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Final day of tight race for power in U.S. Congress

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The tight race for control of Congress came down to one tense, final day Monday with both parties hunting for an edge and hoping the close presidential contest will boost turnout among their core supporters.

Control of the Senate and the House are up for grabs in a race every bit as tight as the presidential contest, and a small band of genuine toss-up races could determine which party is in charge of implementing the new president's agenda in Congress for the next two years.

All 435 House seats and 34 of the 100 Senate seats are at stake Tuesday. Democrats need to pick up seven House seats and five Senate seats to reclaim congressional majorities for the first time since the 1994 Republican landslide.

Republicans hope to hold the House and Senate for four consecutive congressional sessions for the first time since the 1920s.

A series of intangibles -- the coattails of the presidential candidates, a last-minute candidate blunder or effective advertising blitz, and most importantly the Election Day get-out-the-vote effort -- could play roles in the final results.

About three dozen House races and a dozen Senate races will determine the final make-up of Congress, with Republicans slightly favored to hold their majorities but perhaps by very slender margins.

Both parties have stressed voter turnout efforts and hope the tight presidential race, the closest in decades, will bring out the party's base supporters in key battleground districts.

"George W. Bush has given us a great gift this year, a political climate that has really energized the Republican base," Jim Wilkinson, spokesman for the House Republican campaign committee, said of the Republican presidential nominee.

House Democrats, focused on getting out the black and labor union voters that form the party's base, also see benefits in the tight presidential contest between Bush and Democrat Al Gore.

"The hotter the presidential race, the better," said John Del Cecato, a spokesman for the House Democratic campaign committee. "We think Democrats will turn out in greater numbers for a hot presidential contest."

Nationwide, unions are making what they have labeled as their biggest election-year turnout effort in decades on behalf of Democrats, and big-name campaign stars such as President Clinton have tried to galvanize black voter turnout.

A strong black turnout could prove critical in races in Kentucky and Arkansas, for example, where Republican incumbents Anne Northup and Jay Dickey, respectively, face strong challenges.

In the crucial New Jersey Senate race, where a new poll Monday showed Republican Bob Franks moving into a slight lead, Democratic millionaire Jon Corzine is expected to spend millions out of his own pocket on the Election Day get-out-the vote effort.

Senate Democrats took heart Monday in two new polls showing first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton holding a lead over Republican Rep. Rick Lazio in their closely watched battle for the New York seat of retiring Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Democrats, who trail in the race for the open Democratic seat in Nevada, need to hold the open Democratic seats in New Jersey, New York and Nebraska, and hope for a come-from-behind victory by Virginia Democrat Charles Robb, to have any chance of recapturing the Senate.

Even with those victories, they would still need to capture at least six of the seven Republican seats at risk. That includes six Republican incumbents who are on the ropes and an open Florida Republican seat that is leaning Democratic.

Polls show Republican Senate incumbents in Delaware, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, Montana and Washington are in tough re-election fights.

In the House, Republicans expect to recapture Democratic open seats in Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia, and have high hopes for two others, in Missouri and Michigan.

That would widen their margin of power before returns begin to roll in from the West, where Democrats hope to pick up as many as four seats in California, at least one and maybe two in Washington and one each in Utah and Montana.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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Monday, November 6, 2000


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