Two Dems declared winners, shifting Senate

WASHINGTON — Democrats completed a double-barreled sweep of Congress on Wednesday when The Associated Press declared them the winners over incumbent Republican senators in Montana and Virginia.

President Bush and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., expected to become House speaker, promised to put election bitterness behind them, but policy battles certainly lie ahead.

Jim Webb's victory over Sen. George Allen in Virginia assured Democratic control of 51 seats when the Senate convenes in January. Earlier in the day, Jon Tester was declared the winner over Republican Sen. Conrad Burns in Montana.

An aide said Allen was not inclined to request a recount if the vote spread stayed the same as on election night, and the Montana secretary of state said he did not expect a recount.

Democrats gained six Senate seats in the midterm elections, in which the Iraq war and Bush were major issues.

With a handful of House races too close to call, Democrats had gained 28 seats, 13 more than needed to regain the majority after 12 years of Republican rule.

Congressional Democrats savoring their return to power pledged Wednesday to work closely with Bush on a legislative agenda but demanded a change in course on Iraq and new directions on policies from the minimum wage to stem-cell research.

Democrats' pledge to the people


Democrats pledge within the first 100 hours of House legislative business to:

Increase the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour from $5.15.

Authorize the secretary of health and human services to negotiate lower prices from pharmaceutical companies for senior citizens on the Medicare prescription-drug plan.

Repeal subsidies for big oil companies.

Halve interest rates on college loans.

Impose new ethics and lobbying restrictions on lawmakers and former staff members.

Authorize more money for law enforcement's first responders and to buy unsecured nuclear weapons from states of the former Soviet Union.

Sources: www.housedemocrats.gov, Democratic aides

McClatchy Newspapers

Pelosi, expected to succeed Illinois Rep. Dennis Hastert as speaker, promised swift action early next year on a Democratic package including a $2.10-an-hour increase in the minimum wage, full implementation of the recommendations of the bipartisan 9/11 commission and making some tuition payments tax deductible.

Hastert, the longest-serving Republican speaker, said he would step aside and let a new generation of Republican leaders emerge.

Pelosi said she would not heed calls of some activists on the left to explore impeaching the president. With subpoena power and committee chairmanships, however, Democrats will ensure that Bush's anti-terrorism and war policies receive tough scrutiny in the last two years of his presidency.

"Democrats are not about getting even, Democrats are about getting results," said Pelosi, expected to become the first female House speaker in history. "I have said before and I say again: Impeachment is off the table."

Senate's tipping point

The Senate had teetered at 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans for most of the day, with Virginia hanging in the balance. The Democratic total includes two independents, Joe Lieberman, of Connecticut, and Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, who vote with the party. Webb's victory ended Republican hopes of eking out a 50-50 split, with Vice President Dick Cheney wielding tiebreaking authority.

The Associated Press contacted election officials in all of Virginia's 134 voting localities, obtaining updated numbers Wednesday. About half the localities said they had completed their postelection canvassing, and nearly all had counted outstanding absentees. Most were expected to be finished by Friday.

The new AP count showed Webb with 1,172,538 votes and Allen with 1,165,302, a difference of 7,236. Virginia has had two statewide vote recounts in modern history, but both resulted in vote changes of no more than a few hundred votes.

An adviser to Allen, speaking on condition of anonymity because his boss has not decided formally to end the campaign, said the senator wanted to wait until most canvassing was completed before announcing his decision, possibly as early as tonight.

In Montana, Burns did not concede. "The state of Montana has a process in place, and it is our obligation to see it through," he said. "There is no need to rush to a conclusion when the votes are this close."

If the margin of victory ends up within half of a percentage point — roughly 2,000 votes — Burns could request a recount.

Montana Secretary of State Brad Johnson, a Republican, said officials do not expect that to happen. "The margin appears to be too broad," he said.

