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When Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, lists the November races that will swell his party's majority, New Hampshire is one of the first he brags about. Here on the ground, it looks a lot less certain that Democrat Jeanne Shaheen will cut short the promising career of Sen. John Sununu, namesake son of a White House chief of staff under the first President Bush. Shaheen, a former governor who lost a close race to Sununu six years ago in an environment much more hospitable to Republicans, was a double-digit favorite early...

I've been on FR for over ten years and to my best recollection, this is only the second vanity thread I've ever posted. Like most here, I've been angry. Frustrated. Disgusted. Fed up to my eyeballs. Pick your favorite adjective to describe the lack of a good, solid conservative candidate in this election cycle. What I need now is not an outlet to vent my spleen, but ideas to help make something positive happen. I listened to Rush during the 1PM hour and he made a point that was pure common sense -- we need to concentrate on making sure...

With the departure of Mitt Romney, all conservative hopes for retaining the White House have diminished. The 2008 Republican presidential nominee will be Senator John McCain. Under the best of circumstances, retaining the White House following a two term presidency is difficult - in recent decades only Ronald Reagan was able to achieve this feat with the election of his sitting vice president, George H.W. Bush. This year, it is particularly difficult. No president in recent memory has been as despised by the left as George W. Bush. Between an expensive and unpopular war, worries over a souring economy, etc.,...

Listen Up! Senator John McCain may be the Republican nominee for President, and will most likely face either Clinton or Obama in the General Election. One of the great concerns Republicans voice with McCain is his pro-amnesty stance, which coincidently is shared by the presumed Democratic rivals. They believe McCain as President, or either of the Democrats, would grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Well, our current President wasn't able to accomplish that, and this fact had better make conservatives pay closer attention to all the elections taking place this year. Class II of the Senate has 33 seats up for...

Senate Republicans dodged a bullet Wednesday, as popular former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey has decided not to run for the seat of retiring Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) In a statement, Kerrey said he’ll remain as president of The New School in New York. “I have decided I will not leave The New School to become a candidate for the United States Senate in Nebraska,” Kerrey said. “The reason is simple enough: For my family and me, now is not the time for me to re-enter politics as a candidate.”

With a week to go before voters cast their midterm election ballots, four key Senate races remain statistical dead heats... Among likely voters in Missouri, Republican Sen. Jim Talent and his Democratic challenger, State Auditor Claire McCaskill, were at a dead heat, each with 49 percent support. However, among the larger pool of registered voters, McCaskill led 51-43 percent. ... In Tennessee, Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr. -- hoping to make history as the first black candidate ever elected by Southern voters to a Senate seat -- trailed his Republican opponent, Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker, by a margin of 52-44...

The president hit the campaign trail, traveling from Texas to Arkansas to support gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson, then to Loews Vanderbilt Plaza, Nashville, Tennessee (news and video), where he’ll attend a fundraiser for Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Bob Corker. Laura Bush was in Bellevue, WA, to help raise funds for Senate candidate Mike Mike McGavick.

by Mark Finkelstein August 6, 2006 - 17:45 Four states, four regions, four local authors giving folksy, personalized takes on the candidates and the issues. You can't knock the Times' choice of format for giving readers a sense of Senate races across the country. But when it came to substance, it soon became clear that just beneath the authors' fly-over state surface lay Upper West Side attitude. Setting the tone, author Deirdre McNamer might have found the only farm equipment store manager in Montana who makes "taking care of the homeless" his first priority. The Dem candidate's barber was also...

The fight for control of the House is getting more ink than the battle for control of the Senate, but several recent shifts in individual Senate races merit attention. All year, talk about the Democrats' chances of taking the Senate has focused on the five most endangered Republican incumbents. They are, roughly in order of vulnerability, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Conrad Burns of Montana, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Mike DeWine of Ohio, and Jim Talent of Missouri. The discussions then turn to the second tier of vulnerable Republicans, speculating whether Democrats can perhaps pick up a sixth seat (the...

Question for freepers: I understand that RINOS are a big problem in our party and we need to vote them out of office. I also agree that the place to do that is in the primaries for the party's nomination. I supported getting rid of Specter in 2004 and will support attempts to get rid of other RINOS like Lindsay Graham, John McCain and others when their elections come up. However, I predicate my support for such actions on the fact that I feel that if we were able to beat these RINO incumbents, we would have a great shot...

