It is going to be an interesting election cycle culminating with the mid term elections in November. Following up on my new found interest in politics that began with the dual primary race for the 08 Presidential election, I am going to watch these Senate races with interest.
An introduction:
Right now there are 36 seats in play. This includes incumbents and Senators who are retiring.
There are 18 Republican seats in play [ 6 retiring and 12 incumbents ]
There are 18 Democratic seats in play [ 4 retiring and 14 incumbents ]
I am going to post the status of each group starting with the retiring Democrats first:
State | Incumbant Party | R-Candidate | D-Candidate | Leader | Spread |
CT | D | McMahon | Blumenthol | D | 28.7 |
DE | D | Castle | Biden | R | 1.7 |
IL | D | Kirk | Giannoulias | R | 6 |
ND | D | Hoevan | Democrat | R | 24 |
Nice looking chart isn’t it? Given that Connecticut is very safe for the Democrats, it looks like the Republicans can pick up 3 seats out of that group.
After this first snap shot, if every other seat holds serve, the Republicans look to gain 3 seats bringing their total to 44 and the Democrats will lose 3 bringing their total to 56.
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