Create the Republican Dream Team!

[Senator Cris]

Congrats, you're Roger Wicker, Chair of the Senatorial Campaign Committee!

Pick the best Republican candidates for the 2016 Senate races to capture the most DEM-held seats.

California:
Colorado:
Connecticut:
Maryland:
Nevada:
New York:
Oregon:
Vermont:
Washington:

Honorable mentions:

Arizona:
Florida:
Utah:

[Free Bird]

California: Ahnold
Colorado: Coffman
Connecticut: Rell
Maryland: Carson?
Nevada: Sandoval
New York: Pataki?
Oregon: Smith
Vermont: Douglas
Washington: Rossi

Honorable mentions:

Arizona: Someone other than McCain
Florida: Stay with Rubio
Utah: Huntsman
[/quote]

[IceSpear]

CO: Mike or Cynthia Coffman
NV: Sandoval/Heck
AZ: McSally/Schweikert
FL: Putnam/Curbelo
UT: Romney/Huntsman

The others are probably unwinnable, but just for fun:

CA: Faulconer
CT: Rell/Shays
MD: Uh...Hogan?
NY: Gibson/Hanna
OR: Smith/Walden
VT: Scott/Douglas
WA: Reichert/Herrera Beutler

[Xing]

Arizona: Salmon
California: Schwarzenegger
Colorado: Coffman
Connecticut: Shays
Florida: Curbelo
Maryland: Hogan
Nevada: Sandoval
New York: Astorino
Oregon: Smith
Utah: Huntsman
Vermont: Douglas
Washington: McKenna (He's the ONLY one who could make it even remotely close. I'd be surprised if Rossi or Reichert could even top 45%)

There's no way they'll win CA, CT, MD, NY, OR, VT, or WA, though. CO is a stretch as well.

[Maxwell]

California: Kevin Faulconer
Colorado: Cynthia Coffman
Connecticut: Tim Herbst
Maryland: Boyd Rutherford
Nevada: Brian Sandoval, Joe Heck, or Mark Hutchinson
New York: Richard Hanna
Oregon: Jason Atkinson
Vermont: Phil Scott
Washington: Kim Wyman or Rob McKenna
Arizona: I guess Matt Salmon
Florida: Carlos Curbelo
Utah: Mike Lee

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Arizona: J.D. Hayworth/David Schweikert
California: Tom McClintock
Colorado: Scott Gessler/Jane Norton
Connecticut: Chris Shays/Rob Simmons
Florida: Pam Bondi (unless Rubio runs for reelection)
Maryland: Robert Ehrlich
Nevada: Brian Sandoval/Sue Lowden
New York: Rob Astorino/Chris Gibson
Oregon: Dennis Richardson
Vermont: Phil Scott/Jim Douglas
Washington: Rob McKenna (although I'd rather he goes for a rematch with Inslee.)

[Indy Texas]

Congrats, you're Roger Wicker, Chair of the Senatorial Campaign Committee!

Pick the best Republican candidates for the 2016 Senate races to capture the most DEM-held seats.

California:
Colorado:
Connecticut:
Maryland:
Nevada:
New York:
Oregon:
Vermont:
Washington:

Honorable mentions:

Arizona:
Florida:
Utah:

California: John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems*

Colorado: Walker Stapleton, CO State Treasurer**

Connecticut: Chris Shays, former US Representative

Maryland: Rob Sobhani, Georgetown international relations professor and 2012 independent candidate for US Senate

Nevada: Brian Sandoval, NV Governor

New York: Tough call. Does the NYGOP want to sacrifice one of its successful upstate Republican congresscritters in swing districts that might get taken back by the Democrats? The Republicans from the Tri-State Area are pretty much all horrible. They should try to find a non-politician who is not connected to Wall Street -- perhaps a retired military commander.

Oregon: Is Gordon Smith still around?

Vermont: Robert P. Stiller, founder of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters***

Washington: Rob McKenna, WA Attorney General

* Never held public office; has supported Republican politicians. Then again the Major Tech Company CEO thing hasn't worked out so great for the CA GOP (Carly? Meg?).
** A distant member of the Walker Family (as in George [Herbert] Walker Bush)
*** No idea what his political views are; but he founded what has become one of the largest consumer beverage companies in the country (now Keurig Green Mountain - those little plastic cups that you put in coffee dispensers), so if he were to run as a "job creator" it could actually carry some weight.

