Republicans target and defeat Democratic leader in Senate

Senate Minority Leader The defeat of Senate Minority Leader Mr Tom Daschle was a victory for Republicans on Capitol Hill, who…

Senate Minority LeaderThe defeat of Senate Minority Leader Mr Tom Daschle was a victory for Republicans on Capitol Hill, who had grown increasingly frustrated by his aggressive opposition to many of President Bush's legislative initiatives and judicial nominations.

After election results see-sawed through the evening, Republican Mr John Thune, a three-term former congressman, emerged as the victor early Wednesday.The most closely watched, bitterly contested Senate race in the country, the South Dakota campaign was also the most expensive. Together, Mr Thune and Mr Daschle spent an estimated $35 million to $40 million to bombard South Dakotans for months with non-stop attack ads and campaign-mailers.

The South Dakota fight reflected the bitter partisanship and stark divisions that characterised the 2004 elections. Mr Daschle warned that Mr Thune would act as a rubber stamp for Bush and the Republican leadership and, as a junior senator, would be unable to deliver federal money and vital projects to South Dakota. Mr Thune attacked Mr Daschle as a pillar of Washington's Democratic elite, a man out of touch with his roots.

Not since 1952, when Majority Leader Ernest McFarland, D-Ariz, lost to conservative Republican Barry Goldwater, had the leader of a party in the Senate been defeated in a bid for re-election. Normally, congressional leaders come from safe districts, and the opposing party does not target them.

READ MORE

But in this polarised campaign year, Senate Majority Leader Mr Bill Frist, R-Tenn, outraged Democrats by personally campaigning for Mr Thune in South Dakota.

Still, Democrats hoped that Mr Daschle's stature in the Senate and his reputation among South Dakota voters for delivering federal largesse to the rural, sparsely populated state, would ensure his survival.

"People in that state, in South Dakota, know that Tom Daschle delivers for them," Senator Edward Kennedy, D-Mass, told CNN. "Why would anyone in South Dakota . . . want to give up having someone who is Democratic leader in the US Senate?"

But Mr Daschle was running in a heavily Republican state that voted solidly on Tuesday for Mr Bush. Republicans used Mr Daschle's stature against him, presenting him as a symbol of gridlock in Washington and of the efforts of liberal Democrats to block Mr Bush's tax-cutting agenda.

"I've always described Mr Daschle as the Darth Vader of the US Senate, from the perspective of conservative like me," said Mr Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, a Washington-based conservative group that poured money into Thune's campaign. Conservatives first targeted Mr Daschle during the 2002 South Dakota Senate race, when he wasn't even a candidate, Mr Moore said in an interview on Tuesday. In that race, Mr Thune lost by just 524 votes to Democratic Senator Tim Johnson, the state's junior senator, but Mr Daschle was a frequent Thune target.

Conservatives complained that Mr Daschle was really two people: "The Tom Daschle who as the prairie populist when he was in South Dakota and the Tom Daschle who was the darling of Hollywood and the east coast elites in Washington," Mr Moore said.

The argument gradually gained ground with many South Dakotans, said Mr Burdett Loomis, a political scientist at the University of Kansas. "The argument of Republicans (against Daschle) has taken its toll over the years. There is that assessment that he is out of step," Mr Loomis said.

Although Mr Daschle made a point of visiting every county in his sprawling state, Mr Loomis said, "he can take that drive and visit every county every year and it simply may not be enough when you're the leader of the party". Mr Daniel Pfeiffer, Mr Daschle's spokesman, said he had fought hard against the relentless attacks aimed at him. "For three years, they have spared no expense to beat Tom Daschle," Mr Pfeiffer said. "Tom has had to fight day in and day out to beat back those attacks on his record and his character. And here we are, the polls haven't yet closed and he's still standing. It is a testament to Daschle's long and deep support in this state."