Democrats retake House, probably Senate thanks to moderate candidates, disaffection

WASHINGTON (ABP) — President Bush extended Democrats a rhetorical olive branch Nov. 8, just hours after the party regained control of the House of Representatives — and looked likely to regain the Senate — for the first time in 12 years.

“I'm obviously disappointed with the outcome of the election, and as the head of the Republican Party, I share a large part of the responsibility,” he told reporters. “I told my party's leaders that it is now our duty to put the elections behind us and work together with the Democrats and independents on the great issues facing this country.”

Bush's comments came in the wake of an electoral upheaval of Washington's power structure. Exit polls suggested voters' dissatisfaction with Bush — his Republican Party turned heavily on dissatisfaction with the Iraq war, positions on some social issues and a sense that years of controlling all three branches of government had bred corruption in GOP ranks.

As of the late afternoon of Nov. 8, it appeared Democrats had gained close to a 30-seat majority over Republicans in the House. The Senate's final majority continued to hinge on two tightly contested Senate seats — one in Montana and another in Virginia — where Democratic challengers led Republican incumbents by small margins.

“I think what happened in this election is that the losers in this were the secular left and the Religious Right,” said Jeff Carr, chief operating officer for the evangelical anti-poverty group Call to Renewal, in a Nov. 8 conference call with reporters. “I think the message [from] the American people is that, number one, they are tired of the corruption…. The other thing is, I think this was clearly a referendum on Iraq.”

In 2004, exit polls suggested that a heavy turnout by white evangelical Christians and white Catholics helped Bush and socially conservative candidates win elections. Proposed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage on the November ballots in 11 states that year got much of the credit for creating excitement among social conservatives, many of whom cited “moral values” issues as the most important factor driving their votes.

Eight states had same-sex marriage amendments on the ballot this year. But similar exit polls from this election suggest that wedge issues like gay rights didn't motivate as large a percentage of voters, and that while conservative religious voters turned out in similar numbers as 2004, they didn't vote as heavily for Republicans in 2006.

The polls, by a consortium of media outlets, showed that 30 percent of white evangelicals voted for Democrats in congressional races this time around — about four percent higher than in 2004. In addition, a small majority of white Catholics voted for Democrats in 2006. Two years earlier, a similar majority of that category broke for Republicans. Overall, 54 percent of voters who said they attended religious services weekly voted for Democrats.

One of the reasons for that shift, according to a prominent conservative Christian leader, could be attributed to the series of corruption, influence-peddling and sex scandals that have beset prominent GOP leaders in the past two years.

“The 'values voters of 2004' could be called the ‘integrity voters' of 2006,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council, in a Nov. 8 press release. “The message is that values are not just something you talk about at election time; values should guide public policies and personal conduct. This should be a clear message to both parties that values voters vote values, not party.”

Noting that perceived corruption in the GOP and dissatisfaction with the Iraq war were major motivations behind many of the 2006 voters' decisions, Perkins said the change may be an “inescapable reality for Republicans, but it should serve as a warning to the many Democrats who leveraged the values gap by running as pro-life, pro-family candidates.”

Several of the Democrats who defeated Republicans in moderate or conservative districts were themselves moderate to conservative on social issues important to religious voters. Voters elected anti-abortion Democrats to statewide or federal office, for instance, in states such as Pennsylvania, Colorado and North Carolina.

“Democrats were successful in yesterday's elections by recruiting candidates who can only be described as conservative or right-of-center,” said Cleta Mitchell, a member of the board of the American Conservative Union, speaking to reporters Nov. 8 at the National Press Club. “So, while many Republican candidates and members lost, it should not be seen as repudiation in any way of conservatives, or our principles.”

However, several of the Republican losses came on candidates closely tied to the Religious Right. Among those are:

— Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who made a name as one of the Senate's most stringent opponents of gay rights and abortion rights. He lost to pro-life Democratic challenger Bob Casey.

— Florida Rep. Katherine Harris, who lost her bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in a landslide, despite repeated appeals to her evangelical faith and controversial comments about the role of Christianity in government.

— Indiana Rep. John Hostettler, one of the House's most outspoken advocates of government-sanctioned religious displays. Conservative Democrat Brad Ellsworth beat him by a 61-39 percent margin in Hostettler's bid for election to a 7th term.

Religious conservatives, meanwhile, had mixed results on ballot issues. Arizona became the first state to reject a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, while seven other states approved such amendments. However, most of those won by narrower margins than similar amendments did in 2004.

In Missouri, voters approved an amendment protecting embryonic stem-cell research, which many pro-lifers oppose. And South Dakota voters overwhelmingly repealed a severe anti-abortion law, which would have banned abortion in all cases except to save the mother's life.

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— Hannah Elliott contributed to this story