United States Senate elections, 1998

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Image:Us senate result 1998.PNG

Republican holds Republican pickups Democratic holds Democratic pickups

The U.S. Senate election, 1998 was a roughly even contest between the Republican and Democratic parties. While the Democrats had more seats, Republican attacks on the morality of President Bill Clinton failed to connect with voters and anticipated Republican gains failed to materialize. The Republicans picked-up open seats in Ohio and Kentucky and defeated incumbent Senator Carol Mosley-Braun (D-IL), but these were cancelled out by the Democrats' gain of an open seat in Indiana and defeats of Senators Al D'Amato (R-NY) and Lauch Faircloth (R-NC). The balance of the Senate remained unchanged at 55-45 in favor of the Republicans. Because of gains made in the House of Representatives, it was the first time since 1934 that the out of Presidency party failed to gain congressional seats in a mid-term election, and the first time since 1822 that the party not in control of the White House had failed to gain seats in the mid-term election of a President's second term.

1 Results summary
2 Notable Races
- 2.1 Democratic gains
- 2.2 Republican gains
3 Senate contests in 1998
4 See also
5 Senate composition before and after elections

[edit] Results summary

**Summary of the 1998 United States Senate election results**
Parties		Breakdown			Total Seats			Popular Vote
Parties		Up	Elected	Not Up	1996	1998	+/-	Vote	%
	Republican Party	16	16	39	55	55	0	25,346,613	46.838%
	Democratic Party	18	18	27	45	45	0	26,768,699	49.466%
	Independent	-	-	-	-	-	-	32,025	0.059%
	Libertarian Party	-	-	-	-	-	-	419,452	0.775%
	Constitutional Party	-	-	-	-	-	-	68,377	0.126%
	Independence Party	-	-	-	-	-	-	109,027	0.201%
	Green Party	-	-	-	-	-	-	21,861	0.040%
	Reform Party	-	-	-	-	-	-	231,064	0.427%
	Socialist Workers Party	-	-	-	-	-	-	6,055	0.011%
	Conservative Party	-	-	-	-	-	-	274,220	0.507%
	Other parties	-	-	-	-	-	-	427,845	0.791%
	Scattering, Write-ins, etc.	-	-	-	-	-	-	332,622	0.615%
Total		34	34	66	100	100	-	54,115,051	100.0%
Source: Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk

[edit] Notable Races

[edit] Democratic gains

Indiana: Former Indiana Governor Evan Bayh overwhelmingly defeated Republican Paul Helmke (Mayor of Fort Wayne) for the seat of retiring Senator Dan Coats (R-IN), which Bayh's father Birch Bayh (D-IN) had once held.
New York: Three-term Senator Al D'Amato (R-NY) was defeated in "one of 1998's most high profile and nastiest races" [1] by Congressman Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
North Carolina: Trial lawyer John Edwards defeated incumbent Lauch Faircloth (R-NC) in a close race, making Faircloth the fourth incumbent in a row to lose this seat after one term.

[edit] Republican gains

Illinois: Incumbent Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL), the first African American woman elected to the Senate, was narrowly defeated by conservative state senator Peter Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, though better-funded, maintained a low personal profile while the outspoken Moseley-Braun was beset by a series of controversies.
Kentucky: Congressman Jim Bunning (R-KY) narrowly defeated Congressman Scotty Baesler (D-KY) for the seat left open by retiring Senator Wendell H. Ford (D-KY). Bunning, a Baseball Hall of Fameer, outspent Baesler heavily in increasingly Republican Kentucky.
Ohio: Governor George Voinovich (R) defeated former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Mary Boyle (D) for the seat of retiring Senator John Glenn (D-OH). Voinovich, with an overwhelming advantage in name recognition and funding, maintained a clear lead in the polls in a campaign which turned mostly on his record as governor.

[edit] Senate contests in 1998

Winning candidates in bold
Republican pickups in Red
Democratic pickups in Blue
Retiring Senators in Gray

