Your input please (on your US Senator)

[ThaSaltCracka]

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WA Cantwell D


[/ QUOTE ] She'll be back.

[JimBob2232]

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VA Allen R

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He is fairly young, and an upcoming star in the republican party. He will run again for senate and will very likely win re-election. He is beeing mentioned in many circles as a possible candidate for president in 2008.

[CCass]

TN - Frist

This is actually a very interesting question. First elected in 1994, when he beat Jim Sasser (the incumbent). When Frist won the Republican primary, probably 1/3 of Tennesseans didn't know who he was. He was aided by the Republican powerhouse that 1st reared its head in 1994 (think Newt Gingrich). He stated that he only wanted to serve 2 terms. Now that he is Majority leader, and a presidential frontrunner for 2008, my guess is he conveniently forgets about the 2 term comments. He is well liked, and unless someone has pictures of him molesting chickens, he will be easily re-elected if he runs.

[vulturesrow]

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1) Retirees make up a large voting bloc in Florida. Generally speaking, this group tends to trend Republican.

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Ack I just saw this huge error. That should read Democrat.

[EarlCat]

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TN - Frist

This is actually a very interesting question. First elected in 1994, when he beat Jim Sasser (the incumbent). When Frist won the Republican primary, probably 1/3 of Tennesseans didn't know who he was. He was aided by the Republican powerhouse that 1st reared its head in 1994 (think Newt Gingrich). He stated that he only wanted to serve 2 terms. Now that he is Majority leader, and a presidential frontrunner for 2008, my guess is he conveniently forgets about the 2 term comments. He is well liked, and unless someone has pictures of him molesting chickens, he will be easily re-elected if he runs.

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I haven't heard any buzz yet that Frist wants the presidency. He's popular and still young (relatively), and may be happy sitting in his senate seat until 2012 or 2016 before either retiring or deciding to campaign for president.

[fnurt]

Hillary Clinton may, or may not, be opposed by Governor George Pataki in 2006. New York is a blue state, of course, but Pataki is a moderate Republican governor, and even New York City has a moderate (some would say liberal) Republican mayor. The prior mayor, whom some of you may have heard of, was a moderate Republican as well. So the party identity isn't necessarily all that important.

If Pataki were to run, first of all, and if he were able to portray himself as better able to bring back $$$ to New York than a Democrat, and to portray Hillary as someone who is going to just serve 2 years and run for President in 2008, I think the election would be competitive.

[GWB]

I would think the most vunerable on your list are:

MN Dayton D - if a strong R can be found
NE Nelson D - if a strong R can be found in this R state
NV Ensign R - if a strong D can be found
ND Conrad D - if a strong R can be found in this R state
PA Santorum R - if a strong D can be found (Rendell wants him out bad)
RI Chafee R - if a strong D can be found (he just ain't his father)

Most of the old farts likely to retire are in one party states, so these won't be Party change opportunities, but there are always surprises.

[rjc199]

Santorum out??? The democrats couldn't even beat Specter, who is hated by most conservatives in this state. Specter barely beat Pat Toomey in the primary. Then around 10% of Republicans voted for Jim Clymer in the election. Yet Specter still won. So how could a popular conservative like Santorum lose? The only way would be if he ran against a giant like Bob Casey Jr (who would't get any support becuase he is pro-life, lol)

I wish the democrats would have run somebody better than Hoefeel to beat Specter. He does more harm than good.

[jdl22]

The thing with Specter is that he is well liked by the moderates in both parties. The Santorum republican types hate him so he had trouble in the primaries but I think he had a much easier time winning the general election than Santorum will.

I think Santorum is vulnerable if the dems can put up a good candidate. Hoeffel wasn't so good. I don't know who a good choice would be but it should be someone very popular in Pittsburgh. That way they would cut into Santorum's edge in the more conservative Pittsburgh suburbs but could still cater to the liberal Philadelphia area.

[GWB]

For every conservative voter Specter lost he picked up 2 moderate Democrat leaning Independents. These voters will be a lot less likely to support Santorum.

There are a lot of moderates in the Senate since their "districts" can not be gerrymandered. Hard Core Conservatives and Hard Core Liberals are vunerable in swing states against a moderate in the other party.