Free Republic

Franken 208,357 44% Coleman (Incumbent) 190,986 40% 11% of precincts reporting

Some GOOD News for a change... Mary Landrieu is only 3000 votes ahead of her challenger!

SENATE PREDICTIONSELECTION DAY...FROM NOV 2008 election, here’s a list of the 35 Senate races. (including 33 regular and the MS & WY special elections)The GOP is defending 23 seats, and the Dems defend 12.THere are 65 Senate seats that are not up for election. The GOP starts with 26 carryover seats, and the Dems start with 39 (counting the 2 “independents” Lieberman-CT and Sanders-VT).I was way TOO OPTIMISTIC in the 2006 Midterms, so I am trying to be less optimistic this time...There are another 26 seats that appear SAFE, barring some major change of events over the next 50...

The Minnesota U.S. Senate race remains a tossup on the final weekend of the campaign, with the outcome likely to be decided by who can snatch away the most voters from third-party contender Dean Barkley. A new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll shows DFLer Al Franken clinging to a slim lead over Republican Sen. Norm Coleman among likely voters, 42 percent to 38 percent. That's within the poll's 4.1 percentage point margin of sampling error. Independence Party candidate Barkley, who held steady at 18 percent in the two previous Minnesota Polls, slipped three points to 15 percent. The fluid nature of...

Poll: Dole leads Senate race, but plenty still undecided Posted: 20 minutes ago Raleigh, N.C. — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole is supported by many North Carolina voters that other Republican candidates haven't reached, according to a new WRAL News poll. Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. surveyed 800 likely voters statewide between last Wednesday and Friday and found Dole leads Democratic challenger Kay Hagan by 46 to 42 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

<p>WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) -- A Washington jury on Monday found U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska guilty of all seven corruption counts he was charged with over gifts he accepted from an oil industry contractor but failed to report.</p> <p>Jurors said Stevens, who is running for a seventh term, deliberately failed to disclose on mandatory Senate financial disclosure forms more than $250,000 in home renovations and other gifts from the oil company VECO and its chief executive officer, Bill Allen.</p>

Illinois political insiders say Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who defended Barack Obama after his father famously threatened to castrate him, is the favorite to replace the Democratic nominee in the Senate. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) scolded his father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, publicly after his comments were caught unexpectedly on tape before an interview with Fox News this summer.

Incumbent Democrat Tom Harkin continues to hold a solid lead over Republican challenger Chris Reed in Iowa's U.S. Senate race. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state finds Harkin leading 57% to 41%. Harkin has expanded his lead somewhat from late September,, when he led by 14 points. The senator has been well ahead since tracking of the race began in June. Harkin is seeking his fifth term in the Senate. In his last re-election bid, Harkin beat his Republican opponent, Greg Ganske, 54% to 44%. Reed is a Navy veteran and businessman. The race is noticeably close...

Former Gov. Jim Gilmore picked up the endorsements of two veterans groups today. Vets for Freedom and Iraqi Veterans Group said they are backing Gilmore's U.S. Senate campaign because of his military background and experience in fighting terrorism. Appearing with veterans at a news conference at the General Assembly Building, Gilmore said he supports the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which allows gays and lesbians to serve in the military until their behavior becomes overt. Gilmore, a Republican, is running against Democrat Mark R. Warner, also a former governor, for the seat of Sen. John W. Warner, a...

WASHINGTON - New campaign finance reports show that DFL challenger Al Franken raised nearly twice as much money as Republican Sen. Norm Coleman. But Coleman still had a healthy advantage in cash going into the campaign's final weeks.

Senate Republicans are pulling advertising from the Louisiana Senate race, the only contest in which they were on the offense. The decision, reported by local media, is a blow to the GOP candidate, Louisiana state Treasurer John Kennedy, and good news for Sen. Mary Landrieu, long seen as the lone vulnerable Democratic senator in this cycle. Landrieu won election in 2002 with just 52 percent of the vote, and some believe the state has turned more Republican since Hurricane Katrina, which shrank the size of New Orleans. Still, Landrieu has been comfortably ahead in recent polls. She led by 13...

