Washington: Optimistic Republicans looked to win control of the Senate, while Democrats struggled to limit their congressional losses Tuesday in a U.S. election that could change the balance of power midway through President Barack Obama's second term.
Democrats weighed down by Obama's low approval ratings kept their distance from him and looked to a costly get-out-the-vote operation in the most competitive Senate races to save their seats and their majority. They were working furiously to reach out to minority, women and young voters who tend to sit-out elections when the presidency is not at stake.
The main prize in a $4 billion campaign was control of the Senate, a contest that sprawled across three dozen states. Republicans need to pick up six seats to gain a Senate majority. But a large number of competitive races combined with the possibility of runoffs in Louisiana and Georgia meant that neither party might be able to claim victory by the day after Election Day.
There was little suspense about the races for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, beyond the size of the new Republican majority. A gain of 13 seats would give Republicans their largest representation since it stood at 246 in 1946. Democrats concentrated on protecting their incumbents
About 10 Senate races have drawn most of the attention, but Democrats were at a disadvantage because these were either in Republican-leaning states carried by Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election or evenly divided swing states.
In these competitive states, astronomical spending and cease-less attack ads have dominated campaigning—with few ideas offered on how best to govern the nation. Serious discussions about deficit spending, climate change, immigration, and other knotty issues rarely emerged.
Republicans sought to cast the election as a referendum on Obama's presidency even though he was not on the ballot.
“The president's policies have just flat-out failed,” House Speaker John Boehner said Monday, campaigning for a 13th term in Congress and hoping for two more years as the top House leader. He and other Republicans vowed to change Obama's policies, but have offered little in the way of specifics.
Democrats didn't so much defend the president as insist they were independent of him.
“There are two people on the ballot tomorrow, me and Scott Brown,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said as she campaigned Monday, referring to her Republican opponent who moved to New Hampshire after losing his Senate seat from neighboring Massachusetts.
