Democrats are looking for bigger House majority

Long lines formed as polls opened before daybreak in about a dozen Eastern seaboard states. Democrats were counting on heavy turnouts to capture more than 15 GOP seats, and they had a good chance to wrest away another two dozen seats. Republicans had fewer than a dozen Democratic targets they had any hope of defeating.

Annie Bright, elections director in Clayton County, Ga., said that "our plan is to vote every voters that‘s in line in the time period that‘s allotted. We‘re doing anything we can to get them all voted. Even if it takes all night."

This year it‘s the sour economy and public antipathy for President Bush that posed the biggest challenges for Republican candidates. A wave of GOP retirements and huge financial and organizational disadvantages compared with Democrats made a grim fight even tougher.

GOP lawmakers at risk include Alaska‘s Rep. Don Young, Rep. Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado, Rep. Tom Feeney of Florida, and Michigan Reps. Tim Walberg and Joe Knollenberg. Rep. Lee Terry of Nebraska, once considered a safe bet for re-election, is also in major trouble in a state Obama is actively contesting.

Democrats aren‘t expecting a clean sweep. Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-Fla., who is under investigation by the FBI and a House panel after admitting to two adulterous affairs, is all but certain to lose his re-election race. Other Democrats most at risk of losing include Reps. Paul E. Kanjorski in Pennsylvania and Nick Lampson in Texas.

Democrats, who came out of their huge 2006 victory girding for losses this year, instead were able to aggressively spread their considerable wealth to campaigns around the country, including to traditionally Republican districts where their candidates shouldn‘t have had a chance.

Republicans, meanwhile, were fighting on a playing field skewed by the departure of 29 of their members, leaving lesser-known GOP contenders to battle better-financed Democrats in races shaped in large part by antipathy toward Bush.

The parties‘ campaign committees also bankrolled the most competitive races, with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee pouring in $76 million and the National Republican Congressional Committee spending $24 million.

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