Last time we wrote this very article, it was 9/26/08. So, let’s take a look at whether any changes are in line. Revisions or changes will be in RED. Here is the Tracker –> Senate Race Table. (Our Methodology: We take the polling average of the 4 MOST RECENT polls and average them together to reach a real number of where the race is at, statistically. That prevents outliers from effecting our numbers too much and needlessly shifting races) We have listed THREE GUARANTEED DEM Pickups: Virginia, New Mexico, and Colorado. Out: Virginia, Senator John Warner and New Mexico Senator...

The slogan on the Morton Salt boxes is, "when it rains, it pours." For Republicans, the past few years must seem like monsoon season. On the presidential level, the Gallup national tracking polls have shown Sen. Barack Obama with 50, 51 or 52 percent in every three-day moving average since Oct. 4, with Sen. John McCain between 41 percent and 43 percent in every average over that same period. No presidential contender in modern times has successfully closed this wide a gap in this short a time. At this point, a major international event would be required to shift the...

Anyone who has been involved in a school yard fight knows the old rule, 2 against 1 will win every time. At tonight's debate Norm Coleman sat literally in the middle of Independent candidate Dean Barkley and Democrat Al Franken. He was eviscerated by both men. The most devastating moment came when one of the moderators asked, "What do you think is the greatest threat to our country"? The moderator went on to say it could be any threat, not just of the military kind. Al Franken went first and said the biggest threat was Al Qaeda, and that the...

A new SurveyUSA poll suggests Oregon's Senate race may be shifting in the direction of Democrat Jeff Merkley. The poll, broadcast on KATU's noon news, showed Merkley with 46 percent to 41 percent for Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore. Constitution Party candidate David Brownlow had 7 percent and the remaining 6 percent were undecided. The margin of error is 4.1 percentage points, plus or minus.

Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, locked in an increasingly tight and bitter election contest with Democrat Al Franken, said Friday that his campaign would halt negative advertising in a race recently dominated by it. Coleman, a Republican, said the unstable economy demands that the race focus on issues. He said he would also ask independent groups advertising on his behalf to pull negative ads, although by law they are not required to do so. "I decided I was not all that interested in returning to Washington for another six years based on the judgment of voters that I was not as...

Democrat Mark Udall still leads among Colorado's likely voters, but his Republican rival, Bob Schaffer, is narrowing the gap, according to a Denver Post poll. Udall, who had been up by as many as 10 percentage points in previous polls, is favored by 43 percent of registered voters surveyed, to Schaffer's 38 percent. But with 14 percent of respondents saying they haven't made up their minds less than a month before the election, it's clear the race is much tighter than it appeared to be over the summer, said Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon Polling and Research.

FIGHT FOR JIM GILMORE By Dick Armey Dear Virginia Taxpayer, I know what it's like to fight for what you believe in. As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 18 years, and the Majority Leader from 1995 to 2002, I know it takes courage and dedication to stand up for working families and protect taxpayers who are facing an ever growing burden as a result of what's happening in Washington. There is always someone who believes bigger government and higher taxes are the answer to every problem, someone determined to take away more and more of...

Schumer rips Chamber of Commerce By J. Taylor Rushing Posted: 10/08/08 01:17 PM [ET] DSCC Chairman Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) came out swinging Wednesday against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, saying the business lobby was no longer nonpartisan and “has turned into a wing” of the GOP. In a press conference at Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) headquarters, Schumer said the path and pattern of the contributions indicate that the Chamber is afraid of the Democrats winning the critical Senate threshold of 60 seats — a goal he said is within reach now more than ever. Democrats already have 51 seats...

The National Rifle Association has endorsed New Mexico congressional candidate Ed Tinsley. Tinsley is vying for the seat being vacated by Congressman Steve Pearce, who is running for the U.S. Senate. The Republican candidate is running against Hobbs businessman Harry Teague. The National Rifle Association awarded Tinsley an A rating, which means the candidate is solidly pro-gun. The A rating is usually reserved for incumbents. Teague received an A-Q rating, which means his rating is based solely on a questionnaire. The Tinsley campaign recently criticized Teague's position on the second amendment, citing an Albuquerque Journal interview where the Democrat was...