Democrats Won't Get Supermajority

The supermajority many Republicans feared will, most likely, not come to pass. But Democrats are close enough to build new coalitions.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - One concern on the Republican side of this year's election was the possibility of a Democratic supermajority coming in on the shirttails of Senator Barack Obama.

Coming close to the 60 seats in the Senate necessary for this filibuster-proof position, Republicans did suffer heavy losses, losing five seats, even in races where such household names as Dole and Sununu ran as incumbents. While the results are not in, it looks like the Democrats will not pick up the magic number of nine seats but could take as many as seven.

One hard campaigner, Senator Mitch McConnell, survived a strong attempt by Democrat Bruce Lunsford.

So close to the golden number, Democrats may have an easy time building some strong coalitions with some moderate Republicans, including incoming freshman Senator Susan Collins of Maine.

In the House of Representatives, Republicans suffered huge losses with at least 20 seats - and maybe as many as 25 - being won by Democratic contenders.

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