Developments in brief

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  • Democrats sweep Republicans out of power in House of Representatives and move to within one seat of taking the Senate
  • President Bush says results were disappointing and concedes Iraq policy not working "well enough"
  • Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigns from post
  • Democrats take Montana to move within one seat of taking control of Senate
  • House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to become first female speaker of the House and second in line to Presidency
  • Democrats pick up three of six Republican Senate seats needed for control - Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Ohio - and hold their own threatened Senate seats in New Jersey, Maryland.
  • Republicans hold on to key Democratic Senate targets in Tennessee but Virginia is too close too call.
  • Democratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, wins re-election to second Senate term
  • Democrat Keith Ellison becomes first Muslim elected to Congress as Representative for Minnesota
  • Democrat Claire McCaskill elected to US Senate in Missouri
  • Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, running as independent, wins re-election after losing Democratic nomination in August to opponent of Iraq war.
  • Election officials, experts report electronic voting machine malfunctions in Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas, but say many of problems are minor.
  • Democrats take governors' seats from Republicans in five states, nearing majority of offices for first time since 1994 and giving them potential advantage in 2008 presidential battlegrounds.
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger holds governorship of California
  • Democrat Deval Patrick, former top US civil rights enforcer, elected governor of Massachusetts, becoming second African American ever elected to lead US state.