By Akeem Mellis
Bolstered by voter dissatisfaction with President George Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq and corruption in Congress, the Democratic Party took control of Congress in the midterm elections on Tuesday, winning the House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years.
“Tonight, the American people have voted for change,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in front of a large crowd at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is expected she will become the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives.
With 425 of the 435 House races decided, the Democrats have won 229 seats, a gain of 28 seats, while the Republicans received 196 seats, a loss of 34 seats. Across the nation, GOP incumbents were voted out of office, including notable Congressmen such as John Hosteller (R-Ind.), Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) and J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.).
Other Democratic victories occured in districts where seats had been vacated by formerly popular GOP Congressmen who were forced to resign due to scandal, such as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), Bob Ney (R-OH) and Tom Foley (R-Fla.).
In the Senate, Democrats ran the table as they captured the six seats they needed to recapture the Senate for the first time since 2002. The upsets in the upper chamber of Congress include Bob Casey, handily defeating the number three Republican in the Senate, Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania, Rep. Sherrod Brown beating Mike DeWine in Ohio and in Missouri, Clare McCaskill defeating Jim Talent.
In the Virginia nail-biter race, former Navy Secretary Jim Webb beat incumbent GOP Sen. George Allen.
Democrats also took a majority of the governor’s mansions and the state legislatures for the first time in a decade, winning races in Massachusetts and Maryland, among other states.
Meanwhile in New York state, Democrats swept the four major statewide offices. Outgoing Attorney General Eliot Spitzer cruised to his election as governor by defeating John Faso 69 percent to 29 percent.
Sen. Hillary Clinton was easily re-elected to the Senate, beating former Yonkers mayor John Spencer 67 percent to 31 percent.
Andrew Cuomo, son of former Governor Mario Cuomo, won the Attorney General’s race by defeating Jeanine Pirro 60 percent to 40 percent.
Also, scandal-plagued Comptroller Alan Hevesi surged to a surprisingly easy re-election over J. Christopher Callaghan 56 percent to 39 percent.
On Wednesday, many students were very satisfied of the election results of the previous night.
“It’s interesting that the Democrats won. We will have a majority of our views heard in Congress and I hope that their plans will be implemented in society,” Benjamin Conrok, a senior psychology/pre-med double major, said. “I’m satisfied that the Democrats won.”
Patrick Maloney, a sophomore history major, said, “I thought it was good that the Republicans lost. You can see that in the country, the biggest issue is corruption, that national issues are more important than local issues.”
Even conservative Republicans on campus were critical of their party.
“I think that to some extent, this result was expected with voter dissatisfaction about how the war in Iraq has been handled,” Matthew Pecornio, a second-year law student, stated. “Republicans have lost their ideological way, becoming enamored with power, and have become part of the problem, not part of the solution.”
