NEW ORLEANS (REUTERS) — Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu narrowly won a second U.S. Senate term Saturday, turning back a fierce runoff challenge from Republican Suzanne Haik Terrell and dashing the GOP’s hopes of strengthening its slim majority.
With all precincts reporting, Landrieu won 51.5 percent of the vote, while Terrell had 48.5 percent. Landrieu’s victory means the Republicans now hold 51 seats to the Democrats’ 48, with one independent.
“We sent a powerful message to this nation. That message is that labels are not what we send to Washington. We send leaders to Washington,” Landrieu said in her victory speech. “Together we will work for this state and this nation.”
She said the result showed “the Democratic Party is alive and well and united.”
Landrieu’s victory margin was about 35,000 votes, Louisiana Secretary of State Fox McKeithen said.
Haik, the state elections commissioner who was supported on the stump by President Bush and other Republican luminaries in the waning weeks of the runoff campaign, conceded in New Orleans shortly before 10:30 p.m.
“I just spoke to Mary Landrieu and congratulated her on winning a hard-fought campaign. I wished her and her family the best,” Terrell said in her concession speech. “We’re going to keep focused on the people of Louisiana and keep talking about things they want to see for their state in the future.”
The candidates spent Election Day in their shared home base of New Orleans, hoping to energize their local support base.
The race was marked by an increasingly bitter tone and a seemingly unending flood of negative television ads.
In a remark typical of the campaign, Terrell in a TV debate accused Landrieu, who supports abortion in certain circumstances, of losing her Catholic faith. Landrieu has said Terrell, the state elections commissioner, would be little more than a rubber stamp for Bush.
Democrats had a second reason to celebrate Saturday, as they won the last vacant seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Democrat Rodney Alexander beat Republican opponent Lee Fletcher by just 518 votes, with all precincts in Louisiana’s heavily Republican 5th Congressional District reporting.
Alexander, a state representative, and Fletcher, a former aide to outgoing Rep. John Cooksey, were the two top finishers in the Nov. 5 general election. Cooksey gave up his seat to make an unsuccessful Senate bid.
The twin losses Saturday were rare disappointments for Republicans in this year’s midterm elections, where they rolled to control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Winning a 52nd Senate seat would have given the Republicans a slightly larger majority and could have boosted their edge on committees for greater control of the Senate’s agenda.
McKeithen said statewide voter turnout was 44 percent, low by Louisiana standards. Results in both races will not be made official until at least Tuesday, when the ballot boxes are opened, counted and the results certified.
Landrieu won 46 percent of the vote Nov. 5, falling short of the majority required under Louisiana law to avoid a runoff.
Landrieu beat conservative Republican Woody Jenkins in the 1996 Senate race with a strong turnout among blacks, especially from her native New Orleans, where her father, Moon Landrieu, once served as a popular mayor.
But she suffered from a year-long investigation into allegations that voter fraud had handed her a victory of fewer than 6,000 votes. She has been a major Republican target ever since.
