Six Races Still Too Close To Call, Two Headed for a Run-Off

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Wiki the VoteIn what seems to be becoming an American tradition, there are still uncalled House seats eight days after the election. While The Democratic control of the House is solidly entrenched, the results of these races will determine just how much breathing room they have in passing their legislative agenda.

You may have noticed that different websites have varying tallies for the number of open seats and those controlled by Democrats and Republicans. We called several of those outlets to sort things out and here are the results:

Three races were called Wednesday:

Six races remain too close to call:

Finally, two races are headed to special run-off elections:

  • Texas - 23: Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-Texas) v. Ciro D. Rodriguez. The run-off is due to a court decision that threw out Bonilla's district, which was redrawn in 2003 under a plan drawn up by former Rep. Tom DeLay. Because Bonilla failed to win the race outright he must face Rodriguez, a former Democratic member of the House, in a runoff in December.
  • Louisiana - 02: Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) v. Karen Carter. Under Louisiana's system, the November elections are wide-open to all candidates and a runoff occurs if no one captures 50 percent of the vote.

That puts the current House total at 230 Democrats and 197 Republicans, with eight races left to go. We'll keep you posted at Congresspedia. If you're curious about the races that have been called, go to our Election 2006 homepage and click on a state to see its particular result, or check out one of these categories (note that we now have links to the 2006 campaign finance data from the Center for Responsive Politics, if you're curious to see who bankrolled the new members of Congress):