Drowning in the Red Tide

There's no spinning it away: Election 2004 was ugly for the Democrats on Capitol Hill. The donkeys lost a net four seats in the U.S. Senate – including, most dramatically, that of their leader, South Dakota's Tom Daschle, the first party leader to be ousted from the upper house in more than 50 years. Despite the easy victory of Illinois' rising star Barack Obama and the hard-fought triumph of Colorado's Ken Salazar – who now become the only black and Mexican-American members of the Senate – the GOP's pickups of seats vacated by retiring Dems in the South (Georgia, North and South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana) put the pachyderms at 55 seats – perilously close to the 60 needed to shut off a filibuster and leave the minority party powerless.

Ditto in the U.S. House, where – aided immeasurably by Majority Leader Tom DeLay's Texas Redistricting Massacre – the Shiites of the GOP further padded their margins. Despite a couple of notable pickups – including the ouster of Chicago's Phil Crane, the senior GOP member of the House (he succeeded Donald Rumsfeld back in 1969) – the Dems' five lost Texas seats, plus losses in Indiana and Kentucky (the latter seat defended for the Dems by celebrity dad Nick Clooney), delivered at least 231 seats to the GOP caucus. Three seats remain up for grabs at press time.

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Key National Races

U.S. SENATE Democrat Republican Hold/PickupColorado Ken Salazar Pete Coors D Pickup

Illinois Barack Obama Alan Keyes D Pickup

Kentucky Daniel Mongiardo Jim Bunning * R Hold

Oklahoma Brad Carson Tom Coburn R Hold

Pennsylvania Joe Hoeffel Arlen Specter * R Hold

Alaska Tony Knowles Lisa Murkowski * R Hold

Georgia Denise Majette Johnny Isakson R Pickup

South Carolina Inez Tenenbaum Jim DeMint R Pickup

North Carolina Erskine Bowles Richard Burr R Pickup

South Dakota Tom Daschle * John Thune R Pickup

Florida Betty Castor Mel Martinez R Pickup

Louisiana Several David Vitter R PickupU.S. HOUSE GOP Dem. Other2003 226 205 3 (1 independent, 2 vacant)

2005 231 200 X (1 independent, 3 undecided)