CQ Politics' Guide to 2010 Senate Races

[last_texas_dem]

by Bob Benenson, CQ Staff

>>>>Sixty-six weeks from the 2010 election, neither Democrats nor Republicans have a clear advantage in the all-important races for the Senate, where Democrats for now have a working but sometimes fractious “supermajority” of 60. Each party will be defending 18 seats next year, and only seven races are, at this point, considered tossups.

Democrats hope to build on the 15 seats they have picked up since 2006 (including the defection last year by Pennsylvania’s formerly Republican Arlen Specter ). The Republicans, of course, want to drive the Democratic majority as far below 60 seats as they can. (Actually retaking control in the midterm election appears out of reach.)

Each party has some particular political challenges: Republicans have three seats left open by retiring incumbents in battleground states — Missouri, New Hampshire and Ohio — and each of those contests is on the current roster of tossups. And two of their incumbents, Jim Bunning of Kentucky and Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, face serious challenges.

Democrats have some of their biggest problems clustered, curiously, in what has become perhaps the party’s strongest region: the Northeast. In Connecticut, Christopher J. Dodd is tied to the unpopular financial industry. Next door in New York, appointee Kirsten Gillibrand is laboring to build a statewide base. And in Pennsylvania, Specter’s party flip has not insulated him from serious challengers. The party also faces a close race for the Illinois seat formerly held by President Obama, which has come open because beleaguered appointee Roland W. Burris has decided not to mount an uphill election run.>>>>

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003177607

[saltpoint]

1. Senate races are always a big draw. I love to read about

them. I love hearing from DUers from the states here close races are taking place.

[last_texas_dem]

2. Me, too, saltpoint

I know it's more than a year until these elections are held, but it's already interesting to consider what's going to happen in some of these races- and there are already important developments taking place, such as Jim Bunning's announced retirement today, that will have major impacts on what happens next year.

[saltpoint]

3. Exactly. Bunning's news just tore through the headlines, didn't it.

The upcoming Senate races are going to be sizzlers.

[last_texas_dem]

4. I agree

Now that I think about it, maybe Bunning wasn't the best example for me to use if I was trying to think of something positive for the Democrats- as we probably would have had a much better shot at picking up the seat had the old goofball stayed in and decided to seek reelection. But a year and three months is a long time, and all kinds of things can happen when it comes to open seats...

[saltpoint]

5. Yes. Bunning seemed more vulnerable, but Kentucky can be

volatile sometimes. Agree with you that a lot of different things can take place in those open-seat contests.

New York is shaping up to be a wild landscape, too -- both for the gubernatorial primary and the U.S. Senate race.