a new poll shows republican pat toomey is now two points ahead of the democrat, joe sestak. down from a five point lead less than a week ago. elaine quijano has more on this neck-and-neck battle. >> pennsylvania republican pat toomey is relentless on his attacks on president obama and the democratic congress. >> they're just trying to transform america into something like a european-style welfare state. >> reporter: a former congressman with a near-perfect conservative rating. >> give me a "k"! what's that spell? >> reporter: toomey blamed his democratic opponent congressman joe sestak for voting for government bailouts of the banking and auto industries and for the $800 billion economic stimulus. >> joe sestak has supported every single item on the obama- pelosi agenda. >> reporter: he served 31 years in the navy, rise together rank of admiral and worked as a national security aid to president clinton before becoming a congressman. he says without the stimulus, unemployment would be higher. >> we've taken some tough votes. they were necessary to keep the ship from sinking.

pat toomey. how has that shaped up and what are you seeing in terms of turnout. >> what we've had conflicting reports on turnout. all anecdotal. people have suggested that it's stronger across the state than many anticipated. philadelphia, bob brady the chairman there, congressman bob brady has said they're on pace to exceed the 41% turnout that they had in 2006, the last midterm. that would be a pretty remarkable result and a strong owe men for democratic candidates for governor and senate. we'll see if that proves to be the case. >> woodruff: let's turn to, from pennsylvania to ohio and to karen kasler. we spoke with you a little earlier this evening. since then the senate race has been called in ohio. but your governor's race is still hanging, if you will. i guess that's a term we can use in politics. what are you hearing not only about turnout but what you see and the ruls and what people on both sides, both parties are say something. >> well, even though this has been a hotly contested midte

he's trailing by about 4% to republican pat toomey. we're going to switch gears to the illinois senate there. alexei gee newell yaus... alexei giannoulias is trailing 2% to republican mark kirk. in colorado, the tea party-back insurgentandidate ken buck th republican is 4 and michael bennett the democrat is at 50%. that is about 25% of the precincts reporting. we'll try and check in on these races and a few others throughout the night. jim, back to you. >> lehrer: back to mark and david. david, we talked many times leading up to this and earlier tonight and now we're getting close here to an end result. we still have 30 minutes just on this special. how does it feel to you tonight as to what this election is about? i've asked you that before. any change? >> no, i haven't changed in the last half hour. unlike of tc once said it was between the men and the boys in politics and the boys run for president to be something and then run for president to do something. nancy pelosi was a grown up. she did a lot. david listed it as political lia

win this seat, he has to get better than 35 percent of the vote or rather hold the republican pat toomey to under 35 percent of the vote in philadelphia. that is unclear and now what we are looking at is the likelihood that the rest of the state between the urban areas of pittsburgh and philadelphia coming in for toomey and it is virtually a died even tie as we get closer. you mentioned we are waiting on the closure of nevada. this is an example of how important it is to get the urban area. there is only one in all of nevada clark county. in clark county, harry reid needs to get better than 8 percent than sharron angle in the entire area of las vegas. if he cannot get an 8 percent advantage or better in las vegas, harry reid's ability to remain majority leader is jeopardized. one last thing before we go, shep. battle for the governor's offices and you talked a moment ago about ohio. ohio, john kasik victory. they, lected george bush in 2006. notorous bell weather who predicts who will be the state. that bodes ill for barack obama. fox news predicted that the republicans have taken contro

ap the race and pat toomey looks like the winner. host: thanks. we will be back to you for more information. we will take this call from laura from riverside, california. caller: thank you. i have watched you for years but this is the first time i have called in. host: you are welcome. caller: i just wanted to say something nobody seems to look at. i feel we are in at a very dangerous place we were in a while ago. that was during the time of reconstruction. number one, the same scare tactics that divide along racial lines. number two, more minorities, black and hispanic, running in the republican party, representing platforms that would decimate the inner-city is -- inner-city is and people of their own cultural group. this is a reconstruction all over again. host: can i ask you. you called on the independent line -- what about your senate and gubernatorial races? caller: i went to democrats. host: why? caller: why? because i know from -- i am from a conservative community. i sat in a doctor's office and i talked to people in the grocery stores an

