WASHINGTON — With Barack Obama in the White House and Democrats in tighter control of the House and Senate, Rhode Island lawmakers will assume more clout — both collectively and as individuals — when the 111th Congress convenes next year.

The Democratic sweep promises a share in the traditional spoils of victory, from judicial nominations and other political patronage jobs to rising seniority and more authority on legislative committees. It will also afford greater policy influence to Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Representatives Patrick J. Kennedy and James R. Langevin.

New England’s delegation — once the redoubt of old-line Yankee Republicans with names like Lodge and Saltonstall and Chafee — will tilt even more sharply Democratic, with not a single Republican left standing in the House only three in the Senate. Two of those are the perhaps the GOP’s most liberal — Maine Senators Susan Collins, reelected Tuesday, and Olympia J. Snowe.

Depending on the status of Connecticut independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, and the outcome of three races still in doubt, the Democrats will have an expanded majority of “at least 56-plus, which gives us a lot more latitude” to move legislation, Reed said. That total is short of the 60 needed to block filibusters in the Senate, but Reed said he thinks partisan stalemate will become rarer because of Tuesday’s “strong message from the American people of getting on with the practical, pragmatic business of government.”

New Englanders may begin, at least indirectly, to see some of the policy results from Tuesday’s elections as early as this month, when the old Congress convenes in lame-duck session to inject more money into the faltering economy.

As for the top priorities when the new Congress begins in January, “clearly it’s the economy, the economy, the economy,” said Kennedy. Reed and Whitehouse also echoed that theme of Obama’s campaign and described how the early work of the new Congress and administration might carry a distinctly Democratic stamp.

Whitehouse said, for example, that “green” technologies — weatherizing schools and other public buildings, for example — might be written into economic recovery legislation.

All four Rhode Island Democrats described how their party’s gains might improve their seniority and the stature of their committee assignments.

Reed, as the state’s senior senator from the new president’s party, has the dominant role in suggesting nominees to the federal bench and other positions that require the Senate’s assent. The U.S. District Court for Rhode Island has a vacancy. Tradition holds that U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente, a Republican appointee, will give way to a Democratic nominee. There is also a longstanding vacancy on the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has customarily been the “Rhode Island seat” on that panel.

In addition, Reed would take the Rhode Island delegation’s lead in conferring with Senate Democrats from neighboring states about regional nominations to executive department posts that require Senate confirmation.

Reed said yesterday that he intends to confer with his Rhode Island colleagues, particularly Whitehouse, on distributing such appointments. “We’re going to collaborate,” Reed said, but he did not spell out whether he would go as far in sharing the wealth of local patronage posts. Reed also declined to comment on possible nominees.

As for legislative clout, “Reed’s stature is greatly enhanced,” said Jennifer Duffy, a Senate analyst with the Cook Political Report. “Two of Obama’s largest agenda items fall under Reed’s expertise,” said Duffy, referring to banking and finance and defense and foreign policy. Reed is a senior member of the Senate panels in charge of banking and the military, she noted, “and these are issues where Obama has relied upon him.”

Reed said he expects no major changes in his committee assignments. One possible new job — depending on how Democrats wind up allotting such plums — is the chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee in charge of veterans affairs and military construction.

Whitehouse, according to Duffy, is seen as a leading success among the Senate Democrats elected two years ago, so party leaders may tap him informally to guide some of their new freshman members.

Whitehouse said he has told leaders that he would be interested in a seat on the powerful, tax-writing Senate Finance Committee. But like other members of the delegation, he stressed that many factors — such as the still-uncertain size of the majority — will keep such assignments in flux for some weeks to come.

Kennedy, who sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, said he may face a pleasant dilemma: the choice between a coveted seat on its defense subcommittee — with its power to secure spending “earmarks” for Rhode Island Navy installations and military contractors — or the prospect of a big step up toward an eventual chairmanship of the subcommittee in charge of labor and health agencies.

Langevin, too, may find himself at a happy crossroads. He has told House leaders that he is interested in a much-sought seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee. That would give him entrée to medical policy issues that he has long pursued, without a committee assignment to match his ambitions. If assigned to Energy and Commerce, Langevin would have to give up his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee in charge of antiterrorism, computer security and related issues.

Langevin is weighing another option as well: the return to active status on the Armed Services Committee. He stepped down from his seat on the panel two years ago, in order to make room for Rep. Joe Courtney, the freshman Democrat from the Connecticut district that is home to Electric Boat. But Langevin retained his seniority rights on the panel.

jmulligan@belo-dc.com