Florida: Bill McCollum, former FL Attorney General; I've always felt like he was a very underrated Florida Republican

[LeBron]

California - Tim Donnelly
Colorado - Ken Buck
Connecticut - Linda McMahon
Maryland - Dr. Ben Carson
New York - Donald Trump
Oregon - Art Robinson
Vermont - Mark Donka
Washington - Mike the Mover

Arizona - So many great options here from Matt Salmon to Trent Franks to Jan Brewer to Steven Seagal to Wendy Rogers. Our support should def. go behind Joe Arpaio though! He's the perfect candidate to help us win the Hispanic vote back in 2016!
Florida - Plead Allen West to move back to FL and primary Rubio!
Utah - Mike Lee!

All major FFs who would represent my Republican Party well in 2016!

[ElectionsGuy]

California: Neel Kashkari
Colorado: Mike Coffman
Connecticut: Tom Foley
Maryland: lol
Nevada: Brian Sandoval
New York: Chris Gibson
Oregon: Gordon Smith
Vermont: Scott Milne
Washington: Dave Reichert

Honorable mentions:

Arizona: Matt Salmon
Florida: Carlos Curbelo
Utah: Jason Chaffetz

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

For the potential presidential nominees that are current senate incumbents up in 2016/the best candidate for a seat, I've included a suitable alternate candidate that republicans should have ready to run if necessary.

Alabama - Luther Strange (Shelby has overstayed his welcome)
Alaska - Lisa Murkowski
Arizona - Trent Franks (McCain has also overstayed his welcome)
Arkansas - John Boozman
California - Kevin Faulconer (while he probably wouldn't win, he would get it to down to mid to high single digits and possibly allow the GOP to FINALLY pick up some CA U.S. house seats (something it did not do in 2010 or 2014 despite the existence of plenty of competitive seats)).
Colorado - Mike Coffman
Connecticut - Thomas Foley
Florida - Marco Rubio (alternate: Jeff Atwater)
Georgia - Johnny Isakson
Hawaii - Charles Djou
Idaho - Mike Crapo
Illinois - Mark Kirk
Indiana - Dan Coats
Iowa - Tom Latham (Grassley has also overstayed his welcome)
Kansas - Jerry Moran
Kentucky - Rand Paul (alternate: Trey Greyson)
Louisiana - David Vitter (Jeff Landry if Vitter becomes governor)
Maryland - No candidate
Missouri - Roy Blunt
Nevada - Brian Sandoval (alternate: Mark Hutchinson)
New Hampshire - Kelly Ayotte (alternate: Charles Bass)
New York - No candidate
North Carolina - Richard Burr
North Dakota - John Hoeven
Ohio - Rob Portman (alternate: David Joyce)
Oklahoma - James Lankford
Oregon - Gordon Smith
Pennsylvania - Pat Toomey
South Carolina - Tim Scott
South Dakota - John Thune
Utah - Josh Romney
Vermont - No candidate
Washington - Rob McKenna
Wisconsin - Mark Andrew Green (running Johnson is just WAY too risky)

[free my dawg]

California: Arnold
Colorado: Cynthia Coffman
Connecticut: Jodi Rell
Maryland: Ehrlich? I don't know
Nevada: Sandoval
New York: Rob Astorino?
Oregon: Smith
Vermont: Phil Scott
Washington: Dave Reichert

Honorable mentions:

Arizona: David Schweikert
Florida: Mario Diaz-Balart
Utah: Josh Romney

[Vosem]

California: Neel Kashkari/Ashley Swearengin to split the vote
Colorado: Cynthia Coffman
Connecticut: John McKinney
Maryland: Boyd Rutherford
Nevada: Brian Sandoval
New York: Rob Astorino
Oregon: Dennis Richardson
Vermont: Martha Rainville
Washington: Rob McKenna

Some of these choices are more conservative, since I tried not to pick people who are seeking reelection. In CA, the best choice would be two people to split the vote and have an R v. R runoff, since an open seat is basically assured. CO and NV are legit targets. Most of the others are "in the event that a seat opens up, who should we run" territory; NY is the only state where I really don't think the circumstances for a Republican victory exist even in the event of an open seat. (Most of the others are big reaches too, of course, but that doesn't mean that they're not worth trying in the event 2016 is a good year).

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Arizona: Meghan McCain (kind of a risk)
California: Tom McClintock
Colorado: Jane Norton
Connecticut: Chris Shays or Rob Simmons
Florida: Adam Putnam
Maryland: Boyd Rutherford
Nevada: Brian Sandoval
New York: Rudy Giuliani
Oregon: Greg Walden
Vermont: Jim Douglas
Washington: Rob McKenna