toomey is down ten points now, toomey won big and the president in our latest poll is down ten pointso what do you make of this? >> well, chris, it was a very tough day for democrats. there is no other way to slice it. no question when that you have kind of a tough year tough examine the results and examine especially the exit polls in our statewide races. for example, we lost tremendous ground with regard to older -- older voters, and we lost among independentsp there are two key groups i think for 2012. i think that we can get a lot of them back, but mostly, chris, and you know this from the discussions you've been having, mostly it's economic, and people want those of us who represent them in washington to continue to fight for jobs. i think we've got a pretty good good record on it when it comes to creating jobs and inventivizing the creation of jobs, recovery act, 3 million jobs, the small business bill we just signed into law, the president did a couple of weeks ago, the community bankers tell us will create a half million jobs but we have to keep putting in place strategies to

you know, toomey has been a conservative except that when you look at his back ground i remember when i met him for the first time he was a wall street guy who moved to allen town pennsylvania and opened up a bar. he's not one of these... he was a member of congress, very poised and polished and smooth. if you're thinking tea party and you're thinking sharron angle, ken buck, rand paul, you better think again. pat toomey has run much more as a moderate this election trying to make people in south eastern pennsylvania more comfortable with him. >> it was the wall street record that the democrats hit so hard. they said he was involved in creating derivatives as an instrument. they tried to tag him with that early on as they were hitting that populist theme because so many people were angered by wall street. >> ifill: as we move through the night we're now waiting for the first wave of the poll closings. we're going to get some numbers on these. but let's go down south for a moment because i am curious about what we can see had the south that might give us some indication about whether t

, new poll showing it's toomey with the edge, a two-point lead turnout is so important here. washington state now, the democratic firewall. senator patti murray and republican dino rossi, showing murray up slightly, personally popular. the real enemy there is washington, who she's up against. three-term democratic senator russ feingold, slipping away from ron johnson. this is now a seven-point race in johnson's favor. recent polling in the much-talked about republican seat of florida. what a crazy week this week. we mentioned earlier, we'll talk more about the fact that that president clinton will try to get kendrik meek out of the race. it's a three-way race. if that support from meek went away, what could that mean for the race? he's still in the race. what about the african-american turnout? a real fear for democrat ic candidates. chuck todd will go inside the numbers a little bit, chuck. let's talk about the house right now. go inside the fight for the senate. magic number is ten for the republicans. >> let's look at the path to ten here. four democratic seats that look l

. >> pat toomey was supposed to win this one in a walk. it is still close. >> michelle obama is going there on monday where they are trying to energize the voter base. >> is that helping democrats? >> yes. >> wisconsin, russ feingold. still in trouble, evan/ >> tossup. >> gone. >> barbara boxer? >> the amazing storie -- stories about these two high- powered executives trying to buy more rhythm, but they just don't sell with the voters. >> jerry brown is ahead in the california governor's race. >> you don't have an advertisement talking nostalgically about how good it was in the 1980's, and then jerry brown saying, "yeah, i was governor." >> she had spent $160 million or so -- she has a turnout operation of her own. it worries me. if the races are tight -- >> kentucky looks like rand paul. finally, alaska, this is the duty. joe miller is the senate candidate, lisa murkowski gets be, but she is ahead in the polls. >> to miller has had a bad month, with charges against them having -- joe miller has had a bad month, with the charges against th

. >> and in pennsylvania, pat toomey won a hard-fought race. he nearly defeated democrat, joe sestak. >>> and one of the biggest democratic victories of the night belonged to senate majority leader, harry reid. he managed to fight back against not only a tea party challenge. but also frustrated voters of his home state of nevada. jon karl was there. >> reporter: good morning, vinita and rob. a stunning victory for harry reid here in nevada. the top democrat in the senate. somebody who had been seen as, perhaps, the most vulnerable democrat in congress, has won here in nevada. defying the republican wave that has swept so much of the rest o. the country. he defeated sharron angle. and he defeated her pretty soundly. did it, in part, by just rolling a relentlessly negative campaign. a campaign at times quite ugly. portraying sharron angle, who is a real tea party hero, as somebody who was way outside the mainstream. and now, harry reid wakes up to another reality, which is he is the majority leader. but he goes back to a senate majority that is a

