[BEEPING SOUND]

ELIZABETH DOLE:

Historic wins have swept across the political landscape, unsettling allegiances and toppling traditions. People from faraway places poured tens of millions of dollars into North Carolina, funding tough, unfair, negative ads against me.

ADAORA UDOJI:

That is Senator Elizabeth Dole, who lost her Senate seat in her North Carolina effort last night. And, of course, there were many other big races across the country for Congress and the Senate.

Democrats picked up seats, not as many as they'd hoped. There were also some ballot initiatives. And for a rundown of all of that, Todd Zwillich of Capitol News Connection is joining us now, as well as Andrea Bernstein, our Takeaway Political Director. And Patrik Henry Bass is still with us, senior editor at Essence. So welcome and good morning to all of you.

ANDREA BERNSTEIN:

Good morning.

ADAORA UDOJI:

Todd, let's start with you. Give us a rundown of what went on in the most contested Senate and congressional races last night.

TODD ZWILLICH:

All right. Hi, good morning. Well, of course, you just heard from Liddy Dole in North Carolina, and she was one of the first Republican casualties to be called by the networks last night. Kay Hagen defeated her. Liddy Dole there complaining about negative campaigning against her.

Some of Dole’s campaigning in the final week of the campaign, as she became desperate, also made news, ranting out [?] against Hagen, calling – suggesting that she was ungodly or consorted with atheists. And that’s never popular in North Carolina but it wasn't enough to hold onto her seat.

New Hampshire, John Sununu, one-term incumbent, lost his seat. That was a seat that looked increasingly like it was headed towards Democrats as the race went on. They managed to grab that one away from Republicans, of course.

Some of the ones that were expected all along in the last, oh, by the last month of the race – New Mexico, Colorado and Virginia – all went to the Democratic column. And then there were just a couple of others I'll point out very quickly.

Some that the Democrats were very much hoping to grab out from under Republicans don't look like they have. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in Kentucky, has held onto his seat against a fellow named Mark Lunsford, a Democrat - [OVERTALK] -

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Todd, let's listen to McConnell, because [LAUGHS] I think McConnell was really feeling like he dodged a bullet last night.

TODD ZWILLICH:

[LAUGHS]

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MITCH McCONNELL:

Winston Churchill once said the most exhilarating feeling in life is to be shot at and missed.

[CROWD LAUGHS, APPLAUDS AND CHEERS]

After the last few months I think he really meant to say there’s nothing more exhausting.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Did you catch that dodged a bullet reference in there, Todd?

ADAORA UDOJI: [?]

[LAUGHS] Literally, I guess.

[LAUGHTER]

All he needed to do was go hunting with Dick Cheney.

TODD ZWILLICH:

And I caught a lilt of relief and a lilt of humor in McConnell’s voice, which is more than you usually hear from him. He’s one of the most tightly-wound [LAUGHS] and controlled people you've ever heard.

So you could hear in the sound of his voice how much – how relieved he was.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Andrea, what about the -

ANDREA BERNSTEIN: [?]

There are still some races this morning that we don't know who’s won.

TODD ZWILLICH:

Correct. Correct. Gordon Smith out in Oregon was called earlier in the night as a defeat for him and a victory for a fellow named Merkley has since been put back into the undecided column.

And, of course, the race that everyone’s following very closely is – two races that everyone’s following very closely – one is Ted Stevens in Alaska, the recently-convicted-on-ethics-charges Ted Stevens of Alaska. That race is still too close to call. Stevens appears to have a little minor edge. And the Al Franken/Norm Coleman race in Minnesota is also, has not been officially called yet and is a razor-razor-thin race at this point.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

What about the ballot measures, Andrea? It seems as though some of the unique dynamics of this national election may have had an impact on Prop 8 out in California.

ANDREA BERNSTEIN:

It’s hard to know what exactly happened with Prop 8. I mean, what I was hearing from people working on it was that all of the energy that might have gone into a ground operation for Prop 8 was sucked away into the Obama campaign in various parts of the country.

If Prop 8 does pass [OVERTALK] -

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Let's remind people. Proposition 8 does what, exactly?

