GOP Senators Stand Pat

Republican senators Tuesday gave Majority Leader Trent Lott and the rest of his leadership team two more years in their posts, despite broad Republican disappointment over the November elections.

Lott, from Mississippi, was re-elected without opposition. In the only contested race, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky retained his job as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, holding off a challenge by Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska by a vote of 39-13.

Hagel's attempt to oust McConnell had been seen by some as a referendum on Lott's leadership and the direction GOP senators want to take in the 106th Congress, which begins on Jan. 6.

In the Democratic caucus, Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota was re-elected minority leader and Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada was elected assistant minority leader, succeeding Sen. Wendell Ford of Kentucky, who retired. Daschle named Sen. Robert Torricelli of New Jersey chairman of the party's Senate campaign committee.

Neither Daschle nor Reid had any opposition.

Torricelli will replace Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, who has headed the Democrats' campaign committee for four years and is expected to focus on a possible 2000 presidential run.

The race to head the Senate GOP's fund raising and candidate recruitment for the 2000 elections was also, in effect, a proxy fight between Lott and the Senate's No. 2 Republican, Majority Whip Don Nickles of Oklahoma.

Lott supported McConnell's re-election for a second two-year term as head of the campaign committee, while Nickles quietly backed Hagel.

Nickles was re-elected without opposition. Also given additional two-year terms in leadership posts were Sen. Connie Mack of Florida as chairman of the Senate GOP conference; Sen. Paul Coverdell of Georgia as secretary of the conference; and Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho as chairman of the Republican policy committee.

When House Republicans lost five seats in the elections, a beleaguered Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., decided three days later to resign. Lott escaped a challenge in part because he lacks the negative public image that Gingrich was unable to shed.

Nickles, seen as Lott's toughest opponent, decided not to run for Lott's job after concluding he was likely to lose. The Senate's culture of co-existence among its members, as well as senators' six-year terms compared to the House's two-year terms, also reduces the urgency many senators feel to replace Lott.

In other changes, Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., who will be 96 on Thursday, is delivering on a promise he made last year to step aside as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., will take over Armed Services, leaving the chairmanship of the Senate Rules Committee, which McConnell will take over. That committee has jurisdiction over campaign finance laws, which McConnell has been a steadfast opponent of overhauling.

Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, will take ovethe Senate Banking Committee from the defeated Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y.

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