Senator George Allen of Virginia conceded today that he lost to the Democratic challenger, Jim Webb, ending the last undecided Senate contest and giving Democrats control of the full Congress for the first time in a dozen years.
Shortly afterward, Mr. Webb told his supporters that he and Mr. Allen had had “a good discussion,” and that the defeated senator’s private concession remarks had been “very gracious.” The two will confer over lunch next week, Mr. Webb said.
The triumph in Virginia effectively gives Democrats 51 seats in the Senate. (Representative Bernard Sanders, the senator-elect from Vermont, is an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut is a Democrat, although he ran for re-election as an independent after losing in the primary.)
