Best senate seat to pick up in 2010?

[ccharles000]

I think Burr will go down in NC he is so weak and if we could beat Dole Burr won't be hard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_2010

[AllentownJake]

1. PA

I think Specter is going down in the Primary thanks to alot of the moderate GOPers becoming Dems.

A conservative GOPer vs. a Democrat always results in the democrat winning in PA. Santorum ran as a moderate his first two times. his crazy didn't come out till re-election

[valerief]

3. I think man-on-dog sex will make a comeback in 2010, and Santorum has cornered that fear. nt

[AllentownJake]

4. or sleeping with dead babies and taking it home for your children to hold

http://www.therationalradical.com/2005/05/santorum-sleeps-with-dead-baby.html

[valerief]

5. Ick! Forgot about that one. Yecch! nt

[Radical Activist]

Now THAT is seriously

fucked up. I hope he runs in the primary though so I can revive using the word Santorum as it was meant to be used.

[Historic NY]

31. that could be messy..

:hide:

[Radical Activist]

35. lol usually is.

[camera obscura]

2. I think we could take Florida provided we get a good, mass-appeal candidate

Wasserman Schultz maybe? (I love Wexler but I fear he's too polarizing for an entire state.)

I also think we could take Kansas if Sebelius decides to run.

[Ediacara]

7. I like Wasserman-Schultz (although not being in FL, I don't know how mass-appeal she is)

I have a feeling that her constant TV presence in 2008 was a precursor to her running for Senate.

[David Zephyr]

14. I also like her a lot. I hope the Party will rally behind her for Senate.

Big fan here.

[FLAprogressive]

21. I don't like her at all. She's a DINO traitor.

She was more interested in keeping the 3 Cuban reactionaries in office than helping Dems. She also told the candidate who was running against Adam Putnam to not "pull that populist stuff" on her.

[elleng]

32. Right; I have problems with her too

(ffrom here in maryland!)

She's sure been sticking her neck out, to make lots of noise; but maybe to gain creds in house? Thats ok with me.

[FLAprogressive]

37. Dissing your own party's candidates is gaining creds? nt

[Ediacara]

6. I think we'll take Florida and maybe NC and MO

Florida will be sweetest just because it'll get Mel Martinez off of my TV with his self righteous jerkitude.

[TheDebbieDee]

8. Missouri. Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Kit Bond's gotta go!

Then, in 2012, we can work on replacing Sen. Claire McCaskill with a REAL Democrat!

[Hippo_Tron]

9. What do you have against Claire McCaskill?

She's one of my favorite Senators.

[TheDebbieDee]

27. My problem with Claire McCaskill is that she votes like Feinstein

and Landrieu. She may talk a good bi-partisan game but she votes like the no-"Talent" repuke she replaced.

But, first things first. We gotta get rid of Bond!

[ccharles000]

12. I always thought Claire was nice.

[TheDebbieDee]

28. She is nice, but she votes with the repukes.........

[phillysuse]

10. Pennsylvania - Spector won't run and Pat Toomey

and or Santorum will fight for the Club For Growth vote. On the dem side you will have Chris Matthews and likely others including maybe Joe Sestak, Patrick Murphy and Alison Schwartz.
Maybe even Rendell will throw himself into the fight.

[David Zephyr]

15. I agree. I think PA is our best shot.

And I don't care what anyone says, it should be Chris Mathews.

[AllentownJake]

30. Joe Sestak is actually a better candidate for PA

Military credentials that play well outside of Philly (He gets the Philly burb votes based on being a rep from there) and he votes almost 100% with democrats in congress. Matthews is an unknown commodity.

[AllentownJake]

29. God I hope Rendell retires

[Radical Activist]

11. Any chance Grassley will retire?

If he does it should be an easy pick up. Just run Culver or Vilsack.

