seemed to be the only contested state likely to post a Democratic win. Ken Salazar held a 30,000-vote lead over Peter Coors with 80 percent of precincts reporting. California Sen. Barbara Boxer handily won reelection with 65 percent over Republican challenger Bill Jones.

The Senate battles turned on everything from alleged nepotism in Alaska to political pork in South Dakota. Though Democrats have long held five of the contested seats, the South's growing Republican base tightened races that Democratic candidates won more easily during President Clinton's two terms in the 1990s.

Republicans will likely enjoy a 55 to 44 Senate majority, with former Republican Jim Jeffords of Vermont voting as an independent. Regardless of who wins the presidency, Republicans will maintain the power to break ties in Senate votes. With a Sen. John Kerry loss, Republicans would continue to control both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue,as they have since 2000.

Seats alone, however, were not the only thing at stake. Despite their minority position, Democratic senators who played key roles on the powerful budget and intelligence committees retired in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana, limiting their party's ability to influence important national decisions.

Republican David Vitter won in Louisiana, where a December run-off election was initially anticipated, with 51 percent of the vote.

Democrats will most likely lose Daschle. Thune, a former congressman and longtime ally of President Bush, backs the president's tax cuts and national security policies. And, in a rare move, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist stumped this season for Thune, breaking the long-time congressional custom in which Senate leaders avoid using their influence to sway local races.

North Carolina Democrat Erskine Bowles sought the seat John Edwards vacated to run for vice president, which could have hurt Democratic chances in a state where voters may feel abandoned by Edwards. But his Republican opponent Richard Burr appears to have won the seat. It was the country's fourth-most expensive Senate race, according to Open Secrets, a Web site that tracks campaign finances. Burr criticized Bowles' former position as Clinton's chief of staff, discouraging the state's conservative voters from supporting him. Both candidates, however, scrambled to take credit for a tobacco-buyout plan helping the state's struggling farmers.

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, Democratic Sen. Ernest Hollings maintained his seat for nearly 40 years, even as the state became a Republican bastion. His retirement this year left a leadership gap Democrats hoped Inez Tenenbaum, the state superintendent of education, would fill. But despite her support for initiatives like the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, she lost to Republican challenger James W. DeMint, 53 percent to 45 percent.

Alaska was locked in the tightest and most expensive senate race in its history. While there was a chance the heavily Republican state might elect its first Democratic senator in more than 20 years, with 59 percent reporting voters had chosen GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski over two-term former governor Tony Knowles. Both the younger Murkowski and Knowles favor mining the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for fuel. Knowles had berated Murkowski, saying her qualifications are lacking and questioning her controversial appointment by Alaska's governor, her father Frank Murkowski.

Though in recent days Kentucky voters watched what seemed a big lead for Republican congressman Jim Bunning melt away in the polls as Democrats raised questions about his health, he pulled ahead of Dan Mongiardo election night with 51 percent of the vote.

Voters in Oklahoma elected Tom Coburn, their former Republican congressman, by 51 percent. Coburn made homosexuality a core issue of his campaign, saying that lesbianism is so rampant in southeast Oklahoma that girls should visit school restrooms individually.

Boxer's Republican opposition Bill Jones was a testimony to the weakness of the Republican bench, according to Bruce Cain, director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley. He said Jones angered Republicans by not endorsing Bush in the California primary in 2000, and by supporting the blanket primary initiative, which would allow voters to cast ballots for candidates of any party regardless of the voter's affiliation.

The nation's fiscal situation will continue to be problematic for Congress, which will have to deal with Bush's tax cuts. "The whole package passed in 2001, and a lot expires in 2011," said Schickler.
Updated 11/2/04 11:33 PM