Parties battle to control Congress

Republicans and Democrats battled for control of Congress today in mid-term US elections clouded by terrorism, the threat of war and a shaky economy, with voters marking ballots for governor from Maine to California.

Two Republican senators coasted to new terms, Sen Mitch McConnell of Kentucky winning his fourth six-year term and Sen John Warner of Virginia his fifth.

In the race for a pivotal House of Representatives seat in Kentucky, Republican Rep Anne Northup held a narrow lead over Democratic challenger Jack Conway with votes tallied in more than half the precincts.

All 435 House seats were up for grabs, as well as 34 Senate seats and three dozen governors’ races. Voters filled state legislatures and school boards, decided whether to legalise possession of small amounts of marijuana in Nevada, and settled countless ballot issues elsewhere.

At the middle of his four-year term, President George Bush stumped energetically for Republican congressional candidates who could advance his legislative agenda over the next two years - and for gubernatorial hopefuls who could aid his re-election in 2004.

Democrats, too, campaigned with one eye on this election and one on the next, none more so than Rep Dick Gephardt, the party’s House leader. Gephardt was leading the drive to end eight years of Republican rule of that chamber, and is a likely presidential contender in two years.

Even the top governors’ races had presidential overtones. Democrats made defeating Republican Gov Jeb Bush in Florida a national priority - working against the president’s brother in the state that was at the centre of a deadlocked presidential election in 2000 that revealed serious flaws in how US election are conducted.

Republicans battled history as well as Democrats, and expressed optimism they could prevail. The president’s party has lost House seats in every midterm election except three in the past century, an average of 30 seats. The average mid-term loss of Senate seats was four.

But the Republicans had advantages, as well. These included a political landscape transformed by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and a president whose approval ratings remained at enviable levels despite a sputtering economy.

Republicans also enjoyed a financial superiority. A Federal Election Commission analysis said the Republican National Committee and its congressional campaign arms had outraised their Democratic counterparts by 184 million dollars through mid-October.

Democrats sought a gain of seven seats to win a House majority. In the Senate, a shift of one seat to the Republicans would guarantee them at least a 50-50 split, giving them control on the basis of Vice President Dick Cheney’s ability to break ties.

In all, Republicans were defending 23 of the 36 governorships on the ballot, while Democrats were defending 11. Two seats were held by outgoing independents.

Several big-state governors sought new terms, from Democrat Gray Davis in California to Republicans Rick Perry in Texas, George Pataki in New York and Bush in Florida.

Democrats took particular aim at statehouses across the Midwest where the GOP has long held power - a belt of states stretching from Pennsylvania to Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

The Republicans were defending 20 Senate seats, to 14 for the Democrats, and a short list of incumbents in both parties faced strong tests.

Democratic Sen Tim Johnson battled Republican John Thune in South Dakota and Democratic Sen Jean Carnahan ran against former Rep Jim Talent in a bid for the four years remaining on her late husband’s term in Missouri. Embattled Republican incumbents included Sen Tim Hutchinson, up against Mark Pryor in Arkansasand Wayne Allard in a Colorado rematch with Tom Strickland.

The costliest US Senate race was in North Carolina, where Republican Elizabeth Dole, a former presidential candidate and Democrat Erskine Bowles, former President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, spent 20 million dollars in a struggle to replace retiring Sen Jesse Helms, the conservative former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In Minnesota, former Vice President Walter Mondale sought a return to the Senate in a race against former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman, a Republican. Mondale took his place on the ballot less than a week before the election after the death of Democratic Sen Paul Wellstone in a plane crash.