Democrats erased the Republican Senate majority Wednesday with a cliffhanger victory in Montana, hours after taking control of the House in an election that delivered a rebuke of GOP scandal, the Iraq war and the course of a nation.
With Democrats now assured of 50 Senate seats, the battle for outright control came down to Virginia, where the party's candidate, Jim Webb, held a small lead.
For Republicans, it was an election that started out grim and got only grimmer with the the new day. First, voters brought down the Republican House majority after 12 years in power, and gave Democrats a majority of governorships for the first time in just as long.
Then Senate control began slipping away, the narrow GOP majority ground down to nothing, protected only by Vice President Dick Cheney's tie-breaking vote if the contest ended at 50-50.
Democrats hoped to shape a 51-49 majority with a Virginia victory for Webb, a former Navy secretary under Ronald Reagan. Webb led by fewer than 9,000 votes out of more than 2.3 million cast, and with the margin so small and so much on the line, GOP Sen. George Allen was not conceding. If a recount is held it could take weeks to be conducted by a panel of judges.
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