The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-11-03
NATION VOTES
 ON WAR ISSUE
tContinued from Page D

velt's conduct of the war. But candidates of all parties uniformly are pledged to continue the fight until the Axis is licked.
 The Democratic party is expected to lose some Senate and House seats but to retain control of the Congress. There also is a scattered weakening of Democratic state bulwarkS and the Republican party is expected to add to its list of gov- ernors, notably in New York state where Democrats have been in power 20 years.
 In addition to thousands of local offices, the electorate will choose 3l | full term and four short term Sen- ators, 432 flll term and two short term members of the House and g governors. Maine elected a gov- 1 ernor, a senator and three members of the House-all Republicans September IA.
 The newly elected senators and representatives with those members of the Senate whose terms hold over beyond this year will comprise the 78th Congress which will con- we're in the first week of January.
 The Senate will remain Demo- cratic regardless of how far the po- litical pendulum may swing today. The existing Democratic majority is so large that the Republicans would be unable to take over in the upper house even if they won every seat for which they are given any chance at all. Of the seats at issue today, eight are in the south where Democratic nominees arc uaopposed. The pulse feelers vari- ously predict Republican gains of from two to six seats and the c. O. P. claims that it will take eight.
 Tn the house. the Republicans now hold l65 seats, far short of the 2i8 required for a bare majority over all parties. The Democrats have 258 seats. There are five minor party representatives and seven va- cancies. Unless some of the minor party representatives would join with them, the c. O. P. would re- quire 53 additional seats to organ ize the house when it meets in Jan uary and to supplant Speaker Ray Rayburn with Rep. Joseph W. Mar tin. Jr., R.. Mass. who presently is the Republican floor leader.
 Republican spokesmen generally have not claimed that they would win the house this year and both parties have been cautious in seek ing votes to avoid the 1918 mistake of Woodrow Wilson who called for election of members of his own party as part of the war effort. But Vice Chairman Frank E. Gannett says the Republicans will gain a minimum of 35 seats and probably do better. Some other Republicans privately express the opinion that they have l9 to 20 new seats in the bag and a good chance but no assurance of bettering that figure.
 The extent of Republican gains in the house will be accepted here and abroad as a measure of American judgment of the war policies of the Roosevelt administration. But it also is a fact that the majority party in congress usually loses seats in an of year election. Only once in the past 40 years has such majority been increased in off, year polling. That was in 1884 dur ing the honeymoon period of the first New Deal administration when the G. O. F., already shell shocked by President Rooseyelt's spectacular first term election, lost nine seats to the Democrats. But the tide be- gan to turn in 1888 and the Repub- licans gained II seats in that oil year. Republicans did not actually lose control of the house in the of year elections of 1880. The Repub- lieans lost heavily but had six more seats than the Democrats on the record of the vote the day after the election. But that was before adoption of the lame duck amend ment to the Constitution so the congress which was elected in Mo- yember, 1880, did not take office until December. 1881. Tn the in- terim by-eleetions caused by deaths and the outcome of some contested elections reversed the polling day decision to give the Democrats con- trol when the congress finally met.
 Top billing among the states goes to the New York contest for gover- nor in which Republican Thomas F. Dewey. the former distrtict attorney. looks like a sure winner over John J. Bennett. Jr.. Democrat. and Dean Aifange. American LaboTite. Dewey took the New York nomination over the opposition of Wendell L. Willkie, lel0 Republican presidential nom- inee. and may come up two years from now with the presidential nomination in his own right if he wins today. His packers are claim Ing a plurality of around 600,O00 which would be victory sufficiently spectacular to impress the name of VAmm.a.. AaaN.l., fnA.aa AAaN Nk kA AAAaf