FIRMLY IN CONTROL

The most expensive Senate race in Colorado history (a combined total of $15 million) matched two men with very different but very deep roots in the state. Democrat Ken Salazar's family settled in the San Luis Valley in the 1840s and has worked the same 200-acre farm for more than 150 years. Republican Pete Coors's great-grandfather Adolph started his brewery in Golden in 1873. Salazar, the cowboy-hat-wearing state attorney general, snagged the Senate seat vacated by retiring Republican Ben Nighthorse Campbell, 71. The key to victory: a coalition of Denver Democrats, conservative rural voters drawn by his ranching roots, moderate Republican suburbanites impressed by his tough anti-crime profile and Hispanic voters, whose numbers have surged in recent years. It was the warm beer of defeat for brew magnate Coors, 58, who found himself on the wrong end of a close vote. With his victory, Salazar, 49, joins Florida's Martinez as the first Hispanics to serve in the Senate since Democrat Joseph Montoya represented New Mexico nearly three decades ago.

LOUISIANA

Few expected Louisiana to post a clear result in its Senate race. The state's bizarre election law, the brainchild of now jailed former governor Edwin Edwards, pitted candidates of all parties against one another in a free-for-all "primary." The two top vote-getters would face a runoff unless one of them beat the odds by winning a clear majority. Congressman David Vitter, 43, the lone Republican in a seven-man race, led the field, while Democrats Chris John and John Kennedy fought a merciless battle for second place, accusing each other of ties to white supremacist David Duke (both denied it). In the end, their sniping seems to have given Vitter the majority he needed. He will be the first Republican senator in Louisiana history.

NORTH CAROLINA

John Edwards could have taken his lead from Joe Lieberman and opted not to quit his day job. Instead, Edwards put everything he had on winning the vice presidency. That choice led to a tight race for the North Carolinian's Senate seat. The Democratic candidate, former Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles, 59, began with better name recognition from a previous unsuccessful Senate run against Elizabeth Dole two years ago. But Richard Burr, 48, a five-term Republican congressman, ran an up-close-and-personal campaign, driving from small town to smaller town and meeting the voters one on one. The Burr technique did the job.

KENTUCKY