[Capt. America]

13. Duh, Ohio! Voinovich is 104 years old. He will likely not run again [hopes].

[Radical Activist]

16. The great thing is that there are so many potential pick ups.

PA. NC. Kansas. Coburn in OK. Voinovich has low approval numbers in Ohio, which has been more Democratic lately. Vitter had a scandal in Louisiana and only got 51% his first term. Bunning barely won last time in KY. We can hope for a couple retirements. It looks to me like we're getting our 60 votes in 2010 if we don't get them now.

[me b zola]

17. FL: Bill Nelson's seat is ripe for a Democrat to take it

:D

[Blue_In_AK]

18. Lisa Murkowski is coming up for re-election in 2010.

I'll be surprised if Sarah doesn't try to take her on in the primary, in which case I hope Lisa kicks her ass. At least Sen. M has a brain and isn't consumed with seeking the limelight. I've heard some rumors about possible Democratic contenders, but nothing definite yet.

[MasonJar]

19. Best in what way? If one means easiest, then Kentucky if Bunning runs again.

[Danger Mouse]

20. Are any DEM seats in jeopardy for 2010?

[ccharles000]

22. Harry Reid maybe?

[Danger Mouse]

24. Put up a strong Dem primary challenger so he doesn't end up being deadweight.

[ShadowLiberal]

26. But a primary challenge would just make things worse for us over there

Primary challenges tend to weaken the party engaged in them, especially if the other party doesn't have a primary challenge.

Take a look at New Mexico for a perfect example. Early on the polling showed it would be a very competitive race between Democrat Udall and either one of the republicans running for the party's nomination. By primary day however both republicans were polling very badly against Udall, over 15% behind him.

[FLAprogressive]

23. Harry Reid's. n/t

[camera obscura]

39. Doubt it. Brian Krolicki is in trouble & he was their designated candidate for 2010.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NV_OFFICIAL_INDICTMENT_NVOL-?SITE=NVCAP&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-11-24-17-14-44

[ShadowLiberal]

25. How could you not list PA or NH? Both could be in BIG trouble if the right people run

Specter only narrowly survived a tough primary battle against Tooney last time, and may very well have it because of an endorsement from Bush. A lot of PA insiders believe that Tooney is going to challenge Specter again if he seeks reelection.

Then there's New Hampshire, while it's certainly no slam dunk I think Electoral Vote laid out a nice case on why Senator Gregg ought to be VERY nervous right now. Since getting reelected in 2004 (with over 60% of the vote though I'll admit, which shows he'll be tougher then Sununu to unseat) his state has gone very blue. In 2006 both the republicans controlled house seats flipped to the democrats, I believe the democrats also took control of the state legislature for the first time in decades. In 2008 the other sitting senator, a republican, lost. And the democrats have control of the governorship to, John Lynch a democrat, won the governorship recently by the largest margin ever in New Hampshire history, with 77% of the vote.

Worst yet for Senator Gregg, New Hampshire governors are elected to two year terms, so what if the extremely popular governor Lynch decides to run for the senate? Senator Gregg would likely be very screwed then, I mean how can you possibly beat a guy who recently won a statewide election by the largest margin ever in state history?

As for the most likely pickup for us though, while I wouldn't have said it until looking at that page, those early polls in Florida are quite promising. If an incumbent can't even crack the 40% mark then they're in big trouble. Incumbents scoring under 50% are considered vulnerable, and he's scoring at least 13% below 50% in all the polls so far. Worse yet for him, that one democrat they matched him up against scored 51% of the vote! We've got to get him to run for us there.

[elleng]

33. Who is 'him?'

.

[davidpdx]

34. I think it's hard to tell at this stage

any number of retirements could alter races and make them more competitive. I had my doubts about Oregon getting rid of Smith, but it finally happened. Some of it depends on the quality of the candidates. If we can get some high quality candidates, there is a good chance we could pick up a couple more seats.

[Vinca]

36. New Hampshire is turning so blue, I think Gregg can be beaten

if we can come up with a viable candidate.

[annabanana]

38. Hey!. . Where's "ALL OF THE ABOVE" ??. . . N/T