KEY POINTS:
WASHINGTON - A disappointed President George W. Bush is to urge his opponents to work with him after the Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives today.
Democrats swept Republicans out of power in the US House of Representatives today riding public doubts about the war in Iraq and President George W Bush's leadership to victory.
The win is likely to slam the brakes on Bush's legislative agenda in his final two years, make Democrat Nancy Pelosi the first female Speaker of the House and give Democrats a chance to investigate his administration's most controversial policy decisions such as the war in Iraq.
Two years after a decisive election victory for Bush and his Republicans, Democrats picked up the 15 seats they needed to recapture control of the 435-seat House for the first time since 1994.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the outcome of the elections was "not what we would've hoped."
"But it also gets us to a point: Democrats have spent a lot of time complaining about what the president has done. This is an opportunity for them to kind of stand up," Snow said.
Bush, whose Iraq policy was a key factor in the elections, had dinner with top aides and close friends Brad Freeman and Don Evans, the former commerce secretary, and watched the election returns on television in the White House.
He was told formally by his top political adviser, Karl Rove, that the House had gone to the Democrats.
It was described as a businesslike environment with aides thumbing messages into their blackberries to keep track of developments.
The bad news came after Bush spent the last five days of the campaign trying to help Republican candidates in 10 states.
"Now, one of the things is both parties have got a lot work to do," Snow said. "The president has got a very active agenda for the next two years and you're going to need both parties. There has to be a calculated decision by the Democrats."
Democrats needed to gain six seats to reclaim control of the 100-seat Senate for the first time in four years, and so far had taken three seats from Republicans.
Polls heading into the voting showed Democrats benefiting from public doubts about the country's future, the Iraq war and Bush, whose approval ratings in the mid-30s limited his ability to reach out to independents and drum up support for Republicans.
All House seats, 33 Senate seats and 36 governorships were at stake on Tuesday.
A Democratic majority in even one chamber of Congress could slam the brakes on Bush's legislative agenda in the two years he has left in office and give Democrats a chance to investigate his administration's most controversial policy decisions such as the war in Iraq.
Democrats have promised votes on much of their agenda within the first 100 hours of taking power in January, including new ethics rules, a rise in the minimum wage, reduced subsidies to the oil industry and improvements in border and port security.
Both parties had fired up intensive get-out-the-vote operations to bring core supporters to the polls and sent big-name stars on to the campaign trail in a late effort to win over independents and tip the balance in close races around the country.
About 50 contested House races and 10 Senate races were the chief battlegrounds.
Before the voting, independent analysts predicted Democrats could gain 20 to 40 House seats, while polls showed races for key Republican-held seats in Missouri, Virginia, Tennessee, Montana and Rhode Island were too close to call.
By 5pm NZT Democrats had scored key early victories over President George W Bush's Republicans.
Democratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, widely believed to be weighing a bid for the White House, won re-election to a second term in the US Senate.
Her second Senate term in hand, Clinton now faces widespread speculation that she will pursue higher political office.
Democrats also picked up three Republican Senate seats, in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Ohio, and held their own threatened Senate seats in New Jersey and Maryland. But Republicans led tight races in Tennessee and Virginia that were crucial to Democratic hopes of winning the Senate.
"Certainly the early indications look good but I think we're all prepared to stay up all night and watch to make sure," Democratic Party chief Howard Dean said on CNN.
Before voting closed, opinion polls showed Democrats favoured to recapture control of the US House of Representatives from Republicans for the first time since 1994.
"I'm here to thank each and every one of you for bringing us to where we are now tonight -- on the brink of a great Democratic victory," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who would become speaker if Democrats are confirmed as taking the House, told a victory party on Capitol Hill.
New York elected Democratic Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to replace departing Republican Gov George Pataki, according to media projections. Spitzer's victory restores the governor's seat to Democratic hands for the first time in a decade.
In Ohio, decisive in the 2004 White House race, Ted Strickland, six-term congressman and Methodist minister, was projected as the first Democrat in 16 years to be elected governor.
Massachusetts, one of the most faithfully Democratic states in presidential elections, returned the governor's job to the party also for the first time in 16 years by electing Deval Patrick as its first black governor and only the second black governor ever from any state.
The stakes are high because control of the highest elected office in each state sets the agenda for policymaking at the state level and provides political leverage, money and influence to the candidate or their party in presidential election years.
In a campaign dominated by Iraq, Bush defended his handling of the war to the end, despite job approval ratings mired in the mid-30s and growing public discontent. He questioned what Democrats would do differently and predicted Republicans would retain control of Congress.
After a five-day swing through 10 states to fire up supporters in Republican strongholds, Bush voted near his ranch in Crawford, Texas, and urged all Americans to vote.
- REUTERS