. >> reporter: pat toomey turned pennsylvania's senate seat republican. >> we're going to chart a newse. >> reporter: and alaska's write-in lisa murkowski appeared headed for victory. >> they said we can't do it. do they know alaska? >> reporter: despite big upsets, democrats did hold on to some key seats. senator barbara boxer heads back to washington. >> we've stood up to sarah palin and we won. >> reporter: and new democrat joe manchin from west virginia promised bipartisanship. >> i intend to work with everyone who's going to put their country first. >> reporter: washington now with two parties in charge. in washington, tracie potts, "today in the bay." >>> now let's take a look at what's coming up later for "today in the bay" and we say good morning to brent cannon. good morning, brent. >> thanks a lot, scott. of course we'll continue to cover our decision 2010 results with analysis. coming up in just a bit we'll look ahead to what's next for bay area political icon. speaker of the house nancy pelosi will be handing over the gavel to a republican. we will let you know what some a

polls close, joe sestak has bounced back from being almost out of it entirely in his race against pat toomey. also, west virginia, joe manchin, the popular democratic governor there is making a strong case for senate. if either of those races goes democratic, republicans will have to run the table. and that brings us to the democratic fire wall, what they hope will be the fire wall, out west in california and in washington state. in washington, patty murray, the incumbent senator there is neck and neck against dino rossi. just too close to predict. and in california, barbara boxer seems to have pulled ahead a little bit against carly fiorina. if she pulls that off, democrats are likely to hold the senate. and the marquee matchup of the night is in nevada. that is going to be tea party triumph or tragedy. they would love to take down harry reid, sharron angle, the tea party candidate, out there, a lot of complicating factors in this race. if they miss this opportunity, there will be a lot of soul searching about why they weren't able to beat their number one target. >> fascinating year, and t

on the republican side, the senate candidate pat toomey has been running a campaign that says everythingbama administration has done needs to be reversed. that message seems to be resonating. >> all right, ron, we'll be checking back in with you tomorrow night. ron allen in philadelphia. >>> given the size of delaware, their senate race has captured a lot of press and public attention. janet, good evening. >> reporter: brian, we have more drama tonight in this contest here, in the final hours of this campaign which has democrat chris coons leading in the polls over tea party candidate christine o'donnell. a 30-minute commercial for o'donnell did not air as scheduled. her campaign questioned whether bias was involved. the tv station simply said this commercial had come in late, and it has since aired. vice president biden just finished a rally just a few minutes ago for chris coons in a race some are calling the most contentious in delaware history. brian? >> janet in wilmington, tonight. >>> and finally, complicated politics. a lot at stake in florida. a three-way race for senate, ron mo

these elections pat toomey collected one point two million dollars jim de mint who with the financial times calls the head basically of the tea party in in the senate marco rubio from florida and so now it looks like the same there well the tea party are for hire i mean they'll go in they'll get in the way of any populist movement to restore power down to the citizens at the base level of the citizenry and they as a karl benatar the entire tea party you notice that we're talking about oligarchs who replaced the word charity with cake let them eat charity is let them eat cake let them let them eat charity ok this is what they're talking about let them have a little charity slash cake and of course if you're talking about cake and eat a little tea to go there your tea party goes with the cake so these are the same roylance they all sit to the right of the monarch the tea party sits to the right of the monarch they're not pushing back in any way that's meaningful in terms of a progressive movement there are just more killers for hire and fortunately obama has been the weakest president o

in pennsylvania, republican pat toomey beat democrat joe sestak in an expensive and bitter race. sestak ousted arlen specter in the primary. >>> in illinois, republican mark kirk defeated democrat alexi giannoulias to win the seat formerly held by the president. but west virginia democrat joe manchin beat republican millionaire john raese. in a seat formerly held by robert byrd. in florida, rubio easily won a three-way race, but another tea party candidate lost, christine o'donnell who won a stunning primary victory lost to democrat chris coons. the republican gains means president obama will have to deal with a far more conservative congress, complicating his ability to aen act legislation randall pinkston is in washington with more on in. good morning, randall. >> reporter: good morning, betty. a big night for republicans and as you indicated, a huge defeat for president obama and the democrats who now face a new reality when congress convenes in january. the man set to become the next speaker of the house is promising change in washington. >> reforming the way congress works a

. >> meet toomey, pennsylvania's most right wing congressman. >> why did rand paul once tie a woman up>> reid voted to use taxpayer dollars to pay for viagra. >> around the country we'll soon know who won and who lost. >> martin o'malley is taxing me like i'm rich. >> but as you consider the results, contemplate this, attack ads are considered so successful that almost every candidate uses them. >> you deserve a senator that will tell the truth. >> but alexei doesn't. >> they are nasty, misleading, embarrassing. >> he wants to force raped women to bear the child. >> the candidates approve them because of the universally held belief that attack ads work. >> i'm michael bennett. >> i'm mark kirk. >> i'm marco rubio and i approve this message. >> soon in what will be regarded as the good old days, we used to know who was behind those ads. they admitted it. >> i approve this ad. >> and you'd like to think that every once in a while a candidate would be greeted at home by a principled 9-year-old who would say, you're really getting down in the gutter, aren't you, dad? but now, thanks to tha

