Filling In Details

The general shape of Barack Obama's smashing victory and the Democratic gains in Congress did not change overnight.

Picking up the Cavalcade of Returns where the indefatigable Evie Stone left off five hours ago:

Three Republican senators are locked in races too close to call.

In Minnesota, GOP incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic comedian Al Franken are less than one-half of a percent point apart. That would trigger a mandatory recount under state law.

Oregon Republican Sen. Gordon Smith and Democrat Jeff Merkley were nearly tied, with some 630,000 votes left to count, the AP reports.

Alaska's Ted Stevens, who squeezed in some fierce campaigning in the few days between his corruption conviction and Election Day, is about 4,000 votes ahead of Democrat Mark Begich.

Democrats knew last night they've got five new Senate seats, in Colorado, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina and Virginia.

In the House, we still don't know about a half-dozen races. Republicans are defending in all but one:

Rep. Don Young (R) vs. Ethan Berkowitz (D), AK-AL
Rep. Dave Reichert (R) vs. Darcy Burner (D), WA-5
Rep. Bill Sali (R) vs. Walt Minnick (D), ID-1
Tom McClintock (R) vs. Charlie Brown (D), CA-4 -- seat vacated by GOP Rep. John Doolittle, who was caught in the Abramoff lobbying scandal
Rep. Brian Bilbray (R) vs. Nick Leibham (D), CA-50
Scott Starin (R) vs. Jared Polis (D), CO-3 -- seat vacated by Democratic Rep., now Sen.-Elect Mark Udall
Rep. Virgil Goode (R) vs. Tom Perriello (D), VA-5
Andy Harris (R) vs. Frank Kratovil (D), MD-2 -- seat formerly held by GOP Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, whom Harris defeated in a primary

Not counting any of these, it's already an 18-seat shift from Republicans to Democrats in the House chamber.

Things may slow down from here in the vote-counting business. It takes a lot longer to recount and verify than to do the initial tallies.

We'll keep you posted.

-- Peter Overby

9:22 AM ET | 11- 5-2008 | permalink

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