Democrats broaden their control of Senate

Democrats broadened their control of Congress, though in the Senate they fell short of the 60 votes needed for a filibuster-proof majority that would have given them almost unbridled power over legislation.

Voters ousted Senate Republicans in North Carolina and New Hampshire and added three seats held by retiring GOP incumbents to the Democrats' fragile 51-49 majority.

Four other Senate races involving Republican incumbents remained too close to call Wednesday, including Georgia where a runoff election was scheduled and Minnesota where the margin was so close that state law forced a re-count. The GOP retained some leverage in spite of Democratic gains.

"The people have spoken. We hear the people and now it's time to come behind our president," Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, told "The Early Show" on CBS on Wednesday. "The Senate is going to have to work things out in a bipartisan way, and I think the test is going to be right there."

In the Georgia Senate race between Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss and Democratic challenger Jim Martin, each candidate won just shy of the 50 percent of the vote plus one required to win, so the state on Wednesday set a runoff election for Dec. 2.

In Minnesota, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman finished ahead of Democrat Al Franken in the final vote count, but Coleman's 571-vote margin falls within the state's mandatory recount law. That law requires a re-count any time the margin between the top two candidates is less than one-half of 1 percent.

Even as they celebrated Obama's election and their own victories, Democratic leaders pivoted to looming issues big and small, including whether to punish or tolerate a Senate ally who endorsed Republican John McCain. There were bigger questions down the road: how to resolve deep differences in their own ranks over promised reforms like universal health care and energy independence — and just how much the public would punish Democrats if they fail.

Too close to call
In Minnesota, Coleman and  Franken were facing a lengthy wait for the results of a recount Wednesday after one of the state's tightest Senate elections ever.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Coleman led Franken by 570 votes out of nearly 2.9 million cast. Coleman had 1,210,940 votes to Franken's 1,210,370 votes.

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said the recount won't begin until mid-November at the earliest and will probably stretch into December. It will involve local election officials from around  the state.

Franken, a former writer and performer on "Saturday Night Live", said his campaign was already looking into reports of irregularities in Minneapolis where some voters had trouble registering, though he wouldn't elaborate.

Franken said the margin was "four one-hundredths of one percent of the vote".

"There is reason to believe that the recount could change the vote tallies significantly," Franken added. "This has been a long campaign, but it is going to be a little longer before we have a winner."

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