Hillary Clinton re-elected to US Senate

Former First Lady Hillary Clinton was Wednesday re-elected to the US Senate for her second term opening the way for a potential presidential run in 2008. Clinton, who beat her immediate rival Republican John Spencer from New York, ran the costliest campaign with nearly $30 million (about Rs 134 crore) , prompting analysts to say her victory was a "forgone conclusion."

Her campaign seemed nothing more than "a dress rehearsal" for her presidential bid, they said.

During the campaign, Clinton was often asked whether she would complete her term or make a bid for the White House to which her reply was that she was focussing on the Senate and had not decided the presidential bid yet. Clinton's victory was significant as she won hands down, without promising to complete her term, a point her challenger John Spencer had made a campaign issue.

While the Democrat Senator was able to raise $35 million (about Rs 156 crore), her rival Spencer, a Republican managed a measly $4 million (about Rs 18 crore). Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, often joined Hillary on the campaign trail. As it became clear that she was heading for a landslide victory, Clinton said during campaign last week that Vice President Dick Cheney had said that regardless of the poll outcome, the administration would go "full steam ahead" in the same direction in Iraq. "Well, I think the American people have said, not so fast," she added.

Clinton swept every region in New York including, remarkably, the hardcore Republican rural upstate, which she took with 58 per cent of the race.

In a hypothetical race that asked voters to pick between Hillary Clinton and former Mayor Rudi Giuliani for President in 2008, Hillary trounced the Republican with 57 percent voters favoring her against just 34 percent for the man who, in the aftermath of 9/11, was known as 'America's Mayor'.