In morning phone calls, Bush congratulated Pelosi, currently House minority leader, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and invited them to a White House lunch today. Bush and Pelosi pledged to put behind them a bitter campaign in which the president had claimed a Democratic victory would be a victory for terrorists and Pelosi repeatedly questioned the president's competence.

"I've been around politics a long time," Bush said. "I understand when campaigns end and when the governing begins."

Beyond the Democrats' planned 100-hour blitz to pass most of their legislative agenda, Pelosi repeated her pledge to restore fiscal discipline to Congress. That could pit her promises of federal largesse against Democratic desires not to roll back the president's tax cuts before their scheduled 2011 expiration dates.

She also vowed to enact the kind of sweeping controls on lobbying and ethics that Republican leaders promised this year but failed to deliver.

Democratic victories also spell trouble for interim U.N. Ambassador John Bolton's hopes for Senate confirmation and greatly complicate Bush's efforts to appoint conservatives to the federal bench.

The administration is virtually certain to face greater congressional scrutiny — and possibly new legislative restrictions — on warrantless wiretaps, trade pacts, interrogation techniques for detainees and other controversial policies.

Rep. Thomas Davis, R-Va., said Bush will be "reacting to subpoenas flying, investigations."

"If we tended to underinvestigate, I think you'll see Democrats tend to overinvestigate," Davis said.

Tuesday's election results could be a boon for backers of wide-ranging changes to U.S. immigration laws, one of the few areas in which Bush differed with House Republicans and sided with a bipartisan Senate approach. The GOP-controlled House had insisted on dealing only with tougher border- and workplace-enforcement measures, rejecting calls by Bush and the Senate for an expanded guest-worker program and possible pathways to legal status for millions of illegal immigrants. A Pelosi-led House is far more likely to embrace some or all of the Bush-Senate approach, lawmakers said.

"A great deal will depend on whether the president is committed to getting this done," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., a champion of the broader immigration rewrite. He said Republicans have overestimated the appeal of a punitive approach to immigration problems, noting the defeat of Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., a chief proponent of deportations and border crackdowns.

Of comprehensive changes to immigration laws, Bush said: "I think we have a good chance. ... It's an important issue, and I hope we can get something done on it."

Leadership scramble

Among the many possible clashes between Bush and the new Congress is whether to permit federal funding for research involving new lines of embryonic stem cells. Bush this year used the only veto of his presidency to block such legislation, which passed both houses comfortably but not by the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. The new Democratic-controlled House would appear to remain short of a two-thirds majority favoring more embryonic stem-cell research, but the revised political dynamics might force the administration to reconsider its position.

There also will be investigations and hearings, especially into the conduct of the Iraq war and waste in contracting. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., said Wednesday the first move he will make as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee will be the re-establishment of the subcommittee on oversight and investigations, abandoned by Republicans when they took the majority.

More than anything else, public unhappiness over the Iraq war powered the Democrats' success Tuesday, according to exit polls, but it was unclear how much the new Congress will or can do about the conflict. Reid called on Bush to "convene a summit of congressional leaders" to discuss the war. "We've got to work together to change direction in Iraq," Reid said.

But before such tasks can be tackled, both parties will have to decide who will lead them in a transformed Congress. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the House minority whip, launched his battle for the post of House majority leader Wednesday against Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who became a hero to many liberal Democrats with his early calls for a withdrawal from Iraq.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rahm Emanuel, Ill., said he would announce today whether he will challenge House Democratic Caucus Chairman James Clyburn, S.C., for the post of House majority whip. If Emanuel does, that race would pit the man who can claim a large share of the credit for Tuesday's victory against the only African American in Democratic leadership.

Meanwhile, a scramble began immediately among Republicans after Hastert's announcement that he would step down from his leadership post. House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, will square off with conservative Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., who took a shot at the current leadership in a letter to colleagues saying: "We did not just lose our majority — we lost our way. We are in the wilderness because we walked away from the limited-government principles that minted the Republican Congress." House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, said he also may run.

Post reporter Amy Goldstein contributed to this report.