Voters head to polls to decide battle for Congress

By John Whitesides/Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Voters headed to the polls Tuesday to decide a too-close-to-call struggle for Congress, as Democrats mounted a strong push to retake both the House and the Senate from Republicans for the first time since 1994.

After a campaign that shattered all spending records, a small group of exceedingly tight races was expected to determine power in Congress and decide which party will be in charge of implementing the new president's agenda for the next two years.

All 435 House seats and 34 of the 100 Senate seats are at stake on Tuesday, with Democrats needing to pick up seven House seats and five Senate seats to reclaim congressional majorities for the first time since the 1994 Republican landslide led by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

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

About three dozen House seats and a dozen Senate seats remain uncertain, and power in both chambers is likely to be held by a wafer-thin majority no matter which party is in control.

In the Senate, six Republican incumbents are running in tight re-election races, while one Democratic incumbent, Charles Robb of Virginia, faces a tough struggle for reelection against former state governor George Allen.

In the House, Republicans hope to pick up Democratic open seats in Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Missouri and Michigan, offsetting expected Democratic gains of as many as four seats in California, where three Republican incumbents face tough re-election fights.

The featured contest nationally has been in New York, where Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton is bidding to be the only first lady elected to public office. She is in a tight race with Republican Rep. Rick Lazio, but was buoyed by two polls on Monday showing her leading.

But the Senate race in Missouri, where late Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan remains on the ballot after his October death in a plane crash, could wind up as the most intriguing of all.

Carnahan's wife, Jean, has promised to accept an appointment from Missouri's new Democratic governor to serve in her husband's place if Carnahan is elected, and polls show him with a slight lead over incumbent Republican John Ashcroft.

Nationwide, voters have been barraged throughout the campaign by waves of advertising paid for with record-setting amounts of campaign cash, as Senate and House candidates and the national campaign committees set new fund-raising records.

New Jersey Democratic Senate candidate Jon Corzine shattered spending records with an unprecedented $60 million campaign, but a new poll showed his Republican opponent, Rep. Bob Franks, who ran on a comparative shoestring budget of $5 million, pulling ahead.

The most expensive House election in history, in California's 27th District, pitted former House impeachment prosecutor James Rogan, a Republican, against Democratic state Sen. Adam Schiff.

Polls show a tight race, giving Schiff perhaps a slight lead, but like most House races the result was expected to hinge on imponderables such as voter turnout, with both parties concentrating on getting their supporters to the polls.

Both parties hope the tight presidential race between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, the closest in decades, will bring out more voters.

Republicans say Bush's campaign has energized their base, while House Democrats have focused on getting out their traditional constituencies of black and labor union voters.

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 record 3.2 million absentee ballots in California -- nearly one-quarter of the votes expected to be cast -- could delay the vote count in that crucial battleground state.

The uncertainty could last for days and even weeks as poll workers tally the late votes, said Alfie Charles, a spokesman for California Secretary of State Bill Jones.

"There are a number of congressional races in California that may be too close to call, and those races could also be the ones that determine the balance of power in Congress," Charles said.

In the Senate, Republican incumbents in Delaware, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, Montana and Washington are in tough re-election fights, and an open Republican seat in Florida is leaning Democratic but tightening in the final stages.

Democrats are at least slightly favored to defend their open seats in New York, New Jersey and Nebraska, but trail badly in Nevada where former Republican congressman John Ensign appears certain to pick up the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Richard Bryan.

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