APPROVAL RATINGS FOR ALL 100 U.S. SENATORS AS OF 05/23/06 SORT â–º ALPHABETICAL BY STATE ALPHABETICAL BY SENATOR'S LAST NAME BY HIGHEST 'NET JOB APPROVAL' BY HIGHEST APPROVAL

While it may not seem easy to keep Al Franken quiet on virtually any subject, we may have found a way: on national television, expose his outrageous compensation demands and watch him instantly clam up. One week after our report appeared here and was discussed on the O'Reilly Factor, Franken, his fellow staffers and Air America Radio itself haven't said a word about it. Nor have nonstop FOX-bashers such as David Brock's Media Matters even mentioned our documented findings. Included were revelations Franken made an increasing series of demands of the liberal radio network, at the same time it was...

Where's the za-za-za-ZOOM? By Salena Zito, Tribune-Review The power brokers of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party last winter unleashed upon the electorate their version of a demigod. Seemingly out of nowhere came freshly minted state Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr. Billed as a savior who would peel a U.S. Senate seat from the hands of Rick Santorum, he was thrust into the spotlight as the most likely Democrat resurrecter in the country. In theory it was a brilliant move. Casey, a Pennsylvania brand name, had just clinched a landslide victory for treasurer. He had the backing of the Beltway leadership, the...

Well, there is quite a bit of news to report concerning the polls today as we head into the weekend and prepare for the second presidential debate tonight. The present polls will be about the last one to feature post-Debate #1 data (other than a few scraps that come in over the weekend). Over the weekend, all the firms will be gathering their data for the round of post-Debate #2 polls that will hit the airwaves starting Tuesday. If Bush acquits himself well tonight, which I think he will despite his last performance, the polls we've been seeing this week...

Well, not really. The polling news is a little slow today, but what we do have is important, and bears a little breakdown. Probably the biggest news is the national polling, which has been dicey since the debate. Today, I think the mainstream media has gone a little too far in trying to convince us of the "Kerry comeback" story. Anywise, let's go to it.....

Letter to Club For Growth members from Club President Stephan Moore. 9/21/2004 As you well know, the GOP controls the Senate by just one vote. A review of all the polls in all the Senate races shows that if the election were held today, the Republicans would win just 50 seats in the Senate. Clearly we must do everything we can to prevent Sen. Tom Daschle and the Democrats from seizing control of the Senate again. Even with today’s margin, the GOP doesn’t have effective control of the agenda as the Democrats use the filibuster to kill pro-growth reform or...

The Senate races are now in high gear and it is time for us all to focus. Jack Ryan won the Primary in Illinois last night, and we have a real shot there. As we saw in Colorado, things are still in flux, but I thought I'd give you my take on 10 Senate races that I hope you have at the top of the radar screen. Print this out for future reference. VOLPAC will be taking a position on these races as we get through the Primaries. We are strongly supporting all of the Republican incumbents right now. 1....

U.S. Senate, IL Dem Primary 2/25/2004 Obama 32% Hull 22% Hynes 17% Pappas 12% Chico 7% Other 7% Undecided 2% Data Collected 2/24/04 Geography State of Illinois Sample Population 372 Certain Voters Margin of Error 5.2% Client WBBM-TV Chicago -------------- U.S. Senate, IL GOP Primary 2/25/2004 Ryan 46% Oberweis 14% McKenna 13% Rauschenberger 10% Borling 3% Other 9% Undecided 5% Data Collected 2/22/04 - 2/24/04 Geography State of Illinois Sample Population 356 Certain Voters Margin of Error 5.3% Client WBBM-TV Chicago

FINAL ZOGBY NUMBERS (two sets of figures, first is factoring in leaners and eliminating undecideds 'special sauce', second set is raw data)SD SENATE THUNE (R) OVER JOHNSON (D) 52-47 (48-44)TEXAS SENATE CORNYN (R) OVER KIRK (D) 50-46 (46-42)NC SENATE DOLE (R) OVER BOWLES (D) 53-43 (46-39)MN SENATE MONDALE (R) OVER COLEMAN (D) 51-45 (49-44) GA SENATE CLELAND (D) OVER CHAMBLISS (R) 50-48 (46-44)CO SENATE STRICKLAND (D) OVER ALLARD (R) 51-46 (49-44) AR SENATE PRYOR (D) OVER HUTCHINSON (R) 56-43 (50-41)

