Republicans, Democrats swap senate seats

3.00pm

WASHINGTON - Democrats and Republicans swapped a pair of US Senate seats on Wednesday elections as they battled for control of a sharply divided US Congress, according to television network projections.

Democrat Barack Obama defeated Republican Alan Keyes for the Senate seat in Illinois being vacated by retiring Republican Sen Peter Fitzgerald.

In Georgia, Republican Rep Johnny Isakson defeated Democratic Rep Denise Majette to take the seat being vacated by retiring conservative Democratic Sen Zell Miller.

The marquee congressional contest was being waged in South Dakota where Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat, was battling to avoid becoming the first Senate leader in half a century to be voted out of office.

Daschle was being challenged by former US Rep John Thune, who came within 524 votes in 2002 of defeating the other senator in the Republican-leaning state, Democrat Tim Johnson.

Early returns showed Democrats retaining Senate seats in Vermont, Indiana, Connecticut and Maryland, with Republicans holding Senate seats in Ohio, Alabama, Missouri and New Hampshire.

Results of Tuesday's election will shape the 109th Congress, set to convene on Jan 3, 17 days before the next president is inaugurated.

Republicans now hold the House with 227 of 435 seats and the Senate with 51 of 100 seats. All House seats and 34 Senate seats were up for election.

However, only nine of the Senate races -- in South Dakota, Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Kentucky -- and about 30 of the House races were seen as competitive.

For Democrats to take control of either chamber, they would essentially have to hold on to their own vulnerable seats and win most of the Republican ones.

If Republicans hold on to Congress, they will have a major say in determining what the winner of the White House race -- Republican incumbent George W Bush or Democrat John Kerry -- will be able to do.

A Republican-led Congress would help Bush push through a stepped-up conservative agenda. But it would provide plenty of partisan opposition to Kerry's vows to roll back many of the incumbent's initiatives, such as a tax cut that went largely to the rich.

Though polls have shown most Americans believe the nation is on "the wrong track," Republicans have been favoured to retain Congress largely because of advantages of incumbency in fund-raising and name recognition.

Republicans also got a break in the Senate races since many of the close contests are in largely conservative states where Bush was expected to put up a strong showing.

On the other side of Capitol Hill, Republicans were expected to benefit from a controversial congressional redistricting plan that they pushed through Texas.

The redrawn political map is expected to help Republicans pick up half a dozen House seats and help offset any loses elsewhere. Among veteran Texas House Democrats in jeopardy of losing their seats were: Martin Frost, Charles Stenholm and Chet Edwards.

One of the Democrats' best chances of picking up a Senate seat appeared to be in Alaska where former Democratic Gov Tony Knowles was running against Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski, daughter of current Gov. Frank Murkowski.

One thing that seemed certain was that Congress would remain closely divided, promising more of the partisan gridlock that plagued Capitol Hill much of the past four years.

- REUTERS