Pennsylvania is a conservative state but not a Conservative one; if nothing else, leftish Philadephia keeps the state from tipping over (I can’t speak to Pittsburgh, as I’m a southeasterner). It wouldn’t surprise me to see Santorum get the boot if a reasonably competent opposition can organize itself.
And yet Nebraska keeps electing Democratic governors and senators (note that Nelson followed in the footsteps of Bob Kerrey, a previous governor-then-senator). Again, the sizable urban areas of Lincoln and Omaha serve to take the edge off the rural right-wing contingent. It’s never a walk for a Democrat, but as long as there isn’t a yet another former football coach running against him Nelson should be okay.
DeWine was Voinovich’s lieutenant governor. But in the Senate, DeWine has seniority over Voinovich. Politics is funny.
DeWine is fairly safe, but not, I think, because he is particularly popular personally. I believe it has to do with the fact, that like Voinovich and Taft, DeWine’s a moderatish-Republican and an incumbent. Currently, that makes you unbeatable in Ohio. The Ohio Democratic party has been unable to run a serious statewide campaign since 1990 and I don’t expect them to have their act together by 2006.
Good point. There is an investigation into Delay’s fundraising activities in Texas in which several others have already been indicted. They US congress aren’t the ones doing the investigating, so I don’t think they can make it go away. Course the Texas legislature will probably do its best. At the least, he might have to step down as Majority Leader.
Another great unknown is President Bush. If he has a good two years, he could be an effective campaigner for Republican candidates in swing states come 2006. If things are going badly, voters may take out their frustrations on the Republicans candidates that are running. I’m also curious to see if the high turnout this year was a fluke or if it will continue.
All variables aside, I think it will be quite a while before Democrats regain a majority in either chamber.
Since Indianapolis is one of the few blue regions in this state, I hope another democrat will be able to win the seat if Julia steps down (and there’ll be a lot of them with political aspirations out of work in a couple of months ) How much of her popularity is personality-based?
There’s also a lot of conservative hate directed towards her in the area. It preceeds me by a couple years, since I moved here just about 4 years ago, so I’m not too familiar with the specifics. A new Democratic candidate could pump some life into the district. Any chance we could get Tim Roemer to move?
Has there been a rift between Hart and English? I know they used to work pretty closely together (he worked for her in the state Senate, and and did a good bit of fundraising to get her elected to Congress). I’d gotten the impression that English was more focused on amassing power in the House than on higher offices.
I’ll join you in fighting the good fight-my god, I can’t WAIT to get that asshat out of there. The remarks he made after the flood back in September riled up a LOT of Pittsburghers here against him-and he’s a native son. Gyrate-Pittsburgh and Allegheny county are leftist/Democratic. How we ended up with Senator Fecalsludge is beyond me.
As for Hart, I hope to god she doesn’t get elected a senator. I can’t stand that woman.
) How much of her popularity is personality-based?
