Posted on 01/28/2013 4:07:19 AM PST by Hojczyk
As long as Republicans do not kick away a golden opportunity, wonderfully wild West Virginia could be their best U.S. Senate pick-up prospect of the 2014 midterm election.
With incumbent Democrat Jay Rockefeller’s decision to retire, the door has opened for a strong Republican candidate to win a state that has pivoted away from Democrats in presidential races as well as in its congressional delegation.
Mountaineer Republicans never were able to knock off another Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin, but a number of factors worked against them. First, in fairness, Manchin basically is a Republican; second, he was a popular pro-gun, pro-life, pro-coal, pro-shale governor; third, his competition has been weak.
Thirty-five Senate seats will be up in November 2014 – 33 regularly scheduled races and two special elections, in Hawaii and South Carolina.
Democrats hold 21 of those seats and Republicans 14, said University of Virginia political analyst Kyle Kondik.
“Obviously, these numbers would seem to benefit the Republicans – especially because, of the 14 Republican-held seats, there aren’t really any obvious Democratic targets,” Kondik explained.
That is, unless Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, retires, but there’s no indication she’ll do so.
Then again, some strange primary outcome easily could turn a safe Republican seat into a competitive one. Think of 2012’s primary defeat of Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., by foot-in-mouth challenger Richard Mourdock, a state official who lost a race that everyone knew he should win.
West Virginia may be the Republicans’ best opportunity, but Kondik believes several others exist: “South Dakota’s Tim Johnson, a Democrat, may retire – and even if he doesn’t, ex-Governor Mike Rounds, a Republican, will be a very strong challenger,
Other Republican-red-state Democrats who probably face tough races are Alaska’s Mark Begich, Arkansas’s Mark Pryor, Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu, and North Carolina’s Kay Hagan.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
The Repubs will manage to screw this up, not too worry.
By what ? Lincoln Chafee standards ? He scored an 85% liberal rating from the ACU in 2011. He's a liberal by Democrat standards.
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