A tide of dissatisfaction with the president and the war in Iraq helped give Democrats a majority in the House of Representatives, an apparent shot at control of the Senate and a strong majority of governor’s offices around the nation. The returns, which came late into the night, seemed to additionally embolden campus progressives with hope that Tuesday’s election was the beginning of the end of the era of Republican dominance.

As of publication time, the Democrats appear to have picked up 24 seats in the House — 15 were needed for a majority. In the Senate, they gained four seats, with Senate races in Montana and Virginia showing narrow margins for Democratic candidates. If Democrats win both races, they will control the Senate with a 51-49 majority.

In rooms and lounges around campus, left-leaning students ushered in the Democratic victory with a celebration befitting New Years. In the Slavinskii Dom row house, a contingent of loyal Democrats shotgunned cheap beers after the networks declared Democrats victorious in their quest to take the House. Champagne bottles were uncorked as student-revelers screamed heartily from dorm lounges and group meeting rooms.

“There’s a lot to be excited about,” said Bobby Lepore, the president of the Stanford Democrats. “This will show people that there are a lot of Americans who care about progressive values. This will show we’re not dead because we lost a couple nail biters for a couple of years. People are excited that this can bring a lot of change in Washington.”

Students funneled into three polling places on and adjacent to campus Tuesday, with several hundred others casting absentee ballots in their home states. Campus Democrat Dorm Captains tried to pump up turnout by reaching out to unregistered voters. Other students worked as volunteers at polling places.

At election sites, in more than a dozen interviews, the normally apathetic community expressed excitement about the prospect of a change in the balance of power.

“Maybe the rest of the country could look more like California,” said Frank Vigil, happy at the fulfillment of his prediction that Democrats would regain control of the House.

Adrian Pavon, 19, cast his first ballot Tuesday. He said there was a lot of energy surrounding the election.

“There was a friendly atmosphere around campus,” he said. “People were asking each other about who they were going to vote for. There was a lot of interaction.”

Campus conservatives were quiet and resigned to the losses across the nation. Around 10 p.m., a few held out hope that Republicans could control two of four U.S. Senate seats in play, with about half a dozen Republican supporters remaining in a Larkin room where the club had gathered to watch returns.

“We’re obviously disappointed,” said Megan Reiss, the president of the Stanford College Republicans. “At this point in the night, we’re still optimistic about retaining the Senate.”

DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY WILL BE CONSTRAINED

As results came in, campus leaders already began thinking about what the new Democratic House might look like and what its agenda might be. In 1994, the Republicans under Speaker Newt Gingrich embarked on an aggressive agenda dubbed “The Contract with America.” With Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) poised to become Speaker of the House, some students expressed high hopes that the takeover could mean new policy.

But University experts cautioned the idealistic to be cautious, warning that partisan rancor will likely increase with divided government.

“It clearly brings to an end this era of Republican domination, which means there will be a slowdown in the ability of the party to accomplish its policy agendas,” said Political Science and Communications Prof. Jon Krosnick. “At the same time, unfortunately, there’s now going to be an increase in partisan conflict.

“The Republicans haven’t been used to cooperating and they’re now going to be forced to in this new environment,” he added. “The Democrats have been really frustrated for quite some time. I suspect they’re going to try to make up for lost time.”

Political Science Prof. Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and specialist on foreign policy, predicted that the Democrats would have more of a psychological than political impact on the way business is done in Washington. Congress has a “very limited number of levers besides complaint and investigation to induce a change in our policy,” he said.

“It’s extremely unlikely that the Congress in the next two years is going to cut off funding or deny the funding the president says he needs because it would be seen as betraying our troops.”

Diamond said the change will force Democrats to adopt a plan for how to improve the situation in Iraq, rather than simply criticizing the president for not doing a good enough job.

“The Democrats face a bit of a challenge on whether they can rally behind some kind of alternative strategy,” he said. “The president holds the cards. I very much doubt that the Democrats will have the nerve and, some might say, the imprudence to use the blunt instrument of trying to deny funding to change our policy.”

CALIFORNIA INSULATED FROM TIDE

Reiss said that the success of California Republicans gave her members some cause to celebrate. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger defeated state treasurer Phil Angelides by over a million votes, leading a tide of GOP candidates that outperformed expectations in down-ticket races.

Republican Steve Poizner, a Silicon Valley billionaire, defeated two-term Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante in the race for insurance commissioner, a setback for state Democrats. With 60 percent of precincts reporting, Democratic Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi took a slim lead in the race for lieutenant governor over state Sen. Tom McClintock, an anti-tax conservative from Thousand Oaks. Incumbent Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, a Republican former state legislator appointed by Schwarzenegger last year, had 47 percent of the vote in a tight race against Democratic state Sen. Debra Bowen.

Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution who specializes on identifying political trends, said Angelides’ inability to fire up his base probably hurt Democratic turnout and helped Republicans in the other statewide elections.

“Democrats were not charged by his candidacy,” he said. “They didn’t come out in the numbers you normally expect Democrats to turn out. It had a much more chilling effect down the ticket.”

Whalen also attributed the insulation of California was somewhat insulated from the national trend of Democratic wins to the gerrymandering of the congressional districts.

One of two California Republicans linked to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal was fighting for survival. Rep. Richard Pombo, the chairman of the House Resources Committee, fell by 9,000 votes to Democrat Jerry McNerney, a 53-year-old wind-energy engineer who holds a doctorate in mathematics. In contrast, Republican Rep. John Doolittle defeated Democrat Charlie Brown, a retired Air Force officer and decorated war veteran.

The reason for the difference, Whalen said, is that Doolittle’s district has 15 percent more registered Republicans than Democrats. In the California 11th District, Pombo’s advantage is only six percent.

Lepore of the Stanford Democrats said that his members had been watching Pombo’s race closely. Environmental groups had targeted Pombo, and the Stanford Democrats committed volunteers to McNerney’s campaign.

Krosnick cautioned not to read too much into the meaning of the shift. He said that there had not been a gigantic transformation in American feelings or attitudes. The nation remains closely divided politically, he added.

The newly elected Democrats are more moderate than the new leadership, other observers said.

“A lot of the Democrats elected tonight are not exactly Bay Area Democrats by any means,” said Whalen. “They are in for a culture shock when they get to Washington and meet with their caucus for the first time.”

— The Associated Press contributed to this report