State	Incumbent	Party	Status	Opposing Candidates
Alabama	Richard C. Shelby	Republican	Re-elected, 63%	Clayton Suddith (Democrat) 37%
Alaska	Frank Murkowski	Republican	Re-elected, 75%	Joe Sonneman (Democrat) 20% Jeffrey Gottlieb (Green) 3% Scott Kohlhaas (Libertarian) 2%
Arizona	John McCain	Republican	Re-elected, 68%	Ed Ranger (Democrat) 28% John C. Zajac (Libertarian) 2%
Arkansas	Dale L. Bumpers	Democratic	Retired: Democratic victory	Blanche Lincoln (Democrat) 55.1% Fay Boozman (Republican) 42.2% Charley E. Heffley (Reform) 2.7%
California	Barbara Boxer	Democratic	Re-elected, 53%	Matt Fong (Republican) 43% Ted Brown (Libertarian) 1.1% Timothy R. Erich (Reform) 1% H. Joseph Perrin, Sr. (American Independent) 0.7% Ophie C. Beltran (Peace & Freedom) 0.6% Brian M. Rees (Natural Law) 0.6%
Colorado	Ben Nighthorse Campbell	Republican	Re-elected, 62.5%	Dottie Lamm (Democrat) 35% David S. Segal (Libertarian) 1% Kevin Swanson (American Constitution) 0.7% Jeffrey Peckman (Natural Law) 0.3% John Heckman (Concerns of People) 0.2% Gary Swing (Pacifist) 0.1%
Connecticut	Christopher Dodd	Democratic	Re-elected, 65.1%	Gary Franks (Republican) 32.4% William Kozak (Concerned Citizens) 1.3% Lois A. Grasso (Term Limits) 0.7% Wildey Moore (Libertarian) 0.5%
Florida	Bob Graham	Democratic	Re-elected, 63%	Charlie Crist (Republican) 37%
Georgia	Paul Coverdell	Republican	Re-elected, 52.3%	Michael Coles (Democrat) 45.3% Bertil Armin Loftman (Libertarian) 2.5%
Hawaii	Daniel Inouye	Democratic	Re-elected, 79.2%	Crystal Young (Republican) 17.8% Lloyd Mallan (Libertarian) 3%
Idaho	Dirk Kempthorne	Republican	Retired: Republican victory	Mike Crapo (Republican) 69.5% Bill Mauk (Democrat) 28.4% George J. Mansfeld (Natural Law) 2%
Illinois	Carol Moseley-Braun	Democratic	Defeated, 47%	Peter Fitzgerald (Republican) 50%
Indiana	Daniel R. Coats	Republican	Retired: Democratic victory	Evan Bayh (Democrat) 63.7% Paul Helmke (Republican) 34.8% Rebecca Sink-Burris (Libertarian) 1.5%
Iowa	Chuck Grassley	Republican	Re-elected, 68.4%	David Osterberg (Democrat) 30.5% Susan Marcus (Natural Law) 0.8% Margaret Trowe (Socialist Workers) 0.3%
Kansas	Sam Brownback	Republican	Re-elected, 65.3%	Paul Feleciano Jr. (Democrat) 31.6% Tom Oyler (Libertarian) 1.6% Alvin Bauman (Reform) 1.5%
Kentucky	Wendell Ford	Democratic	Retired: Republican victory	Jim Bunning (Republican) 50% Scotty Baesler (Democrat) 49%
Louisiana	John Breaux	Democratic	Re-elected, 64%	Jim Donelon (Republican) 32%
Maryland	Barbara Mikulski	Democratic	Re-elected, 71%	Ross Pierpont (Republican) 29%
Missouri	Kit Bond	Republican	Re-elected, 52.7%	Jay Nixon (Democrat) 43.8% Tamara Millay (Libertarian) 2.0% Curtis Frazier (U.S. Taxpayers) 1.0% James F. Newport (Reform) 0.5%
Nevada	Harry Reid	Democratic	Re-elected, 48%	John Ensign (Republican) 48%
New Hampshire	Judd Gregg	Republican	Re-elected, 68%	George Condodemetraky (Democrat) 28%
New York	Al D'Amato	Republican	Defeated, 44%	Chuck Schumer (Democrat) 55%
North Carolina	Lauch Faircloth	Republican	Defeated, 47%	John Edwards (Democrat) 51%
North Dakota	Byron Dorgan	Democratic	Re-elected, 63%	Donna Nalewaja (Republican) 35%
Ohio	John Glenn	Democratic	Retired: Republican victory	George Voinovich (Republican) 56% Mary Boyle (Democrat) 44%
Oklahoma	Don Nickles	Republican	Re-elected, 66%	Don Carroll (Democrat) 31%
Oregon	Ron Wyden	Democratic	Re-elected, 59%	John Lim (Republican) 36% Karen Moskowitz (Green) 1.9%
Pennsylvania	Arlen Specter	Republican	Re-elected, 61%	Bill Lloyd (Democrat) 35%
South Carolina	Fritz Hollings	Democratic	Re-elected, 52.7%	Bob Inglis (Republican) 45.7% Richard Quillian (Libertarian) 1.6%
South Dakota	Tom Daschle	Democratic	Re-elected, 62.1%	Ron Schmidt (Republican) 36.4% Byron Dale (Libertarian) 1.4%
Utah	Robert Foster Bennett	Republican	Re-elected, 64%	Scott Leckman (Democrat) 33% Gary R. Van Horn (Independent American) 3%
Vermont	Patrick Leahy	Democratic	Re-elected, 72%	Fred Tuttle (Republican) 23%
Washington	Patty Murray	Democratic	Re-elected, 58%	Linda Smith (Republican) 42%
Wisconsin	Russ Feingold	Democratic	Re-elected, 51%	Mark Neumann (Republican) 48%