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Democrats Hold Louisiana Senate Seat

Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu beat back a fierce Republican challenge led by President Bush and won a second term in a runoff Saturday, giving her party a midterm consolation prize that limits the GOP's Senate majority to 51 seats.

Landrieu fended off Republican Suzanne Haik Terrell, the Louisiana elections commissioner who had touted her close ties to the president.

With all precincts reporting to the secretary of state, Landrieu had 642,974 votes, or 52 percent, and Terrell had 603,160 votes, or 48 percent.

"Tonight a great light has gone on in the world, a great light has gone on in the United States — because we turned the lights on," Landrieu said. "The light has shone that the Democratic Party is alive and well and united."

Democrats picked up an unexpected bonus by winning a U.S. House seat in a heavily conservative Louisiana district. State Rep. Rodney Alexander edged Republican Lee Fletcher by just 518 votes in a bitter race for the seat three-term Republican Rep. John Cooksey gave up to make an unsuccessful Senate bid.

Alexander had 85,720 votes and Fletcher had 85,202 votes. Fletcher said he wanted to look at the certified results, expected in the next week, before deciding whether he will challenge the outcome.

Louisiana remains the last Deep South state with two Democratic senators after voters rejected Terrell's bid to become the first GOP senator here since the 1870s.

Landrieu won with key support from urban areas heavily populated by blacks and from smaller pro-labor parishes. In New Orleans, with a 63 percent black voter registration, she led Terrell 4-to-1.

Terrell ran strong in suburban New Orleans and other bedroom communities built by white flight from the cities. Terrell said the race was about the "hopes, dreams, aspirations and goals" of Louisianans.

She grinned as supporters chanted "Terrell for Governor!" over and over, referring to next year's race. "The dreams don't end," Terrell told them.

Republicans won control of the Senate last month, but Bush and other GOP leaders campaigned here in hopes of pushing Terrell to victory. Besides bragging rights, an additional GOP seat would have allowed Republicans to press for more committee seats and it would have provided a cushion in case of a GOP vacancy.

Terrell seemed to have momentum: Bush raised more than $1 million for her last week and a poll had shown the race in a dead heat. Landrieu was scrambling to cast herself as a centrist who backed Bush three-fourths of the time but wouldn't be a "rubber stamp" for the president.

It was a key argument, since Landrieu had been criticized by black leaders for ignoring her black voter base and sounding too much like a Republican. In the final week, Landrieu also accused the Bush administration of striking a secret deal with the Mexican government to import millions of tons of sugar — a move she said would hurt Louisiana farmers.

Secretary of State Fox McKeithen said he expected turnout to be about 45 percent, but it ended up only about 40 percent. Voters seemed dismayed by the sharp salvos between the two candidates who differed little on most issues.

Tom Loesch, a Democrat from New Orleans, said he was "saddened to have to choose between two Republicans, one of them in a Democrat's clothing." He said he had to support Landrieu because he "didn't want to give Bush anything else."

While the GOP posted striking victories across the South and the rest of the nation Nov. 5, Landrieu failed to get the simple majority needed for outright victory in the state's unique open primary. She wound up in the runoff with second-place finisher Terrell.

Landrieu, 46, is familiar with close races. The daughter of former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu, she won her first term six years ago with a 6,000-vote squeaker, prompting her to joke that she was no "Landslide Landrieu."

This time, she won by more than 41,000 votes against a 48-year-old attorney who came out of nowhere three years ago to become the first Republican woman to win statewide office, as elections commissioner.

"It was close but not as close as last time," Democratic Sen. John Breaux said at Landrieu's victory party.

Landrieu had been in a bind during the campaign. Because Bush carried the state in 2000 and remains highly popular, she boasted during the primary that she voted with the president 74 percent of the time.

That strategy kept many black voters at home on primary day. For the runoff, Landrieu fired her strategists and launched a more aggressive attack in a bid to appear more independent.

Terrell, meanwhile, told voters that Louisiana "has one good senator but needs one in the majority party to get more done for the state." It was a reference to Breaux, who is as popular in Louisiana as the president.

In the House race, Fletcher, 36, and Alexander, 55, spent weeks swapping attack ads and touting themselves as conservative businessmen best suited to take Cooksey's seat. Fletcher is the congressman's former chief of staff.

Alexander said he expected the Republican to challenge the election results.

"I'm just proud that there are a lot of people out there who still look at the individual instead of the party affiliation," Alexander said.

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