Will the liberal northeastern Republicans be cleaned out?

[leyton]

Last November we saw five centrist/conservative Democrats retire in the South. Bob Graham excepted, all were from states that have leaned increasingly Republican over the years. And except for Edwards, who won in a squeaker upset, all of them were respected figures in their states and got past the (D) beside their name because voters trusted them and knew them and had usually been electing them for years. But when they retired all five seats went Republican, giving the GOP five conservative Republicans to replace five conservative Democrats.

Will the same thing happen in New England? Snowe, Collins, and Chafee are all liberal Republicans from states that are pretty Democratic. I don't know about Sununu and Gregg, since the former was elected very recently over Governor Shaheen, but on the other hand New Hampshire is increasingly Democratic. I don't think we'll be able to knock many of these people with a challenger, but I would think that when these people retire we'll pick up their seats.

Will it happen? Should we target a few of them now to pick up numbers in the Senate? If we come closer to retaking the Senate, should we try and get them to convert to our side?

[chicagojoe]

1. It would be great if they would at least follow Jeffords' lead. n/t

[SixShooter]

2. The one I have

the most faith in being a possible convert is Lincoln Chafee(sp?) He has seemed genuinely pissed at * for a fairly long time now

[leyton]

5. I think it would be great if they could switch as a bloc.

Say, for example, we managed to find ourselves with 48 or 49 Senators. We'd have to convince a number of Senators at once to switch, because nobody in their right mind would switch from the majority to the minority. But if we convinced three or four to switch at once - another New England revolution of sorts! - that would be awesome, even if they just became independents and caucused our way.

[joeybee12]

3. Chaffee is in big trouble in Rhode Island...he needs to switch parties

to have a chance---he ain't gonna make it out of the Repuke primary.

Snowe may not run--she's up in '06. She's very popular, but I don't think she's a shoe-in.

[leyton]

4. I think she's pretty strong.

She won with nearly 70% of the vote in 2000.

[joeybee12]

6. True, but the Dems didn't really try...

Also, I think she's leaning towards retirement...that would be nice.