| 2010 Target Senate Races |
NOTE: The # next to figures means that the margin and probabilities are based on other elections which would be similar to the current one. This is caused by the fact that the present incumbent has not run for election previously or an incumbent is in enough trouble according to recent polls that the most recent election is not a valid indicator and an earlier election result must be used. The Republicans are handicapped in the U. S. Senate races because only 18 Democratic seats are up for election. Of these, in 5 of them, the Democrats are a shoo-in (CT, MD, HI, NY (Schumer) and VT). Of the remaining 13 seats, 2 of them are definitely very marginal (NY(Gillibrand) and OR). Only 7 have a good chance of going Republican since they have a probability of over 50%. The problem is that all of the remaining 4 states are blue states. Still Senate seats are much more unpredictable than House seats. Personality and name id are far more important so it all comes down to Republican candidate recruitment. Since the Republicans have failed to get Pataki to run in New York against Gillibrand, that seat has dropped into the marginal group. The failure to get Thompson to run in Wisconsin has dropped that seat from a good chance into the toss-up category. Washington is already in the toss-up category but if Rossi runs, it will move up into the good chance category. Without Rossi we project that the Republicans will gain 7 seats. Since the Republicans only have 41 seats, they would need to pick up 3 more seats to gain control of the Senate and that assumes they will not lose any of their current seats. Before the Massachusetts results, the hope of the Republicans gaining control of the Senate was not very good. Now it is a possibility. Everything depends on what happens in California, Illinois, Washington, and Wisconsin. If 3 of these go to the Republicans, they will gain control of the Senate to match the excellent chance they have of gaining control of the House. |
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