House Dems plus-six after taking Renzi, Davis seats

Arizona state Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D) and Fairfax County Board Chairman Gerry Connolly (D) have won the seats of retiring Reps. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) and Tom Davis (R-Va.), giving Democrats eight takeovers and a net gain of six seats on Election Night.

Kirkpatrick was expected to defeat Republican Sydney Hay in a race that appeared set to flip months ago. The GOP’s hopes were severely damaged when Renzi was indicted earlier this year.

{mosads}Davis’s seat has tilted heavily toward Democrats in recent years, and the popular Connolly defeated a relatively unknown businessman named Keith Fimian (R).

Democrats have also won open-seat races for the seats of retiring GOP Reps. Jerry Weller (Ill.) and James Walsh (N.Y.) and got some revenge in North Carolina and Connecticut against Reps. Robin Hayes (R) and Chris Shays (R), respectively.

Republicans have taken two seats back by defeating embattled Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.), as expected, and sending special election-winning Rep. Don Cazayoux (D-La.) home after just a few months on the job.

Democrat Larry Kissell avenged a 300-plus-vote loss to Hayes, defeating him in their rematch Tuesday.

Democrat Dan Maffei also won in his second go at Walsh’s seat, defeating Republican Dale Sweetland.

House Democrats finally knocked of Shays in a good sign for their prospects on Election Night. It was the third near-miss from 2006, along with Hayes and Walsh, that Democrats have won so far.

“The last Republican in New England has fallen,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), head of the Democrats’ “Red to Blue” operation, which targets GOP-held seats.

State Sen. Debbie Halvorson (D) won Weller’s seat, defeating businessman Marty Ozinga (R).

Florida Democrats Alan Grayson and Suzanne Kosmas led off the night by giving House Democrats their first takeovers after being declared the winners over GOP Reps. Ric Keller and Tom Feeney, respectively.

None of the races are considered major upsets, but they are a good start for Democrats in an Election Night with nearly three dozen tossups.

The self-funding Grayson defeated Keller, who narrowly survived a primary earlier this year, and the general election race was considered a tossup.

Kosmas defeated Feeney, who might have been the most vulnerable GOP incumbent. Feeney was dogged by a trip he took five years ago that was organized by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Republican Tom Rooney defeated the freshman Mahoney, who succumbed to a sex scandal after he was reported in October to have paid hush money to a former mistress.

State Sen. Bill Cassidy (R) dethroned Cazayoux, who suffered from the independent candidacy of Democratic state Rep. Michael Jackson. Still, Jackson’s 8-percent pull didn’t appear to be the difference, as Cassidy led 55-37 with 75 percent of precincts in.

Democrats are expected to win as many as 30 seats, potentially equaling their pull from the 2006 election and grabbing more than 60 percent of seats in the 435-member House.

In another race considered a tossup, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.) survived one of the toughest races for an incumbent Democrat, holding on in a rematch with former Rep. Jeb Bradley (R).

The GOP held on to an open seat in Kentucky, where state Sen. Brett Guthrie (R) held off state Sen. David Boswell (D) in retiring Rep. Ron Lewis’s (R) conservative district.

In other notable races, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) won reelection despite his comments describing his constituents as “racist,” and Rep. Christopher Carney (D-Pa.), who began the cycle as a top GOP target, won reelection in a nearby district.