Republicans maintain control of House, Senate

The Associated Press On a night generally kind to incumbents of both parties, Sen. Jesse Helms triumphed in North Carolina and Strom Thurmond coasted to a new term in South Carolina at 93. In the marquee contest involving Democratic incumbents, Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry prevailed over Gov. William Weld. But Republican Sen. Larry Pressler was an exception, surrendering his South Dakota seat to Rep. Tim Johnson. ''We're going to go forward with the agenda we were working on,'' Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said in an interview with The Associated Press. Republicans will cooperate with a reelected President Clinton, he said -- to a point. ''He talks about how the era of big government is over,'' the Mississippi Republican said. ''We'd like to help him keep his word on that.'' Fourteen races with no incumbent on the ballot guaranteed a big crop of newcomers to the Capitol, including Mary Landrieu, a Democrat who won in Louisiana. After a bruising campaign that cost tens of millions of dollars, the GOP picked up seats in Alabama, where State Attorney General Jeff Sessions triumphed, and in Nebraska, where Republican businessman Chuck Hagel won a Democratic seat in his first try at elective office. The Arkansas victory was especially sweet for the GOP. There, Rep. Tim Hutchinson became the first Republican elected since Reconstruction -- and on the same night, and in the same state, where Clinton celebrated his own triumph. In New Hampshire, exit polls indicated Dick Swett would unseat Republican Sen. Robert Smith. But Smith was leading where it mattered -- at the ballot box -- and Swett made a post-midnight concession of defeat. ''I've campaigned a long time. I guess I'll miss it,'' Thurmond said as he savored the prospect of his eighth -- and last -- term. In North Carolina, Harvey Gantt spoke for vanquished candidates everywhere as he conceded defeat to Helms. ''It is painful,'' he said. ''It hurts not to win.'' In the House, Democrats made modest inroads yesterday in Speaker Newt Gingrich's Republican majority, but the GOP partly offset its losses by capturing Southern seats vacated by veteran Democrats. ''It looks like we will almost certainly keep control of the U.S. House,'' Gingrich told a cheering crowd in suburban Atlanta. He said the two sides were ''in the process of swapping seats.'' Control of the chamber appeared likely to be determined by fewer than a dozen seats, the closest margin since Dwight Eisenhower was president. ''We cemented the majority tonight,'' said Rep. Bill Paxon, R-N.Y., chairman of the party's House campaign committee. ''We will hold the House for the foreseeable future.'' Democrats won 11 seats previously held by Republicans, six of them freshmen and five targeted by organized labor's expensive television ad campaign. Republicans defeated two incumbents and picked up eight open Democratic seats, six of them in the South, but the Democrats successfully defended many more. Democrats needed a net gain of 18 seats to take control of the chamber and pinned their hopes on toppling GOP freshmen. But GOP strength in the south continued their gains in the region of two years ago and furthered the political realignment of a once solidly Democratic region. GOP candidates looked to capture districts left open by Democratic retirements in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas. In contrast to the 1994 elections that gave the GOP a majority, this election was marked by relative calm among voters. The anti-Washington fervor of two years ago was gone -- replaced by satisfaction with a steady if not spectacular rate of economic growth. And waking up after a 16-year nap, organized labor weighed in early, spending up to $35 million in attacking vulnerable Republicans with TV spots on Medicare, the environment and education. In Texas, a successful challenge to redistricting raised the possibility that several seats wouldn't be decided until runoffs in December.