1.   Both are veteran incumbents with decades of victories behind them.

2.   All six congressional races this year feature veteran incumbents.

3.   Chiles or Ms. Richards, both hard-fighting veteran incumbents, had never lost a race before.

4.   Fisher denied that the congressman, who beat veteran incumbent Democrat Jack Brooks last November with the support of gun groups, has any connection to the militia.

5.   Johnson narrowly won election to the Senate six years ago, beating the veteran Republican incumbent, Larry Pressler, by two percentage points.

6.   The move has brought dozens of new faces to the state Legislature and forced veteran incumbents like Brown to seek new jobs or to retire.

7.   Veteran incumbents who lost their seats included Jabat Larijani, the brother of the head of state television, and Hassan Rohani, the first deputy speaker.

8.   Democrats are still hoping to entice strong challengers into the race against veteran GOP incumbents in Vermont and Delaware.