Democrats Promise Broad New Agenda
Now in Control, They Plan to Challenge Bush

By Jonathan Weisman and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 8, 2006; 6:50 AM

Democrats vowed to press a broad agenda of legislative change and to
confront President Bush on issues such as the war in Iraq after seizing
control of the House last night following 12 years of Republican rule.

Victories from New Hampshire to Arizona marked a rebuke to Bush and a House
Republican majority that has served as a firewall for the White House's
agenda. Republicans lost three seats in reliably Republican Indiana and a
bellwether seat in Kentucky, and they suffered huge losses in Pennsylvania.

Veteran Republican Reps. Nancy L. Johnson in Connecticut and E. Clay Shaw
Jr. in Florida lost to spirited Democratic challengers, while fresh-faced
Republicans trying to retain the scandal-ridden seats once held by former
Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) and former Reps. Mark Foley (Fla.) and
Robert W. Ney (Ohio) could not overcome the baggage of their predecessors.
Two other veterans, Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.) and Sue W. Kelly (R-N.Y.), went
down to defeat, as did one of the Republicans' most liberal members, Jim
Leach of Iowa.

"The message is clear: This is a referendum on the Bush administration's
failed policies and the inability of the Republican Congress to hold them
accountable," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

"The American people have sent a resounding and unmistakable message of
change and new direction for America," said Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.). "It's time for the
endless campaign to stop and the hard work of governing to begin."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is set to become the first
female House speaker and the highest-ranking elected woman in U.S. history.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.), the longest serving Republican
speaker, will almost certainly retire from GOP leadership as a new
generation of Republicans tries to regroup.

"I'd like to congratulate House Democrats on a hard-fought campaign," House
Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said last night. "We are deeply
disappointed in the outcome, but as Republicans we must recommit ourselves
to the principles that brought us to the majority and renew our drive for
smaller, more efficient, more accountable government."

Democrats will probably come to power in January with a narrow majority and
a crop of moderate-to-conservative lawmakers eager to keep their party
rooted to the center of the political spectrum. By midnight last night,
Democrats had scored a net gain of 27 House seats, 12 more than the total
needed to win control, and held leads in several more races.

Early Democratic priorities will include raising the minimum wage, boosting
homeland security spending, shifting the nation's energy policy away from
oil and gas exploration toward alternative fuel sources, and reversing cuts
to education spending.

Meanwhile in the committee chambers, aggressive new chairmen, such as Rep.
John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) and Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), promise a series
of investigations and hearings into matters that have largely gone
unexplored under GOP control, such as allegations of waste in Iraq and
mismanagement of the war.

That alone could dramatically change the political atmosphere during Bush's
final two years in office.

"We always recognized this was going to be a very challenging year,"
Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said last night on CNN.

The first incumbent to go was six-term Rep. John N. Hostettler (R-Ind.),
whose low-key, almost blase campaign style could not keep up with the
polished candidacy of Vanderburgh County Sheriff Brad Ellsworth. He proved
to be the first of three Indiana Republicans to lose. Rep. Anne M. Northup
(R-Ky.), a proven survivor of Democratic assaults, then fell to Democrat
John Yarmuth, a lightly regarded founder of an alternative newspaper.

From there, the Republican losses mounted quickly: both Republican seats in
New Hampshire, House Appropriations subcommittee Chairman Charles H. Taylor
in North Carolina and senior House Armed Services Committee member Curt
Weldon in Pennsylvania. Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.), who made his name as a
bombastic conservative and, more recently, a firebrand against illegal
immigrants, lost to mild-mannered Harry Mitchell, the former mayor of Tempe.

"They voted their hopes, not their fears. We have gone to America with this
positive agenda for change, with a better agenda for all our people," said
House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), who plans to seek the post of
majority leader.

Taylor, of North Carolina, lost to former Redskins quarterback Heath Shuler,
one of several Democrats in Republican districts who ran as moderate
pragmatists, often sharing their constituents' more conservative stances on
social issues, while vowing to put aside partisanship to produce the
education, health-care and energy legislation that voters say they want.
Republicans tried to attack these candidates as closet cheerleaders for the
liberal Democratic leadership, but the tactic ultimately failed.

