Firmly in Control

Nov. 15 issue - He may have won re-election and a majority in both houses of Congress, but George W. Bush shouldn't expect a free ride on Capitol Hill. Republicans maintained their control of the House and expanded their lead in the Senate, with at least 54 seats in their column (the results of the Alaska race were not clear at press time). In South Dakota, former representative John Thune even managed to bump off Democratic Minority Leader Tom Daschle, the first Senate party chief to be ousted at the polls in 52 years. That's just one more reason the bitter divide that shaped the presidential campaign could make this Congress one of the most partisan and polarized ever.

Without 60 GOP votes in the Senate to shut off Democratic filibusters, Bush will have a hard time making leeway on his signature plan to overhaul Social Security. Senate Democrats had already stymied Bush's judicial appointments to the lower courts during his first term. Now they'll wrestle over the one to three Supreme Court vacancies he's expected to fill during the next four years. "It's going to be a mess," says one House Republican aide. "If people thought the partisan fighting was bad this Congress, that things didn't get done, just wait ... Democrats will be even more bitter than they've been the last four years." Democrats remain skeptical that Bush will do much to change the tone in Washington this time around. "Bush never lived up to that 'uniter, not a divider' promise," says one Democratic Hill staffer. "There's no reason to think he'd do it now."

THE NEXT FOUR YEARS • Washington bureau chief, Daniel Klaidman joined us Wednesday, Nov. 10, to discuss what to expect in the next four years. Read the transcript.

One reason for all the bitterness: the GOP's lock on the House was due largely to Republican-controlled redistricting in a number of states—especially Texas, where the GOP, led by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, picked up four seats after forcing Democratic incumbents into tough re-election bids. Despite a strong push by moderate-to-conservative Democratic Senate candidates, Republicans kept control of the upper chamber, too, with wins in close races in Oklahoma, North Carolina and Kentucky. Getting rid of Daschle was a real coup: the win was not only a psychological boost for the GOP, but it also forced the Democrats to shake up their leadership team.

Much of the politics was local: they debated energy policy in Alaska, a tobacco buyout in North Carolina, a national sales tax in South Carolina. But Republicans also managed to catch Bush's coattails, echoing the president's message on national security, the economy and social issues. They may also have picked up steam from conservatives drawn to the polls by successful ballot initiatives banning gay marriage in 11 states. In California, bipartisan crowds showed up to support Proposition 71, an initiative to provide $3 billion in state funds for stem-cell research.

John Gress / Reuters Rising star? Newcomer Barack Obama provided the Dems with a bright spot

Democrats didn't even try to hitch a ride on their party's ticket. In Colorado, moderate Democrat Ken Salazar distanced himself from John Kerry, managing to be busy nearly every time the candidate showed up in his state. Daschle even ran an ad of himself hugging Bush after 9/11, but it wasn't enough. The Democrats also benefited from the GOP's self-inflicted wounds in Illinois, where newcomer Barack Obama—just the third black member of the Senate since Reconstruction—gave his party a pickup. Yet the Democrats couldn't recoup the loss of having so many incumbents retire—including North Carolina's own John Edwards.

But when Congress returns to Washington, Bush will see plenty of familiar faces: Kerry will be back in his Senate seat. And Hillary Rodham Clinton will be there as well, perhaps ready to burnish her own record for 2008. Here's how some of the hottest races turned out:

SOUTH DAKOTA
There's a pretty good chance that Senate Minority Leader Daschle has actually shaken hands with each of the 4,500 or so voters who made the difference in his historic loss to Republican challenger Thune. South Dakota's population is that small, and Daschle, 56, has worked that hard since he started in politics 30 years ago as an aide to Democratic Sen. James Abourezk.

SPECIAL ELECTION ISSUE • Fineman: A Sweet Victory, A Tough Loss • The First Lady: Laura's New Agenda • How Anti-Gay Marriage Shaped the Contest • Wanted: Better Donkeys. The Dems Regroup • Alter: Bush Could Bring Us Together • Republicans: Firmly in Control of Congress • Zakaria: Writing Prose for a New Term • Quindlen: A President Who Listens • CW: Special Double W Edition • Perspectives • Graphic: Dubya Does D.C. • Talk Transcript: The Next Four Years

But Daschle's long career, which included four terms in the House and three in the Senate, could now be over, thanks to Thune's tough and effective campaign. The three-term Republican congressman, 43, spent millions casting Daschle as a Washington insider who had lost touch with his home state. Daschle spent millions more insisting that his position on the national stage was a good thing for South Dakota. The race became a holy cause for both parties, which poured in money. In all, the candidates went through $25 million, and Thune, who lost to Sen. Tim Johnson in 2002 by just 574 votes, ended up with 51 percent of the 391,000 votes cast.