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪♪ ♪ ♪ i feel good ♪ >> pennsylvania senate race was won by former republican rep pat toomeyou. thank you. thank you very much. thank you so much. thank you, pennsylvania. [cheers and applause] you knew this was not going to be easy, right? [laughter] gunther, thank you for your support and introduction tonight and being the mc. i appreciate that. the people of pennsylvania have spoken they have delivered us a victory. [cheers and applause] just a few months ago, agosestak called -- congressman sestak called to concede the race. [cheers and applause] and to convey his congratulations to me. he was very gracious and i appreciate the call. i want to congratulate joe sestak on a spirited and competitive campaign. he and his supporters really deserve to be commended for the vigorous efforts they put out. i also want to say how much i respect the service that joe sestak has given to this country. [applause] i respect both the 31 years he spent in the united states navy and the four years he spent in the united states house of representatives. he has served this country well and he

. -- between pat toomey and joe sestak. first, the concession speech from joe sestak.hing. i want to congratulate congressman pat to meet on a very well thought campaign. in particular, is wonderful family curium actually met his wife. so congratulations. thank you. to everyone is standing here. all of the volunteers. including 19,000 across this wonderful state of pennsylvania. throughout the campaign i kept saying that i could lose it myself. but i could not win it without them. i want you to know. it was me. next that want to thank my staff. i have an amazing staff. [applause] in the navy of was the commander of a number of ships. i must tell my staff, mentioning first elecampane staff under bill walsh. and then my district office and my washington office. tonight, to my campaign staff, i have never had a more professional, competent, or hard-working staff. whether we were running against the establishment or with the establishment, one that was so humble in the sense of always remembering how to treat others. particularly those that they wanted to work for. can i h

conservative but he was also the speaker are of the florida house and i think someone like him and pat toomeyave a chance to sort of bridge the gap between the tea party and the establishment. hopefully, they won't be co-opted but i think someone like rubio is a classic example of the possibilities here and i think maybe i don't want to, you know, get too far ahead of myself but look for marco rubio to be a major player and a rising star for years to come. that may be one of the big stories when we look back a couple years from now what 2010 was all about. >> arianna, what do you make of this? >> well, the gop has a choice to make now. do they want to follow what mitch mcconnell said, which is that the highest priority is going to be on to make obama a one-term president or do they want to do what's best to revive the american economy? this is a very stark choice. so far saying no to everything obama wanted to do has served them extremely well, but now, they have a higher responsibility. they're in charge of the house. >> and let's talk about that one-term president, 2012 election starts well

, the winner of the races the puppies predicted, harry reid in nevada, mark kirk in illinois, pat toomey that's not bad, you guys. and as a reward for your service to your country, tonight, you'll all be eating from the same bowl. go for it, guys. [ audience aws ] ♪ there you go, guys. aw, everyone eats from the same bowl. hey, watch it. there they are. thanks again to all the "late night" puppies. stick around. we'll be right back with "hashtags"! [ cheers and applause ] ♪ ♪ [ cheers and applause ] >>> jimmy: welcome back, everybody and thank you for watching our show. if you watch our show, you realize that i use twitter a lot, and a lot of times on twitter these weird lists get started in trending topics, like a topic with a pound sign in front of it. on twitter they call it a hashtag. since the elections were yesterday, i went on twitter and started a hashtag called "vote for me." [ light laughter ] i asked you guys at home to tweet out your campaign slogan or promise or basically any crazy reason why we should vote for you. thousands of tweets came in. i was looking at them all nigh

. >> pat toomey won a very tight race in pennsylvania. he said i get those arguments.ad of the senators and washington think class. they want to see a demonstrable point. they have to end the process. to get rid of earmarks. if we have to be the party that goes first don't tell me democrats won't follow. that is their theory. >> being an appropriator used to be the best job. >> you used to fight your whole career get get on the appropriations committee. >> no longer. >> jim demint wants another rule changed, if you are in the elected republican leadership you can't serve on an appropriation committee. that will go nowhere. talk about symbolic changing. >> major garrett. >> i apologize for my bad voice. >> hot tea and serious medicine. >>> up next a reality check on what to expect from the new congress. monday night on msnbc you can expect a special two-hour event hosted by lawrence o'donnell and maria teresa kumar "beyond borderlines" examining the state of immigration in the u.s. live from san diego only on msnbc. i was young, i was in shape, and i had a heart attack.

