Vive la Vichy Republicans!
Posted on 03/21/2013 10:42:18 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Despite all of the doom and gloom about the future of the Republican Party following the 2012 election, the reality is that Republicans actually have a chance of retaking the Senate in 2014. Those hopes improved on Wednesday as Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins said that barring a serious illness or another catastrophe, she plans to run for reelection.
In 2014, Democrats will be defending a total of 21 seats, including seven states Mitt Romney carried — Montana, South Dakota, West Virginia, Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana and North Carolina. In contrast, Republicans will be defending 14 seats. All of those seats are in Romney states, except for one — the Collins seat in Maine.
Though it would be tough for most Republicans to win in Maine, Collins has been able to do so. In 2008, she got reelected with nearly 62 percent of the vote in a state that Obama won by 17 points. After fellow moderate Maine Republican Olympia Snowe retired, Republicans lost control of the other Maine Senate seat last year.
Cook Political Report rates Maine a “likely Republican” Senate win in 2014 as long as Collins runs.
The only advantage to retaining Sen. Susan Collins is if that gives us a Senate majority. Otherwise, her major role is to vote as a big government liberal. Still, I’ll take that advantage if it gets us closer to repealing ObamaCare and buys us a few more years with at least limited federal obedience to the Second Amendment.
I have a lot of friends in Maine.
They’d be a lot happier if they could split the state into North Maine and South Maine. North Maine is very conservative.
I imagine the folks in upstate NY an western MA feel the same.
Collins is an “extra democrat” whose vote is used to pass “bipartisan” legislation or to allow democrats who actually call themselves democrats to vote against bills but still have the legislation pass to fool their constituents.
RE: I imagine the folks in upstate NY an western MA feel the same.
There has been a movement going on here in the NYC metro area for Long Island ( Nassau and Suffolk ) to secede from NY State to form its own state.
I would be even happier if Vermont were not a state and was still part of New York. There would be no Leahy or Sanders in the Senate. Sigh....
I imagine the folks in upstate NY an western MA feel the same.”
...I used to live in Boston and I can tell you that Worcester, MA is a far cry from Boston in terms of politics. I also lived in Portland, Maine and without a doubt the northern Mainiacs are shell shocked by their state’s politics as a whole.
Well, actually, for many years Snow and Collins were “good” RINOS. They voted liberal whenever the leadership said they didn’t need their vote. But they voted with the party when their vote was absolutely necessary.
Then the leadership went south, and no longer held anyone to the party line. We got Lincoln Chaffee, and Rove and Bush did everything they could to get the S.O.B. re-elected, even after he betrayed us on key votes.
Then Collins and Snow got the picture. There was no longer any reason for them to vote with the party when their votes were needed—because the leadership no longer punished them if they didn’t.
So, now we have a leadership that shilled for Lisa Murkowski, even after she lost the Republican primary to a conservative candidate—because they really loved her kind of corrupt pork grubbing, and they hated the Republican candidate for his putative connections with the dreaded Sarah Palin.
Boehner is terrible, but the Senate leadership is really just as bad—they just haven’t had as much chance to prove it recently.
How many seats did the GOP defend in 2012?
How many seats did the Democrats defend in 2012?
What was the outcome?
FROM ABC News in 2011:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/gop-control-senate-top-races-watch/story?id=14374992#.UUtKtxzIVuc
The magic number for Republicans in 2012 is four. The GOP has to pick up just four Senate seats order to gain control of the upper chamber, making this the fourth straight election where the balance of congressional power lies in just a handful of races. And while the election is still more than a year away, the battle lines are already starting to be drawn.
A total of 33 seats will be up for grabs in the 2012 election, 23 of which are held by Democrats. Republicans will have open opportunities in six of those 23 states where the Democratic incumbent is retiring.
Montana, Missouri, Nebraska and North Dakota are shaping up to be some of the closest Democrat-defended races, with Nevada and Massachusetts presenting possibilities for a switch from red to blue.
Only two Republicans are retiring, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Jon Kyl of Arizona, although the GOP will likely hold on to those traditionally red-state seats. With Tea Party popularity high in many states, GOP senators could face tough primary races.
The still-floundering economy could mean trouble for Democrats who have twice as many senators up for re-election than Republicans.
(click above link for the rest )
Of course, you know the outcome. The GOP LOST 2 ADDITIONAL SEATS going DOWN from 47 to 45.
Oh, so the number of seats one party has to defend is not a valid indicator of which party will win control of the Senate?
Romney States?! What kind of measuring tool is THAT!
/rhetorical
Add 1 Colorado Republican to the 2014 Senate tally.
We don’t even know who the GOP candidate will be, but after yesteday’s anti-2A Bill signing, the Dems will be swept from offices across the state.
I hope it turns out well and we get the Senate, but people said the same thing in 2012 and we got slaughtered...there were seats that were easy wins for the Senate and we lost them all. A very embarrassing year. I don’t know what to say about 2014 but I am NOT getting my hopes up like I did 2012. I was COMPLETELY STUNNED election night.
Vive la Vichy Republicans!
With Romney out of the way, perhaps we can do better this time.
Mid terms are a whole different game. The presidential election drove the whole cycle. Our senate campaign manangers need to get their heads out of their arse or we’ll continue to be disappointed. They underperformed the House, governor and state races in ‘10 and got demolished in ‘12.
Their idiocy most likely produced just enough collateral damage to throw away senate races in two other close states (North Dakota and Montana).
Can anyone say 'collateral damage from those idiots Aikin and Murdouck'?
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