<p>Washington -- To understand the tightness of Tuesday's congressional election, take a look at sparsely populated South Dakota, where President Bush arrives today for his fourth visit of the political season.</p> <p>The two major Senate candidates have already spent $13 million between them -- not counting the millions rushed out by the national parties -- run 21,000 television commercials and responded to media requests from as far away as London.</p>

Amend. 31 foes surpass supporters Turnaround in poll dramatic By Julia C. Martinez Denver Post Capitol Bureau Thursday, October 24, 2002 - As political races heat up, voters have cooled to a ballot measure requiring English immersion for non-English-speaking public school students, a survey released Wednesday shows. Meanwhile, with 12 days before the election, races for U.S. Senate and governor remain unchanged, which doesn't bode well for the Democratic candidates in either race, said pollster Floyd Ciruli.Forty-three percent of registered voters now oppose the anti-bilingual-education measure known as Amendment 31, while 37 percent support it, the poll by Ciruli...

The DC Political Report runs an outstanding website, so I thought I'd share the results with my fellow Freepers. Some of these polls come from other sources; I've done my best to find the latest, particularly in New Jersey, Texas and Missouri. The date listed nest to each state is the date of the most recent poll. Each incumbent is marked with an asterisk (*). Cook Political Reports (Cook) and the Center for Political Reports (CPR) are also available on other sites and they've proven to be quite accurate in the past: Alabama (Univ. of Alabama, 9/12) Jeff Sessions* (R)...

The National Journal runs an outstanding website and I have a trial subscription, so I thought I'd share the results with my fellow Freepers. The date listed nest to each state is the date of the most recent poll. Cook Political Reports is also available on the site and they've proven to be quite accurate in the past: Alabama (9/10) Jeff Sessions* (R) ........... 46% Susan Parker (D) ............ 38% Alaska Ted Stevens* (R) ............. No polling data. Cook Frank Vondersaar (D) ...... shows as a solid (R). Arkansas (9/4) Tim Hutchinson* (R) ....... 47% Mark Pryor (D) .............. 44%...

GOP Malpractice in South Dakota? With a good candidate in a pro-Bush state, Republicans still may blow it.by J. Bottum 09/23/2002, Volume 008, Issue 02 ONCE AT A PARTY here in Washington, I challenged a well-known political reporter--a man who makes his living covering the ins and outs of America's elections--to name the junior senator from South Dakota. After a moment's fruitless effort, he quipped, "South Dakota doesn't actually have two senators. Tom Daschle just gets to vote twice." That's a little unfair to Tim Johnson. Sure, he jumps when Daschle snaps his fingers. In fact, he jumps when...

"Pray as if it all depended on God; work as if it all depended on you." Close, possible pickups: South Dakota, Missouri, Georgia, New Jersey and Minnesota. Possible losses: Arkansas, New Hampshire, Texas, North Carolina If lightening strikes, may pickup: Iowa South Dakota: John Thune, current Congressman, (articulate, affable, attractive in an August debate with Johnson) running against Tim Johnson, current Senator. Last poll: 40%-40% announced just before the debate Link to www.johnthune.com John Thune for South Dakota P.O. Box 516 Sioux Falls, SD 57101 New Jersey: Doug Forrester (bio: former assistant state treasurer, now small businessman and university instructor)...

Close, possible pickups: South Dakota, Missouri, Georgia and Minnesota. Possible losses: New Hampshire, Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina If lightening strikes, may pickup: Iowa, New Jersey South Dakota: John Thune, current Congressman, (articulate, affable, attractive in the recent debate with Johnson) running against Tim Johnson, current Senator. Last poll: 40%-40% announced just before the debate Link to www.johnthune.com John Thune for South Dakota P.O. Box 516 Sioux Falls, SD 57101 Minnesota: Norm Coleman, former mayor of St. Paul, running against Paul Wellstone, current Senator. Link to www.colemanforsenate.com Coleman for U.S. Senate 1410 Energy Park Dr, Ste. 11 St. Paul, MN 55108-9865...

The Washington Times | March 17, 2002 | Donald Lambro No certainty in Senate races It doesn't get any tighter than this in Senate elections: Not one of the 34 seats up for re-election this fall is rated a likely turnover by election analysts. "It's unusual that at this point that you do not have a single seat that is likely to turn over," said Stuart Rothenberg, a veteran tracker of congressional elections. This is in sharp contrast to the 2000 races, he said, when there were five senators at this stage of the election year who "were highly vulnerable....