With his strong re-election victory, Gov. Ted Kulongoski was given a second chance by voters to pursue an aggressive agenda to boost education and children's health programs -- and he apparently is going to have a lot of Democratic help in the Legislature.

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Oregon Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski celebrates his victory over Republican challenger Ron Saxton during a Democratic party of Oregon party Tuesday.

Riding the anti-GOP wave that swept the country in Tuesday's mid-term elections, Kulongoski turned back a challenge from the better-funded Ron Saxton, who up until the campaign's final days was seen as the GOP's best chance of knocking off a Democratic governor.

With 52 percent of the projected vote counted, Kulongoski was leading Saxton, 51 percent to 43 percent, with the rest of the vote spread among three minor party contenders.

Early vote returns also put Democrats within striking distance of taking control of the Oregon House, meaning that for the first time since 1989-90, both chambers of the Legislature as well as the govenor's office all will be held by Democrats.

Kulongoski, who was criticized by Saxton as well as some Democrats earlier this year for not being aggressive enough in his first term, made it clear Tuesday night that he's going to push hard for his priorities in the legislative session that begins Jan. 8.

Those include developing biofuels, finding more money for state police, health care for uninsured children, and more aid to schools.

"Today, you the voters of Oregon gave us a vote of confidence that I will never forget and I will never take for granted," Kulongoski said at his victory party Tuesday night.

It was a bitter defeat for Saxton and the Republicans, who thought 2006 would be their year to recapture the governor's office from the Democrats. The last Republican governor was Vic Atiyeh, who left office in 1986.

Saxton delivered a brief concession speech to downcast supporters, calling Oregon a "great state" but offering little analysis of his surprisingly strong defeat.

Portland pollster Tim Hibbitts said Saxton fell victim to the anti-GOP sentiment that pervaded Tuesday's mid-term elections.

"Make no mistake -- the Republicans have taken a bad beating nationwide. There's no question that hurt Ron Saxton," Hibbitts said Tuesday night.

Kulongoski has been dogged by low public approval ratings this year, and even some of his traditional allies among unions and environmental groups were lukewarm about the governor during the contested primary elections earlier this year.

Some Oregonians who cast ballots for Kulongoski Tuesday expressed a certain ambivalence as well.

"I went for (Ted) Kulongoski. I didn't think there was a choice. I don't know if he is the best, but I don't think Ron Saxton has our interests in mind," said David Kelly, a special education teacher in the Portland school district.

However, as the general election approached, public employee unions and many state workers rallied around Kulongoski to defeat Saxton, who once suggested firing public employees and then re-hiring them with less generous pension benefits.

Both national parties earlier had viewed Oregon's race as highly competitive, despite Oregon's reputation as an increasingly blue state where Bush was defeated by Democrat John Kerry in Oregon's 2004 presidential election.

The Republican Governors Association in Washington, D.C., provided $2 million of the nearly $7 million in campaign money Saxton raised.

Saxton used the money to blanket the airwaves with TV ads criticizing Kulongoski's support for various tax increases and for what Saxton called Kulongoski's failure to improve schools and make government more efficient.

Kulongoski, who conceded during the campaign that he's "not a flashy politician," said his administration nonetheless deserved some of the credit for helping to pull Oregon out of a deep recession that forced cuts in schools and other services from 2001 to 2003.

As for Saxton, Kulongoski called the Portland attorney a "tool of corporate interests" who questioned the need for the state's initiatives to curb global warming and to crack down on predatory practices by payday loan shops.

The Democratic governor also questioned Saxton's relatively thin resume of public service.

Saxton served one term on the Portland School Board, while Kulongoski has served in all three branches of government in a decades-long political career that began when he was elected in 1974 as a state representative from Eugene.