At minimum, Democrats will hold 57 Senate seats in the 111th Congress, assuming that replacements for Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Joe Biden are also Democrats.
But three '08 senatorial races remain unresolved, and could conceivably grow the Democratic majority to a "filibuster-proof" 60 seats.
Odds are that Democrats might pick up one or two of these races, at best. And realistically, while every vote certainly counts, one or two more Senate seats won't make or break passage of most Obama-blessed legislation.
Mark Begich in Alaska
Despite his recent conviction on seven felony counts of ethics violations, Alaska Republicans voted for 85-year-old Sen. Ted Stevens to retain his Senate seat for a seventh consecutive full term. State Republicans apparently hope to replace Stevens with another Republican, if the need arises.
Challenging Stevens is 46-year-old Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage, where he's developed a reputation as a smart fiscal manager and a robust supporter of individuals' rights, especially gun rights .
As of today in Alaska, 90,000 early, absentee and provisional ballots remain uncounted, representing almost 30% of Alaskans' total votes. Before these ballots, Stevens leads Begich by only 3,257 votes.
Democrats believe that Begich has a solid chance to win this election, given the particular districts with heavy concentrations of uncounted votes. That is, IF Alaska's vote-counting is above board... Final results are expected as early as November 13th or 14th.
Al Franken in Minnesota
In the most acrimonious Senate race of the 2008 election cycle, Al Franken, best-selling author, activist and famed comedian, trails one-term Republican Sen. Norm Coleman by a mere 206 votes out of more than 2.4 million ballots cast.
An incredibly complex recount has been scheduled to start on November 19th. Both camps are predictably dispatching small armies of lawyers and count observers in an effort that seems vaguely reminiscent of the 2000 presidential election recount in Florida.
The outcome of Minnesota's '08 Senate race is anyone's guess. Let's just hope that Minnesota is more prepared in 2008 than Florida was in 2000 to handle a contentious vote recount effort.
Finals results are not expected before the second week of December.
Jim Martin in Georgia
Former Rep. Jim Martin, a Democratic member of the House from 1983 to 2002, surprised the pundits by running strongly against one-term incumbent Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss to force a run-off election for Georgia's Senate seat.
Saxby Chambliss, of course, is best known to Democrats for his shamefully cruel Senate campaign in 2002 in which he smeared Vietnam War veteran and triple-amputee, former Sen. Max Cleland as "unpatriotic."
In this '08 race, Republican Chambliss garnered 113,828 votes more than Democrat Martin, with 126,328 votes (3% of total votes) going to Libertarian candidate Allen Buckley.
Big Republican guns are being rolled out to campaign for Georgia's senatorial runoff election, set for December 2nd: John McCain will reportedly campaign for Chambliss, as will Mike Huckabee and possibly Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Rudy Giuliani.
The Obama team is sending a boatload of campaign workers to get out the vote for Martin. And per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Obama is keeping 25 of his Georgia field offices open for Martin, leaving most of his in-state paid staff on the ground here."
No word yet if President-elect Obama will find time to personally participate in the effort... but I doubt that he does, given that McCain decisively won Georgia's electoral votes. Regardless of the outcome of these races, 57 Senate seats in Democratic hands bodes well for the progressive agenda in 111th Congress. But 60 seats would be so much better...- Related Reading
- Profile of Mayor Mark Begich, '08 Senate Candidate from Alaska
- Profile of Al Franken, '08 Senate Candidate from Minnesota
(Photo of Al Franken: Cory Ryan/Getty Images)
Comments
Stevens’ lead has dwindled to 971 votes after only 1/3 of the absentee ballots have been counted in the first day.
If things continue as they are going, begich should win this race by several thousand votes.
Yes, it would be so much better if the Dems got 60, because nothing encourages responsible government more than an unopposed single party. Just check out the state legislature in Massachusetts.
a one party system is what so called progressives desire. What is that Communism. Complete control start the assend of the cycle and hammer flag in the the US
Funny that nobody made those comments about one-party rule when the Republican leadership was openly SAYING that their plan was for a “permanent majority.” Or during the several years when the Republicans held all three branches of government. *eyeroll*
By the way, the citizenry of Massachusetts seems pretty happy with their government, whether you agree with its policies or not. And since the whole point of “states’ rights” is that residents of a state get the government that THEY want, rather than the one that outsiders want (you know, as opposed to California, where the majority of the money funding Proposition (h)8 came from non-Californians), I think they’re doing just fine.
“It’s worse than disgraceful, it’s reprehensible.”
That was what John McCain said about Saxby Chambliss’ 2002 Senate run. And now he’s campaigning for him. Amazing.