on the phone, now, to explain is republican pennsylvania senator elect tomb -- toomey, no fan of earmarks>>guest: i do not buy that. that for having me. here is the thing: if you wiped out $16 billion worth of earmarks, you have no obligation to spend that somewhere else, you do choose not to spend it. and if we have a problem in washington it's with too much spending. this is obvious to me. we are spending way too much money. earmarks are not the whole program but they are a very, very important part of it. it is the spending of the earmarks themselves and as you alluded to, they have become a currency that is used to buy votes on other bloated spending measures. >>neil: and that will dwarf the size where trillions in responding is approved. >>guest: and i have a simple illustration. you take the appropriations bill that come down the pike and they spend all money on discretionary spending and if a bill is bloated, loaded up with all kinds of waste, it's a huge increase over the previous year, which happens all too often, any member with an earmark in the bill, if they got their park the

toomey had nearly 51% of the vote.c-span continuing live coverage of election night 2010. we are going to return to johnson martin who is joining us from political news from. -- politico newsroom. in california, jerry brown and barbara boxer being called by d los angeles times there. we will take a telephone call while we're getting our electronics hooked up there. caller: thank you very much for taking my call. there are a couple of things -- there is a lack of making it to the final rounds of the filipino and asian candidate. making it to the front, but nothing is happening. in regards to the state of the country and what i see, if the forefathers were to look back today, i believe they would have no choice. host: that caller was complaining about the lack of minority candidates. when you look iraq -- across the landscape, how well are the party is doing to recruit more than white candidate this year? >> 2010 was notable, though. there were some high-profile minorities. they ran and won. south carolina going to the h

marco rubio from florida, pat toomey from pennsylvania, rob portman from ohio. kelly aot from new hampshire. and there are others as well. so this is not something that's unique to any one senator. unfortunately, it has been too rare. fortunately, it will be rare no more. [applause] >> thank you very much, senator lee. we look forward to having you here in washington and at many of these gatherings as well as others. thank you very much. we're going to move right into our next address. so if we could have congressman pence and david mcen tosh please come to the platform. >> thank you. it is great to be back again. thank you. great to be back again. i have a very brief purpose right now, and that's to introduce our next speaker. he is a dear friend of mine, a dear friend from before i ran for congress. he is my congressman from the sixth district of indiana, has been on the judiciary committee and knowledgeable of those issues. most recently as the number three in the republican leadership. and somebody that many, many people say is going to be a leader not only

alan west out of the florida 22nd, see senator-elect johnson out of wisconsin, when you see a pat toomeyia, they know this message. and what's more important, the tea party people understand that the establishment gop doesn't understand, they know that if they don't listen to us they're going to get fired. and there are establishment gop that are going to learn this lesson like senator lindsey graham in 2012. you're going to learn the lesson fast and furious and when the people start demanding that their elected representatives do the job we want them to do, and the elected representatives do the job, it's going to be a better country. >> so the deficit, the national debt, that was one of the biggest topics of concern when you would talk to people who counted themselves as supporters of the tea party. and yet here we have the new proposals for how we rein in this national massive debt. what does the right say? calls it, again, an excuse to raise net taxes on the american people. something's going to have to give and you have rand paul who has already said when it comes to voting to raise

senator-elect pat toomey of pennsylvania. senator tom coburn of oklahoma. senator johnny isakson, congressman paul ryan. all of these republicans have suggested in varying degrees in recent weeks that cuts in defense can be on the table. of course, lots of other republicans are still taking the same old line. >> would you cut defense across the board as well as domestic? >> no, you do not cut defense. >> just so i understand what you were trying to tell chris, do you believe that defense spending is discretionary spending? >> no, i believe you have to find the efforts of the military, and we all know that. >> we don't even get a choice about it. i don't even acknowledge that it's discretionary. she says we all know that. can't cut defense. can want do it. but maybe not anymore. you know, the idea that defense could actually come down in terms of what we spend on it every year, that has been derided by the right as a dirty hippie pipe dream for most of my lifetime. is it possible that that might change this year wm that this year it might actually happen? jo

