2008 Woodie Awards
Election Roundup
Election season end with the Democrats taking both the House and Senate
William D. Sedlack Staff Writer
Issue date: 11/14/06 Section: News
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The leader of the Republican Party, President George W. Bush, responded to
the large Republican loss. "It was a thumpin'," Bush said in a press conference Wednesday.
With this political change, the Democrats are poised to make history and name Nancy
Pelosi to be the first-ever female speaker of the House.
This transformation was the result of a number of close races across the country being won in the House and Senate by Democrats.
On Election Day, the leader of these prominent races was the Senate race in the Virginia.
This race pitted incumbent George Allen against Jim Webb, a former Republican
Secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan.
Webb beat Allen by 7,000 votes, giving the Democrats the final win to control the Senate.
In the widely watched Pennsylvania Senate race, Senator-elect Bob Casey Jr. beat his opponent, former incumbent Rick Santorum, by 18 percent. Democrats throughout the country marked this race for its importance. With the loss of Santorum, the Republican's lost their third ranking member.
In Rhode Island, centrist Republican Lincoln Chafee lost his incumbency to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, and in
Vermont, Independent Bernie Sanders beat Republican Rich Tarrant by over 15 percent.
"Vermont has sent a very strong signal to change the course," Senator Patrick Leahy,
D-VT said in response to the announcement of Sanders' victory.
Another incumbent was unseated in Ohio, where Republican Senator Mike DeWine lost by 12 percent to Democratic challenger Sherrod Brown.
An additional race that was slow to be conceded was the Montana Senate race between Republican incumbent Conrad
Burns and Democrat and organic farmer Jon Tester. Tester announced victory on Nov. 8,
but it was not until Nov. 9 that Burns finally conceded the election.
This was one of the many closely followed elections, after it was made known that Burns had tied with recently disgraced
lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
While they picked up a substantial number of new seats in the Senate, the House of
Representatives was an even larger victory for the Democrats.
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