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AP BULLETINS - Republicans retain control of House - GOP captures control of Senate
Associated Press | November 6, 2002 - 2:06 AM EST

Posted on 11/05/2002 11:36:26 PM PST by HAL9000

BULLETIN

Republicans retain control of House

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans extended their eight-year control of the House of Representatives early Wednesday, turning aside crucial Democratic challenges in region after region and positioning themselves to expand their majority.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


BULLETIN

GOP captures control of Senate

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans won control of the Senate on Tuesday, ousting Democrats in Georgia and Missouri and giving President Bush's legislative agenda a major boost in the next Congress.     

MORE

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)



TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: house; senate
The "AP Bulletin" slug is rarely used. History is made.

The only Associated Press dispatch level more urgent than a "bulletin" is a "flash", and I've only seen that twice - on Sept. 11, 2001 when the World Trade Center buildings collapsed.

1 posted on 11/05/2002 11:36:26 PM PST by HAL9000
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To: HAL9000
Republicans retain control of House - GOP captures control of Senate

OUCH!......That's gonna leave a mark!

2 posted on 11/05/2002 11:43:51 PM PST by hole_n_one
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To: HAL9000

GOP captures control of Senate

By ALAN FRAM

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans narrowly seized control of the Senate on Wednesday, ousting Democrats in Georgia and Missouri and giving President Bush's legislative agenda a major boost in the next Congress.

By winning their 50th seat in Missouri, the GOP was ensured control of the chamber next year because Vice President Dick Cheney will cast tie-breaking votes.

Democrats took just one seat from Republicans when Arkansas Attorney General Mark Pryor, the son of former Sen. David Pryor, defeated incumbent Sen. Tim Hutchinson.

In Georgia, Republican Rep. Saxby Chambliss defeated moderate first-term Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, a triple amputee from the Vietnam War, after chiding him for opposing President Bush's plan for creating a new Department of Homeland Security.

The GOP also could take control of the lame-duck session of the current Congress, which convenes next week to tackle unfinished budget business and perhaps other legislation because of Rep. Jim Talent's victory in Missouri.

Talent could be quickly sworn into office after defeating Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan. She was appointed to the seat after her husband, Mel Carnahan, was elected in 2000, three weeks after he was killed in a plane crash. That would give the GOP at least 50 seats in Senate returning next week -- enough for control because of Cheney.

Rep. John Sununu was victorious for the GOP in New Hampshire, retaining a Republican-held seat that Democrats had high hopes of winning. He defeated Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, despite a lack of help from many conservatives bitter over his primary defeat of Republican Sen. Bob Smith.

In Colorado, incumbent Republican Sen. Wayne Allard held off lobbyist and former U.S. Attorney Tom Stickland in a rematch of their race six years ago.

The triumph came on a night that began with Democrats clinging to a one-seat margin, and it meant they will have to relinquish the majority they have held since Vermont Sen. James Jeffords abandoned the GOP in June 2001.

With at least 47 senators, Democrats will still be able to use filibusters -- procedural delays -- to kill Republican initiatives because such roadblocks need only 41 votes to succeed.

Even so, the GOP's capture of the Senate denied Democrats their major remaining source of power. Republicans already control the White House and they recaptured their House majority Wednesday.

"It's been a very successful night for the Republican Party, for the president of the United States and for the country at large,'' said Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who headed the GOP's Senate election effort.

His Democratic counterpart, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., was predictably less effusive.

"We knew we had an uphill battle to begin with and I think it played out tonight,'' Murray said on NBC television just before the GOP grabbed its 50th seat.

Democrats seemed to have a slight advantage going into Election Day, holding a 50-49 Senate margin including Jeffords. That excluded Dean Barkley, the independent named by Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura to replace the late Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone for a postelection session of Congress that begins next week.

Democrats also had the advantage of having to defend only 14 of the 34 Senate seats in play, compared to 20 seats held by Republicans.

But Bush, seeking to end a 20-year trend of the party holding the White House losing Senate seats in mid-term elections, went on an 11th hour, nine-state tour on behalf of GOP candidates in the days before the election.

Even with a slender margin of control, Senate Republicans would command committees and control which bills the chamber would debate to Bush's advantage. His proposals for tax cuts, economic stimulus, defense and domestic spending, national security and judgeship nominations would dominate the chamber's agenda -- and put Democrats in a defensive role.

Yet as Republicans learned early last year when Cheney gave them control of a 50-50 Senate, they will be able to take little for granted in keeping unity among GOP lawmakers who range from conservative to moderate. Jeffords left them when they refused to support extra money for special education programs, and remaining moderate Republican senators would be expected to exert similar pressure for favorite initiatives in the new Congress.

Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu was forced into a Dec. 7 runoff in Louisiana when she failed to get the 50 percent required under state law. Her opponent will be Republican State Elections Commissioner Suzanne Terrell, who finished second in the nine-candidate race Tuesday.

In North Carolina, Republican Elizabeth Dole won the right to succeed the retiring Sen. Jesse Helms, batting down a challenge by Democrat Erskine Bowles, the one-time chief of staff to President Clinton.

In South Carolina, four-term GOP Rep. Lindsey Graham will replace another outgoing conservative icon, Sen. Strom Thurmond. Graham bested Democrat Alex Sanders, the former College of Charleston president.

Thurmond will turn 100 next month and will leave the Senate in January after serving a record 47 years and three months.

Democrats held the New Jersey seat that will be relinquished by Sen. Robert Torricelli, who abruptly ended his campaign last month after ethics violations seemed to end his chances of being re-elected. Returning in his place will be Frank Lautenberg, who retired two years ago after an 18-year Senate career.

Lamar Alexander, the former education secretary and one-time Tennessee governor, was elected to the Senate from his state, replacing GOP Sen. Fred Thompson, who retired.

In Texas, Republican Attorney General John Cornyn won the seat of retiring GOP Sen. Phil Gramm, denying a bid by former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk to become the state's first black U.S. senator.

Dole, the former transportation secretary, wife of 1996 GOP presidential candidate Robert Dole and brief White House candidate herself in 2000, prevailed in her native North Carolina.

Virginia's John Warner, a Republican power on the Senate Armed Services Committee, won his fifth six-year term and Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, expected to be the No. 2 Senate GOP leader, won his fourth term.

Other victorious Republicans included Larry Craig of Idaho, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Pat Roberts of Kansas, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Susan Collins of Maine, Pete Domenici of New Mexico, Gordon Smith of Oregon and Michael Enzi of Wyoming.

Also re-elected were Democratic Sens. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia; Richard Durbin of Illinois; Jack Reed of Rhode Island; and Joseph Biden of Delaware, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Other returning Democrats included Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee; Max Baucus, chairman of the Finance Committee; Tom Harkin of Iowa, the Agriculture Committee chairman, and potential 2004 presidential contender John Kerry of Massachusetts.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


3 posted on 11/05/2002 11:52:38 PM PST by HAL9000
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To: HAL9000

We did it!

4 posted on 11/06/2002 12:29:46 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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