Democrats capture House

Well funded and relentless in their criticism of Bush and the long-ruling Republican majority Congress, Democrats knocked off incumbents once considered safe in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Indiana, and Kentucky. Late yesterday, the party also was within a handful of seats of seizing control of the Senate.

With nationwide results still trickling in just before 2 a.m., Democrats had also picked up at least four US Senate seats and six governorships, giving the party a voice in Washington and in a majority of state houses across the country. Two senate races remained undecided, with the Virginia contest deadlocked and headed for a recount.

The strong Democratic showing virtually assures that California Representative Nancy Pelosi will become the first female Speaker of the House -- a job she pledged to perform in cooperation with the new minority Republicans.

"From sea to shining sea, the American people voted for change," said an ebullient Pelosi, hugging other Democratic leaders and celebrating the dramatic shift in power. "We are prepared to govern, and we will do so working together with the administration and the Republicans in Congress -- in partnership, not in partisanship."

But Democratic leaders made clear that their first priority will be heeding what they see as a call for a change of course in Iraq.

"We cannot continue down this catastrophic path," said Pelosi. "We say to the president, 'Mr. President, we need a new direction in Iraq.' "

House Majority Leader John Boehner, Republican of Missouri, said his party was "disappointed" by the results but said the GOP would come back into power in 2008.

"If Republicans stand together and unite behind solutions and ideas that move us closer to our common vision of a freer, more prosperous America, I'm confident the American people will return us to the majority in two years," Boehner said.

The changeover in House leadership ended the 12 years of Republican rule that began with former speaker Newt Gingrich's dramatic takeover of the body in 1994. Including last night, the House has only changed parties twice in 52 years.

Democrats achieved some stunning upsets to retake control of the House, gaining 26 seats with 31 to be decided. They defeated both of New Hampshire's representatives, both moderate Republicans, and knocked off incumbents once considered safe in Connecticut, Indiana, and Kentucky. Democrats also defeated veteran Senate incumbents in Ohio, Rhode Island, Missouri, and Pennsylvania.

The next session of Congress will include an unprecedented number of women as well, and Vermont voted to send an avowed socialist, independent Bernard Sanders, to the Senate for the first time in history.

And Connecticut voters sent a new independent, Joseph I. Lieberman, back to the Senate. Lieberman lost his Democratic primary but mounted a successful campaign, running without party affiliation.

Precincts reported strong voter turnout across the country as congressional candidates made last-minute pitches for votes, closing what has become the most expensive and one of the most bitterly fought -- contests for House and Senate seats.

Thirty-six states had gubernatorial contests on the ballot, as well as statewide initiatives on the minimum wage and whether gays should be allowed to marry. Four states voted to ban gay marriage, another five states voted to raise the minimum wage, and South Dakota defeated a controversial ban on abortion.

In a year when Bush's popularity is languishing, Democrats exploited discontent with the president and his party. They were still hoping to gain the six seats they would need to retake control of the Senate, awaiting final results in Virginia and Montana.

Whatever the eventual outcome of the Senate, the election of a Democratic House majority will give the opposition party the power to subpoena administration officials for the purposes of investigating the executive branch. The Democrats made a serious issue of the GOP-run Congress's reluctance to investigate the administration's actions, particularly in the run-up to the Iraq war.

The Democratic takeover will boost the all-Democratic Bay State delegation's power, and will give unprecedented authority to women and minorities, who will assume chairmanships of House committees and subcommittees, positions historically held by white men.

The election of a Democratic House majority will make it more difficult for Bush to get his agenda through a once-compliant Congress, led by Republicans.

The incoming Democratic-led House is also expected to lead investigations that the GOP-run Congress has been reluctant to conduct.

Republicans ran an aggressive campaign focused on terrorism and national security to persuade the public to keep them in power. But frustration over the ongoing insurgency in Iraq, GOP corruption scandals, and the government's much-maligned response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster fed an anti-incumbent mood that benefited the Democrats.

"I think it's party fatigue. Republicans have been the dominant party for 12 years, and I think that for a variety of reasons, people want a change," said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University. "The president's in his sixth year of his presidency, and I think people are tired of that. There's a sense that the government has gone slack and incompetent."

The House and Senate races added up to the most expensive congressional political contest in history, with an estimated $2.8 billion spent by the candidates, the political parties, and independent groups, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

"There was a perception among people that campaign finance reforms were intended to, or would reduce the amount of money in politics," said Massie Ritsch, a spokesman for the center. "In fact, that hasn't happened."

Candidates and interest groups spent the cash on often brutal negative ads, provoking cross-party charges of racism, lying, and dirty tricks.

The political parties continued to bicker last night, trading allegations of voting irregularities and intimidation.

Earlier this year, the Democrats' chances of wresting control of either chamber appeared dim: Changes in House districts protected GOP incumbents, and the Democrats had to defend 18 Senate seats, compared to 15 for the GOP.

But as public anger over Iraq mounted and voter discontent with the ruling Republicans grew, Democrats sensed their opportunities had expanded.

A swath of GOP-held House seats in the Northeast suddenly became competitive, while voters in the industrial Midwest complained that the strong national economy the White House bragged about hadn't reached their pocketbooks.

The libertarian Mountain West became increasingly skeptical of GOP contenders as well as incumbents, and Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were forced to defend the territory in the last days of the campaign, traveling to such GOP strongholds as Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Idaho, seeking to bolster the campaigns of Republicans who had been considered safe bets for election.

Democrats also picked up at least four governorships -- enough to give them a majority in state houses where congressional district lines are drawn. In Massachusetts, Patrick became just the second black man to win a gubernatorial election since Reconstruction.

Bryan Bender of the Globe staff contributed to this report from Pennsylvania.