Senate Map Is Messy for GOP

[DeepModem Mom]

WP political blog, "The Fix," by Chris Cillizza
The Line: Senate Map Is Messy for GOP

Most of the recent action in the budding 2008 Senate campaigns came in races that didn't make our last rankings.

In Texas, wealthy attorney Mikal Watts (D) not only formed a campaign committee but also dropped nearly $4 million of his own money into it.

In Alaska, Sen. Ted Stevens (R) confirmed to washingtonpost.com's Paul Kane that he had been asked by the FBI to preserve documents in relation to a probe in the Last Frontier state that involves a number of elected officials, including the senator's son. The burgeoning investigation has stoked talk that Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) -- the son of former Congressman Nick Begich -- might consider a challenge to Stevens.

And in Nebraska, state Attorney General Jon Bruning made it official: He is taking on Sen. Chuck Hagel in next year's Republican primary.

Only one of these three races makes our Line this month (scroll down to see which one), but the fact that Texas, Alaska and Nebraska are even mentioned here reveals the impact that the national environment is having on the Senate landscape. Democrats are on offense nearly everywhere, trying to put as many states as they can into play next November, while Republicans are largely focused on protecting their incumbents.

Make no mistake: We are still skeptical about Democrats' chances in deep "red" states, but the more seats that are in play, the better chance that one of these races gets very competitive over the next year....

(NOTE: The Senate seats ranked most likely to change party, from 1, most likely, to ten are: Colorado, NH, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Oregon, Virginia, Nebraska, SD, NM.)

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2007/06/friday_senate_line_2.html#more

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. can we yankees "secede" the south from the union?

just thinking.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. I was stationed in TX for a while in the Army,

listening to all the Texans lamenting about the outcome of the Civil War. I joined them in their lamentations.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Well, that's a pretty grim outlook for Nebraska to get another Dem Senator

in '08. Can't wait to live under Rove-boy Bruning's psycho neocon Bushbot regime. Yay. Sometimes I can't wait to leave this bass-ackwards neanderthal state.