ANDREA BERNSTEIN:

It revokes the right to gay marriage that was granted by the California State Court last June, or last May. And if it holds, it would be the first time that a Constitutional right would be revoked by popular referendum that had been granted by a court.

But I think that the results from that are still coming in. It looks like it is leading and probably will pass, but I think that the full analysis of where it passed and how is yet to be done.

But it was clear from yesterday that everybody who sort of had a progressive-leaning agenda was out on the ground for Barack Obama in all kinds of states like the state of Indiana, which Barack Obama won – a very red state.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Which was so interesting. Some statistical models were showing that if Indiana and Virginia were going to flip, they'd do it together, that there were exactly the same kinds of dynamics – lots of an influx of new sort of voters, different kinds of demographics that were going to tip in the same sort of way, and that was very, very interesting.

TODD ZWILLICH:

And [ ? ] just Gary, Indiana was always the [LAUGHS] very last district in Indiana to be called, and so, like, once I realized that -

ANDREA BERNSTEIN:

Right.

TODD ZWILLICH:

[LAUGHS] – Gary was the holdout, I was thinking this could go Obama’s way, and it, of course, did.

ANDREA BERNSTEIN:

McCain was leading all night.

TODD ZWILLICH:

Exactly. Then Gary, Indiana came through. [LAUGHS] [OVERTALK] -

ANDREA BERNSTEIN:

And then those last results came from Lake County. But Vanderburgh County, Indiana, very interesting – one of our Counties that Count, solid Bush county – 60 percent Bush – voted yesterday for Obama as did all but two of our Counties that Count. And those were very solidly Republican counties.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Wow.

ANDREA BERNSTEIN:

But in the end, all of these swing counties ended up going blue, sort of indicating where the country was going.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Remember Larry Persily telling you, Adaora, that if Indiana’s in play, it’s over, over, over? [LAUGHS]

ADAORA UDOJI:

Right.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Man, he was right about that.

ADAORA UDOJI:

I guess I'm wondering, though, given these results, Democrats had gone into the vote yesterday hoping that they would make a sweep, and, Todd, they really didn't. They picked up serious seats, which gives them a more solid majority not only in Congress but also in the Senate.

But what – how do we read that?

TODD ZWILLICH:

Well, yeah, it depends [LAUGHS], it depends on your expectations. A sweep? I mean, pick [?] – winning every Senate race was never – or even every Senate race that was even close within the margin of possibility, it was never really realistic.

The Democrats were licking their chops at Mitch McConnell’s seat and Saxby Chambliss’ seat. Were those ever really realistic to unseat in those ruby-red states? Maybe not. In any other year –

[OVERTALK]

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

We still don't know about Georgia. We actually still -

[OVERTALK]

TODD ZWILLICH:

We still don't know. That’s right.

[OVERTALK]

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

- we may not know about Georgia. And I guess – but what Adaora is saying, I think, is this wasn't a throw-the-bums out kind of wave -

ADAORA UDOJI:

Right, yes.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

- in Congress. That’s really interesting, Todd.

TODD ZWILLICH:

Well, it -

ANDREA BERNSTEIN:

Well [LAUGHS], it’s still 56 [OVERTALK] – and there’s two open Senate seats now, so, I mean, it’s a pretty high margin for the Democrats any way you look at it.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

At least one bum got thrown out.

[OVERTALK/LAUGHTER]

Will you two just stop dancing in here? Man!

TODD ZWILLICH:

It’s a big – well, I think Andrea’s point’s well taken.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Yeah.

TODD ZWILLICH:

It’s – in any other election you'd say, oh, my God, a five-seat gain? That’s unbelievable. That’s a huge gain in any Senate election cycle. That they – there were such high expectations, that’s – always in these elections there’s an expectation-setting game. So -

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

So it’s all about the media drank the Kool-Aid and now we have to undrink it this morning as we look at the real numbers.

[LAUGHTER]

ANDREA BERNSTEIN:

I'm drinking water.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Todd Zwillich, Capitol News Connection and Andrea Bernstein, Takeaway Political Director, and Patrik Henry Bass is still with us, and Adaora, of course, down in Atlanta, talking about results all across the country, ballot measures and Congress, on The Takeaway.

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