Democrats seize control of state House, gain in Senate

By GINGER GIBSON

Riding a statewide wave, Delaware's Democratic Party has seized majority control of the state House, defeating seven Republican incumbents, and obtained a virtual stranglehold in the Senate by picking up three additional seats.

House Democrats now hold a 26-15 majority; Senate Democrats have a 16-5 margin.

The biggest upset of the night was Democrat Michael A. Barbieri's ouster of House Speaker Terry Spence, the longest-serving speaker of a state House chamber in the nation.

Democrats also defeated Reps. Robert Valihura and Vincent Lofink in New Castle County and Reps. Pamela Thornburg, Nancy Wagner and Donna Stone in Kent County.

In Sussex County, John Atkins, a former Republican who resigned his seat in disgrace in early 2007, rose from the political dustbin and, running as a Democrat, defeated incumbent Republican Gregory Hastings.

On the Senate side, Democrats added the District 4 seat Sen. Charlie Copeland vacated to run for lieutenant governor and the 10th District seat left open by the retirement of Sen. Steve Amick in New Castle County, and the 17th District in Kent County opened up by the retirement of Republican Sen. John Still.

Bob Gilligan, who many suggest will assume the speaker's role when the Legislature returns in January, said his caucus was pleased by the results.

"It's going to be a lot more fun being upstairs," he said about the majority offices on the second floor of Legislative Hall in Dover. "We had great candidates. We worked real hard. We had great organization. ... We've got tough decisions to make. It's not going to be easy. The next governor will have tougher decisions than I've seen in my 36 years in the Legislature."

Barbieri said he was "elated."

"Politicians have got to get back to doing business for the people," he said.

The only Republican stronghold in the state -- Senate District 4 in Hockessin -- fell with 51 percent of the vote going to Democrat Michael Katz over Republican John Clatworthy.

State leaders described the House results as unprecedented.

"The last time the Democrats had a majority at the House of Representatives, I was a graduate student at the University of Delaware," Lt. Gov. John Carney said.

House Republican Leader Rep. Dick Cathcart, R-Middletown, who held onto his seat, said the national tone pushed the results in the state.

"It was not only across the board in Delaware, we've got reports that Republican legislative races across the nation are experiencing the same things we are," Cathcart said.

Thornburg was defeated by Charles Paradee III, Valihura by Dennis E. Williams, Stone by Brad Bennett, Wagner by Darryl Scott and Lofink by Earl Jaques.

Spence, Wagner and Valihura had received sharp criticism in the last year, and Lofink saw his son, a state employee, convicted in a scheme that defrauded the state of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Spence, 66, accepted far more gifts from lobbyists -- mostly tickets to NASCAR races -- than any other legislator.

Wagner, first elected to the House in 1992, retired from a position with Capital School District and took an unpublicized job in 2006 as executive director of community relations at Delaware State University.

Wagner, 65, who was seeking her ninth term in the Dover-area district, had been criticized by some colleagues and political observers earlier in the year for intervening to help her husband, Bud, advance in a series of state jobs.

Stone lost her House seat to the son of the lawmaker she succeeded in 1994.

Exit polls showed voters were looking for change and some also voiced a low tolerance for negative campaigning.

Diane Lederer, of Brandywine Hundred, said she voted for Katz in the 4th Senate District. She said she got a lot of phone calls on the race and "hung up right away" on the ones that took a negative turn.

"I don't like all that negative advertising," she said. "Our country needs to be in a positive frame of mind."

Ray Jones, 74, of Newark, speaking outside his polling place in Spence's district at Gallaher Elementary School, said he voted for a Democratic ticket. He said he knows Spence, but voted for Barbieri instead.

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