Senate Races 2006.

[Ben.]

With Bush back with a solid win and the GOP in firm control of both the senate and the house, what can be expected from the 2006 contests of course a lot depends on the economy and the state of the war on terror but this is the info that I have to hand at the moment on what races look competitive and who might be retiring…

Competitive Races.

Virginia: George Allen (R), if Mark Warner runs this could be very competitive race indeed.

Missouri: Jim Talent (R)

Pennsylvania: Rick Santorum (R) he’s stronger than many democrats like to believe though. 

Montana: Conrad Burns (R)

Minnesota: Mark Dayton (D)

Florida : Bill Nelson (D)

Vermont: Jim Jeffords (I)

Maine: Olympia Snow (R), the only reason she’s here is if she faces a conservative primary challenge or spoiler candidate a-la Spectre.

Competitive Races, assuming the incumbent retires. 

Tennessee: Bill Frist (R)

Indiana: Richard Lugar (R)

West Virginia: Robert Byrd (D)

Mississippi: Trent Lott (R), this is only competitive if Mike Moore runs.

Texas: Kay Bailey Hutchison, it would very probably stay GOP, but if Hutchinson looks to make a bid for the governorship it could be competitive.

…that’s all I can see at the moment but its something to keep focused on for the next two years

[Ben.]

 

The Senate is looking very bleak for the Democrats for years to come.   The Dems can win the presidency without any Southern states, but they can't take back the Senate that way.  They can't gain many seats in 2006 because they already gained 4 of those same seats in 2000.   Maybe they can take Santorum's seat, plus TN with Ford and VA with Warner, but that's about the best case.

Just do what all the moderate Dems have been saying for years and quit it with the divisive social issues! There are plenty of good Dems in the South, but most are pro-life and small-c conservative... Ford and Warner can both win, because they are conservative to populist dems.

What’s important to remember is that economic populism not social liberalism is at the heart of what the Democratic Party is all about, I don't mean that the democrats should abandon some socially liberals stands nor that they should suddenly endorse some of the intolerant and hateful ideas of the far right of the republican party but many within the party could learn from the moderate wing of the party, social liberalism was never a part of the agenda’s of FDR, Truman or Kennedy in fact it was only in the 1970’s in the context of the “counter culture” that it became fused by many liberal dems with the democrats traditional economic populism… it is time to re-evaluate this fusion IMHO       

[Ben.]

Mississippi: Trent Lott (R), this is only competitive if Mike Moore runs.

There's two Mike Moores I reckon, or else somebody on this forum has been smoking a lot of crack.
Although I guess this is a safe Dem pickup if Moore runs as  a Republican.

Mike Moore, is a former Attorney General of Missippi from 1987 to 1999 and just about the most popular politican in the state he seems to have waiting for a chance to run for the senate and while any statewide race for a dem in Mississippi would be tough Moore would be highly competative and in with a very good shot.