pennsylvania, the fact is that specter was probably not as strong a candidate as the tea party backed toomeyeve. >> it depends on the states. >> of course. everything depends on the state. blue state -- each one of these states is going to have its own unique circumstances. in a republican red state, a tea party candidate who gets nominated could win, but in a state like murkowski's, run as an independent and can be elected away. >> look at what's happening in utah. good point. according to a recent poll, it is a patrol year. if hatch's re-election were held now, 40% said shathey'd vote fo him. that's not a great re-elect number of. >> it's also irrelevant. a poll of registers voters two years out doesn't mean a lot. >> means something. >> nothing. not worth the paper it's written on. >> listen. hold on. >> probably the mentality robert bennett had. >> no, my point is that i think that hatch, snowe and some of these other members have learned from watching what happened to bennett. you see hatch taking steps in utah. >> let's talk about a guy i once voted for, that's michael steele -- it is

between retired navy admiral joe sestak and former congressman, against passionate antitax man pat toomey state we're watching carefully, joe sestak ahead by two percentage points now but it is too early to project and too tight to project a winner in that race. in the state of illinois, alexi giannoulias running against mark kirk, republican -- this is really important because it is barack obama's former senate seat, so this has a lot of sentimental meaning and significance for the white house, and they are watching this race very, very carefully. also in the state of wisconsin, another race that is very tight. too early to project, senator russ feingold, a maverick senator running against ron johnson, a plastics manufacturer from oshkosh who has put a lot of his own money into the race. in nevada again -- actually, in colorado, rather -- michael bennet who was appointed to fill in secretary salazar's seat is running against ken buck who is the county district attorney. we'll be watching this race carefully. barack obama took colorado in 2008 and once again a microcosm of what's happenin

paul's coalition of the cutting entering the senate includes pat toomey of attention, who hat criticized congress. and mark kirk in illinois who called for across the board reductions in defense spending. on the house side florida representative-elect alan west who has security clearance on lean loan from god telling abc news you have to cut defense spending. back to mccain, the ranking member on armed services acknowledges there should be some defense cuts to the defense cuts but he wants to emphasize he's really worried about rand paul's foreign policy. >> there's no doubt that this new group of republicans have come in with a commitment to take a meat ax to spending. i'm not sure that you could say, okay, everything in defense is sacrosanc( t the rest of these cuts in education, social programs, et cetera, are taking place. so i worry a lot about the rise of protectionism and isolationism in the republican party. >> joined by the democratic congressman from new york, anthony weiner. thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> big picture first. boehner and mcconnell postponed this

fact is that arlen specter was probably not as strong of a candidate as the tea party backed pat toomey so you're wrong, steve. >> well, no, i mean it depends on his states. so pennsylvania. >> well of course, everything depends on the state. but a blue state. a blue state where the winger -- the winger -- >> chris, each one of these states is going to have -- it's own unique circumstances. >> yeah. >> in a republican red state a tea party candidate who gets nominated could actually win, but in a republican red state, like lisa murkowski's the republican senator can step out. and can be elected anyway. it wouldn't work. but in utah it might. >> look at what's happening in utah you make a good point there. according to a recent mason-dixon poll out there among registered voters, always a tricky number. registered voters probably make sense a lot of people vote. if hatch's re-election held now 40% said that they'd vote to re-elect him. 48% said to dump him for someone else. and 12% said no, no. that's not a great re-elect number, 40%. >> it's not a great number but also an irrelevant numb

( cheers and applause ) >> ifill: and in the keystone state, republican pat toomey defeated another democratic hopeful, congressman democrat joe sestak. >> we've got to end the threats of the excessive government regulation and the huge, out of control role that washington has begun to play. >> ifill: the roll call of casualties continued throughout the night: arkansas senator blanche lincoln losing to republican john boozman; wisconsin republican ron johnson beating three-term democrat senator russ feingold. >> my friends, the people of wisconsin have spoken, and i respect their decision. i've called ron johnson and congratulated him and... ( audience boos ) ...and wished him well as our senator. and i also offered my help and the help of my staff in any transition. >> ifill: but in west virginia, democratic governor joe manchin held onto the senate seat formerly held by robert byrd. and in connecticut, attorney general richard blumenthal defeated wrestling executive linda mcmahon. the anti-establishment tea party movement claimed victories in several key races. in florida, marco rubio beat b