Republicans were still hoping to pick up two Democratic seats in Georgia,
but late returns showed Democratic Reps. John Barrow and Jim Marshall
narrowly leading in their races. That would set up another historic
milestone: No party in modern times has failed to gain at least one seat in
a House election, and Republicans were facing a shutout late last night.

Republicans faced the largest possible losses in the industrial Midwest and
Northeast. In another early victory, Democrats took Vermont's only House
seat, which was being vacated by Rep. Bernard Sanders, a liberal independent
heading for the Senate. Republicans had hoped Martha Rainville, a
well-polished adjutant general of the state National Guard, could blunt the
Democratic surge by taking one seat from the Democratic column.

Charlie Cook, a nonpartisan political analyst, has called New York the
potential GOP Waterloo. Democrats ousted two Republican incumbents and won
an open seat, and pundits speculated landslide wins for Democratic
gubernatorial candidate Eliot L. Spitzer and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D)
might have depressed GOP turnout across the state.

In Pennsylvania, three Republican-held seats were gone by midnight and two
others were in danger. One of the Republicans' few bright spots was in Ohio,
where losses were being held to a minimum. In New Hampshire, Republican
incumbent Reps. Charles Bass and Jeb Bradley had appeared to be coasting to
reelection, but both lost last night. Most of the Northeastern lawmakers who
were in trouble are moderate or mainstream Republicans who try to steer
clear of divisive and partisan battles. But they are highly vulnerable this
year because of their support for the war in Iraq.

New Englanders in particular are deeply opposed to the war and furious at
the Republican-led Congress for failing to challenge Bush's handling of it.
Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut, long-serving and widely respected,
eked out a victory, despite his unwillingness to call for the troop
withdrawal that his constituents increasingly support.

After their successes in the East, Democrats quickly scooped up seats in the
West, winning the seats of retiring Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) and Hayworth.
The Democrats picked up one seat in the usually conservative state of
Kansas, with Nancy Boyda's win over incumbent Republican Jim Ryun. In
Wyoming, Rep. Barbara Cubin (R) and challenger Gary Trauner (D) were in a
virtual tie by 6 a.m. EST; Cubin lead by a scant 820 votes. Neither Ryun nor
Cubin had expected strong challenges as recently as a year ago.The final
margin of the Democratic victory was yet to be determined. Democrats were
favored to pick up seats in Colorado and Iowa, where two Republicans are
retiring to seek governorships. In New Mexico, Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R), a
perennial Democratic target, was facing the toughest challenge of her
political career, leading state Attorney General Patricia Madrid by just
1,300 votes with 99 percent of precincts reporting by 6 a.m. EST. Three West
Coast races kept politics watchers up into the early morning hours.
California GOP Rep. Richard W. Pombo , who had been hammered for his
association with disgraced lobbyist and convicted felon Jack Abramoff, lost
to Democrat Jerry McNerney despite a strong Republican registration
advantage in his districts. But Rep. John Doolitte, who also had ties to
Abramoff, fended off a strong Democratic challenge and held onto his seat.

In Washington, freshman Rep. David G. Reichert (R) was challenged by
Microsoft executive Darcy Burner, but a wild card in that race was a
torrential rainstorm that caused serious flooding around the state, possibly
depressing turnout. By this morning, with only 31 percent of precincts
reporting, Reichert had a slight lead.

The late surge that Republicans were trumpeting over the weekend fizzled on
Election Day, as exit polls indicated strong preferences for Democratic
candidates throughout the country. The National Republican Congressional
Committee chairman, Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.), had said for months
that Republicans could overcome a sour mood by keeping House races focused
on local issues. A final advertising blitz by Republicans also sought to
paint Democrats as too inexperienced to be trusted with control of the
House.

But in exit polls, voters said their votes were determined by national
issues, especially corruption and the war in Iraq. That was ominous for
Republicans.

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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson