Democrats capture House

WASHINGTON -- Democrats last night seized control of the House, riding a wave of public anger over the Iraq war, the economy, and the performance of the Bush administration to take power of the chamber for the first time in 12 years.

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 midnight, Democrats had defeated veteran Senate incumbents in Ohio, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. The party also had won four governorships as well, giving the party a voice in Washington and in a majority of state houses across the country -- a luxury they have not enjoyed in years.

Voters also made history last night, making Representative Nancy Pelosi of California the first female speaker of the House when that chamber changed hands.

"From sea to shining sea, the American people voted for change," an ebullient Pelosi said last night. "The American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C., and the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history."

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.

In Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, a former Clinton administration official, won a landslide victory to become Massachusetts' first African-American governor. And Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut , the Democrats' vice presidential nominee in 2000 who lost the Democratic primary in August, will return to the Senate as an independent. He has promised to caucus with Democrats.

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 four 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.

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 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: Both Democrats and Republicans redrew House district lines in 2000 and 2003 to protect their incumbents. With Republicans already in the majority -- and aided by a revised, GOP-engineered reconfiguration of Texas's House districts, the GOP solidified its power. Winning the Senate didn't seem any easier, since Democrats had to defend their 18 seats, then take at least six of the 15 held by Republicans.

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. They traveled 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.

The war dogged Republican candidates across the country.

Anger at Bush fueled Democrats' hopes from New Hampshire to Montana, and GOP candidates across the nation shied away from public appearances with the president and left him out of their campaign ads.

In Pennsylvania, where Democrats defeated two-term GOP Senator Rick Santorum and picked up at least two House seats, the war drove many Republicans to buck their party.

Congressional ethics played a key role in voters' decisions. In Ohio, where both state and federal GOP lawmakers were caught up in corruption scandals, the Democrats seized the governorship. Democratic Representative Sherrod Brown -- derided by the GOP as too liberal for the Buckeye State -- unseated two-term GOP Senator Mike DeWine , a major defeat for a party which celebrated Ohio's critical role in reelecting Bush in 2004.

A scandal involving former GOP representative Mark Foley of Florida also cost the GOP his old seat. Foley resigned after sexually explicit computer messages he wrote to a former House page were exposed.

Democrats also had high expectations for the seat of former House majority leader Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas, who resigned this year after being indicted for abusing campaign contributions to manipulate the Texas congressional district map.

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