WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 1988 (UPI) -- Democrats, the majority party in the House for more than three decades, will continue their rule following Tuesday's election in which nearly all incumbents of both parties were successful in seeking re-election.
Democrats won 259 of the 435 House races, five more than they held in the 100th Congress, and were leading in three races in Florida, Oregon and New York. Republicans held 173 seats.
One of the few incumbents to be ousted in the election was Rep. Fernand St Germain, D-R.I., chairman of the House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, and the target of House ethics committee and Justice Department probes. Republican attorney Ronald Machtley defeated him.
Also defeated was Rep. Pat Swindall, R-Ga., under federal indictment on perjury charges. The two-term representative lost to Democrat Ben Jones, a political newcomer best known as ''Cooter'' in the ''Dukes of Hazzard'' television series.
Democrats picked up at least 17 formerly Republican seats, including those held by Swindall and two-term Rep. Mac Sweeney, R-Texas, plus open districts in Texas and Nebraska -- while Republicans picked up 11 Democratic seats with the defeat of St Germain and a win in Florida's open 6th district.
Leaders on both sides of the aisle were re-elected, including Speaker Jim Wright, of Texas, who was unopposed, Democratic leader Thomas Foley, of Washington, Democratic Whip Tony Coelho, of California, and House GOP leader Robert Michel, of Illinois.
Incumbents of both parties had been favored to win most races, a showing similar to 1986 when 98 percent of the incumbents won. In all but 27 of the 435 districts, incumbents ran for re-election this year and were so well-entrenched and well-financed their challengers had little hope of victory. Eighty incumbents had no major party opponent.
Republicans have not been able to wrest control of the House from the Democrats since Dwight Eisenhower's 1952 victory pulled in enough Republican votes to give the GOP majorities in both the House and Senate.
Republicans won control in 1947-48 after enduring minority status throughout the Roosevelt years. The GOP's darkest hour came with the 1936 elections, in which only 89 Republicans won election to the House.
The 100th Congress closed last month with Democrats holding a solid 255-177 edge over the GOP, with three seats -- two of them Democratic - vacant because of deaths or resignations.
The senior member of Congress, Rep. Jamie Whitten, D-Miss., easily won re-election. Whitten, 78, chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, was first elected to the House in 1941, one month before the Pearl Harbor attack.
Rep. Guy VanderJagt, R-Mich., chairman of the GOP's Congressional Campaign Committee, won his 12th term in the House.
Democrats failed in their effort to unseat Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., the most vocal critic of the House Democratic leadership, particularly of Wright, who is the subject of an ethics committee probe prompted by a Gingrich complaint.
Voters in Pennsylvania's 22nd district re-elected Democratic Rep. Austin Murphy, despite his being reprimanded by the House last year for misconduct.
In Colorado, Democratic Rep. Pat Schroeder, who briefly considered a run for the Democratic presidential nomination, easily outdistanced her challenger, homemaker Joy Wood.
A second Udall will not be serving in the House with the loss in New Mexico of Democrat Tom Udall, nephew of Rep. Morris Udall, D-Ariz., and son of former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, in a race with Republican Steven Schiff.
In Tennessee's 2nd district, Republican John Duncan Jr. won election to the House seat held for many years by his father, who died earlier this year.
All Kentucky incumbents won, including veteran Democratic Rep. William Natcher, who was elected to his 18th term.
Indiana Democrats held their own in the home state of Republican vice president-elect Dan Quayle. Democrats had feared Quayle's addition to the national GOP ticket would bring out a strong Republican vote, but that did not materialize. All six Democrat and four Republican incumbents won re- election.
Included was Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., who served as co-chairman of the House-Senate committee that investigated the Iran-Contra scandal and was considered as Michael Dukakis' running mate.
The lone Republican member of the Massachusetts delegation, veteran Rep. Silvio Conte, easily won election to his 16th term.
Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., son of the late Sen. Robert Kennedy, won his second term in the House, representing the district once held by John F. Kennedy and retired Speaker Thomas O'Neill.
The 23 blacks currently in the House headed for easy re-election, with the exception of freshman Rep. Mike Espy, D-Miss, yet Espy managed to turn back a vigorous attack by Republican lawyer Jack Coleman.
Two former sports figures won re-election -- Rep. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., a former professional baseball pitcher, and Rep. Tom McMillen, D-Md., a former professional basketball player. Both are completing their first terms in the House.
North Carolina's 11th district race attracted attention again this year because of the voters' penchant for ousting incumbents in every election since 1980. But Democratic Rep. James Clarke ended that pattern by defeating his Republican challenger, Charles Taylor, as the vote tally continued.
In Louisiana, seven of the state's eight incumbents were home free even before Election Day arrived. They managed to rack up more than the 50 percent primary vote needed under Louisiana's unique law to avoid appearing on the general election ballot.
