Senate Democratic leaders plan to cut Republican committee seats to reflect the new balance of power in the upper chamber, according to Democratic aides.

Republicans will lose at least one seat on most committees and may lose as many as two on some of the larger panels, such as the powerful Appropriations committee.

Regan Lachapelle, a spokesperson for Reid, said Democratic leaders would follow precedent in determining how many Republican committee seats to cut.

“We can’t work with Republicans to set the ratios until we know who all the members are but we’re doing due diligence to see how the Senate was organized in the past for various [committee] ratios. Whatever we do will be guided by these precedents,” said Lachapelle.

Democrats are assured a majority of at least 57 seats after Democrat Jeff Merkley declared victory over Sen. Gordon Smith (R) in Oregon earlier this week.

During the 103rd Congress, Democrats held their biggest margins on the Appropriations, Banking, Budget, Governmental Affairs, and Labor & Human Resources Committees.

Democrats outnumbered Republicans 16 to 13 on Appropriations, 12 to 9 on Budget, 8 to 5 on Governmental Affairs, and 10 to 7 on Labor & Human Resources.

Using these ratios as a guide, Republicans could lose two seats on each of those panels (or their current equivalents).

Other committees had more evenly-divided ratios during the 103rd Congress.

Democrats held 10 to 9 advantages on the Commerce Committee and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. That might give Republicans an argument to preserve the 11 seats they hold on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.   

Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), said Democratic and Republican leaders had not yet met to negotiate the new committee ratios. He questioned whether the Senate would automatically follow precedent on the issue.

“There’s lots of precedents for lots of things,” said Stewart. “None of that stuff is going to start until everyone is back in town and we know how many members we have.”

Democrats may chop additional Republican seats if they expand their majority control to 58, 59 or 60 seats, depending on the outcome of undecided races in Georgia, Minnesota and Alaska.

Political analysts say the seat held by Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in Minnesota is the most likely to fall into Democratic hands. Coleman leads Democratic challenger Al Franken by only a couple hundred votes and is awaiting a laborious recount of ballots to know whether he will return to Washington.

Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss is expected to face a runoff election in Georgia on Dec. 2 because his share of the vote fell just below 50 percent, although election officials are still counting ballots.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) leads by a few thousand votes in Alaska and political analysts expect him to win after all ballots are counted.

If the Democratic majority holds at 57 and past precedents are followed, several GOP seats on coveted committees could become open.

A seat could open on the powerful Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over all tax issues as well as Social Security and Medicare. Defeated GOP Sens. Smith and John Sununu (N.H.) held seats on that panel.

Even if Finance sheds a GOP seat to revert to the ratio of the 103rd Congress, 11-9, another Republican slot would become open for the taking.

Several Republican senators have said they would like to serve on Finance, including Sens. Mike Enzi (Wyo.), Jim DeMint (S.C.), and George Voinovich (Ohio).

Republicans will also compete for at least one opening on the Appropriations Committee — the Senate’s other premier panel — even if Democrats chop two GOP seats from it.

Three Republican members of the committee will not come back to Congress next year: Sens. Pete Domenici (N.M.), Larry Craig (Idaho), and Wayne Allard (Colo.).

A fourth Republican member of the committee, Stevens, may ultimately lose his reelection bid or leave the Senate next year if he doesn’t win a reversal of his conviction on seven felony counts of filing false statements to conceal gifts he received from a political supporter.