FIRMLY IN CONTROL

Republican incumbent Jim Bunning eked out a whisker-thin victory after an erratic campaign in which, among other things, he said his opponent looked like one of Saddam Hussein's sons. Bunning, 73, who started the race as a clear favorite, barely won a second term by defeating Democrat Daniel Mongiardo, 44, a state senator and surgeon.

OKLAHOMA

Just about every time Tom Coburn opened his mouth, he made Oklahomans flinch. The 56-year-old obstetrician warned of "rampant" lesbianism in some public schools and urged the death penalty for abortion doctors. He denounced state legislators as "a bunch of crapheads." And in a state whose population is 8 percent Native American, he disparaged Indian treaties as "primitive documents." But he was saved from himself when a below-the-belt attack from his Democratic rival, attorney Brad Carson, 37, backfired.

Carson had spent months running a cautious but effective campaign as a right-of-center Democrat, firmly opposed to gay marriage and gun control. Then, barely a week before Election Day, Carson closed in for the kill with an ad that branded Coburn an "abortionist" for terminating the pregnancies of two patients. The obstetrician admitted it, saying the women's lives had been in danger--and the polls turned decisively against Carson.

ALASKA

Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski, 47, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2002 by her father, Gov. Frank Murkowski, shook off charges of nepotism and apparently bested Democratic challenger and former governor Tony Knowles, 61. But Knowles, trailing Murkowski by some 10,000 votes at press time, declined to concede, pointing to a sizable cache of absentee ballots and uncounted votes cast in remote arctic communities.

WITH ACE ATKINS IN JACKSON, MISS., HOLLY BAILEY IN NEW YORK, KAREN BRESLAU IN COLORADO, ARIAN CAMPO-FLORES IN MIAMI, ANNE BELLI GESALMAN IN OKLAHOMA CITY AND ANDREA COOPER IN CHARLOTTE, N.C.

© 2004