FLORIDA
George W. Bush knew he would need all the help he could get in Florida. So last year, when the Democrats' Bob Graham announced he wouldn't seek re-election to the Senate, the president readily gave his blessing to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez to run for the Florida seat. It turned out to be a smart bet. The Cuban-born Martinez, 58, who landed in the United States 43 years ago speaking no English, quit his cabinet post and set to work making an all-out run for the Senate. He emphasized his close ties to the president, while his Democratic rival, former University of South Florida president Betty Castor, 63, played up her independence. After a close count that lasted until almost lunchtime Wednesday, Martinez emerged victorious with 3,552,000 votes, and Castor conceded.

FREE VIDEO • Behind the Bush Win NEWSWEEK's Editor Mark Whitaker discusses how the Republicans got the better of John Kerry (Courtesy of CNN) NEWSWEEK

COLORADO
The most expensive Senate race in Colorado history (a combined total of $15 million) matched two men with very different but very deep roots in the state. Democrat Ken Salazar's family settled in the San Luis Valley in the 1840s and has worked the same 200-acre farm for more than 150 years. Republican Pete Coors's great-grandfather Adolph started his brewery in Golden in 1873. Salazar, the cowboy-hat-wearing state attorney general, snagged the Senate seat vacated by retiring Republican Ben Nighthorse Campbell, 71. The key to victory: a coalition of Denver Democrats, conservative rural voters drawn by his ranching roots, moderate Republican suburbanites impressed by his tough anti-crime profile and Hispanic voters, whose numbers have surged in recent years. It was the warm beer of defeat for brew magnate Coors, 58, who found himself on the wrong end of a close vote. With his victory, Salazar, 49, joins Florida's Martinez as the first Hispanics to serve in the Senate since Democrat Joseph Montoya represented New Mexico nearly three decades ago.

FREE VIDEO • Faith and Fear NEWSWEEK Managing Editor Jon Meacham on the issues that decided the election (courtesy of 'The Charlie Rose Show' NEWSWEEK

LOUISIANA
Few expected Louisiana to post a clear result in its Senate race. The state's bizarre election law, the brainchild of now jailed former governor Edwin Edwards, pitted candidates of all parties against one another in a free-for-all "primary." The two top vote-getters would face a runoff unless one of them beat the odds by winning a clear majority. Congressman David Vitter, 43, the lone Republican in a seven-man race, led the field, while Democrats Chris John and John Kennedy fought a merciless battle for second place, accusing each other of ties to white supremacist David Duke (both denied it). In the end, their sniping seems to have given Vitter the majority he needed. He will be the first Republican senator in Louisiana history.

HOW BUSH DID IT  NEWSWEEK's exclusive, behind-the-scenes account of the presidential campaign • Introduction • Chapter One: The Primaries • Chapter Two: Bush's Inner Circle  • Chapter Three: Kerry Gets Cranky • Chapter Four: The Prison Scandal • Chapter Five: The Bush Daughters • Chapter Six: Swift Boats • Chapter Seven: The Debates • Chapter Eight: The Endgame

NORTH CAROLINA
John Edwards could have taken his lead from Joe Lieberman and opted not to quit his day job. Instead, Edwards put everything he had on winning the vice presidency. That choice led to a tight race for the North Carolinian's Senate seat. The Democratic candidate, former Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles, 59, began with better name recognition from a previous unsuccessful Senate run against Elizabeth Dole two years ago. But Richard Burr, 48, a five-term Republican congressman, ran an up-close-and-personal campaign, driving from small town to smaller town and meeting the voters one on one. The Burr technique did the job.

KENTUCKY
Republican incumbent Jim Bunning eked out a whisker-thin victory after an erratic campaign in which, among other things, he said his opponent looked like one of Saddam Hussein's sons. Bunning, 73, who started the race as a clear favorite, barely won a second term by defeating Democrat Daniel Mongiardo, 44, a state senator and surgeon.

OKLAHOMA
Just about every time Tom Coburn opened his mouth, he made Oklahomans flinch. The 56-year-old obstetrician warned of "rampant" lesbianism in some public schools and urged the death penalty for abortion doctors. He denounced state legislators as "a bunch of crapheads." And in a state whose population is 8 percent Native American, he disparaged Indian treaties as "primitive documents." But he was saved from himself when a below-the-belt attack from his Democratic rival, attorney Brad Carson, 37, backfired.

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Carson had spent months running a cautious but effective campaign as a right-of-center Democrat, firmly opposed to gay marriage and gun control. Then, barely a week before Election Day, Carson closed in for the kill with an ad that branded Coburn an "abortionist" for terminating the pregnancies of two patients. The obstetrician admitted it, saying the women's lives had been in danger—and the polls turned decisively against Carson.

ALASKA
Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski, 47, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2002 by her father, Gov. Frank Murkowski, shook off charges of nepotism and apparently bested Democratic challenger and former governor Tony Knowles, 61. But Knowles, trailing Murkowski by some 10,000 votes at press time, declined to concede, pointing to a sizable cache of absentee ballots and uncounted votes cast in remote arctic communities.

With Ace Atkins in Jackson, Miss., Holly Bailey in New York, Karen Breslau in Colorado, Arian Campo-Flores in Miami, Anne Belli Gesalman in Oklahoma City and Andrea Cooper in Charlotte, N.C.

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