By David Lightman

Hartford Courant

WASHINGTON -- Women were a key reason that Democrats will control Congress next year - and their message was that lawmakers should stop bickering and deal with the Iraq war and economic issues, analysts said Monday.

"Soccer moms became security moms a few years ago," said Jo Freeman, senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. In 2002 and 2004, fear of terrorism - and the idea that Republicans would do a better job protecting people - moved many women to vote for GOP candidates.

Last week, that pendulum swung the other way.

"They became anti-war moms," said Freeman.

There's another storyline involving women from last week's results: The election moved more women than ever into positions to assume significant power in Washington.

California Rep. Nancy D. Pelosi is expected to be the House Democrats' unanimous choice Thursday to become the first woman speaker.

Other key positions are also likely to go to women, notably the chairmanship of the Rules committees in both Houses. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-N.Y., are expected to win those positions, which have enormous clout over the floor agenda.

Other women could wind up leading key committees, including Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., at the Senate Environment and Public Works panel, and Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3rd District, who is seen as becoming co-chairwoman of the Democrats' steering and policy committee, which has power over committee assignments.

The number of women will increase, too. The Senate will add two women, Democrats Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, for a total of 16 - 11 Democrats and five Republicans. The House will have about 70 women, and about two-thirds are expected to be Democrats.

The message they carry is complex and, at times, difficult to fit between partisan lines, despite Democrats' touting of polling data suggesting that women helped put them in power.

"Democratic leaders will assume that all women think alike, and that would be wrong," said Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, a Washington-based conservative group. "It would be a mistake to say a woman in Connecticut may have had the same motivation for voting that someone in Missouri or California had."

But Democrats are trying, as Democratic pollster Celinda Lake maintained Monday that women made the difference in three key Senate races that gave the party its 51-49 majority.

In Virginia, novelist James Webb beat incumbent Republican Sen. George Allen by 10 points among women, while Allen topped Webb by 10 points among men. There were also "gender gaps" in Missouri and in Montana, where Democrat Jon Tester beat incumbent GOP Sen. Conrad Burns.

All three new Democrats, though, are considered moderate to conservative.

If there is a clear Election Day message from women, independent analysts said, it's that they want Congress to stop the partisan warfare, show some concern for constituents and act.

Women had been inching away from the Democratic Party in recent years, driven largely by the view that Republicans would make the nation safer.

Although 54 percent voted for party presidential nominee Al Gore in 2000, 2004 nominee John F. Kerry's share dropped to 51 percent. For about two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President Bush's approval numbers among women ranged from 60 percent to 76 percent. On Tuesday, though, 56 percent of women preferred Democratic candidates.

The trend had been expected, especially since the Mark Foley scandal erupted Sept. 29. The former Florida Republican resigned his seat after reports that he had inappropriate relations with teenage pages.

The corruption issue motivated a lot of women to vote Democratic - exit polls showed that it was important to 9 percent more women than men.

A lot of women, especially single women, saw another distraction stopping Congress from deliberating and voting on day-to-day concerns - Iraq.

"Iraq was a critical issue for everyone, but even more so for unmarried women," said Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg. "They viewed this as not just a war where American was bogged down and made them less secure, but took resources away from programs that affect them directly."

Among their priorities: better schools, a higher minimum wage, giving government the ability to negotiate for lower Medicare drug prices and keeping Social Security strong.

"We are more interested in finding ways to save, rather than take, lives, both in the short- and long-term," said Marie Rietmann, public policy director at Women's Action for New Directions, a progressive women's group.

Greenberg's survey found that Democrats won the unmarried women vote by a 2-1 ratio, while married women were split between the two parties in House and governors' races and slightly favored Democrats in Senate races.

Single women, he said, "had a very powerful impact on the outcome."

Wright dismissed the finding as predictable. "Single women tend to trend Democrat. They usually rely more on government than married women," she said.

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