8. Montana: Rep. Steve Daines must unseat the recently appointed John Walsh, who was gifted his seat when clueless Max (“Obamacare is a train wreck”) Baucus was exiled to China in an obvious attempt to hang on to the seat.
9. Colorado: Rep. Gardner is young, charismatic and an experienced veteran of Rocky Mountain State politics who spent years on the U.S. Senate staff of Wayne Allard, a stint in the Colorado legislature, and checked both big boxes –as a CSU undergrad and CU law grad. Mark Udall is Narack Obama in a badly fitting cowboy hat.
10. Louisiana: Rep. Bill Cassidy is in a dead heat with long-time hanger on Mary Landrieu, and will have to go through the “jungle primary” before facing Landrieu head-on a few weeks later. If, as expected, the Republicans already control the incoming majority, he will win in a romp. If the Senate hangs in the balance, more money will flow into the Lousiana race than has ever been seen there before.
11. Minnesota: Mike McFadden is a self-funding successful businessman who has an uphill but doable battle with comedian Al Franken, who along with Bernie Sanders and Barbara Boxer, define the left edge of the United States Senate. If Gopher State voters get tired of being the butto jokes because of Franken, McFadden can win here.
12. Iowa: This is an open seat, but with popular Republican governor Terry Branstad running for an easy re-election, if the GOP nominates the right candidate from among many contenders, he or she could win in November against an off-the-shelf-left-wing Democrat, blah blah blah Bruce Braley.
13. Oregon: Dr. Monica Wehby is a pediatric neurosugeon –exactly the sort of person Obamacrae booster incumbent Jeff Merkely didn’t want to face but will in November.
14. New Hampshire: Democrat Jeanne Shaheen is praying Scott Brown doesn’t get into the race, but the former Massachusetts senator has been a second-home resident of the Granite State for decades and may take the plunge. If he does –or if columnist-to-the-world Mark Steyn dives in– Shaheen who delivered Obamacare and all its misery to New Hampshire, will be in deep trouble.
There’s the list that makes Harry Reid twitch. How wonderful it will be to see him live with the rules he has enacted, all the precedents he has dashed, all the abuses he brought about. Cory Gardner made a lot of people happy yesterday, but not nearly as happy as November will make them.
If the GOPe wins them it won’t really matter.
Hewitt is the GOP Insider’s insider. He’s as conventional wisdom as they get. He knows about half of what he predicts. Half the GOP people here might not get out of their primaries, let alone win the state outright.
I know there’s been a lack of enthusiasm for Gillespie in VA, but taking out Warner will pay huge dividends well beyond just picking up a Senate seat. VA is a must win state for Dems in 2016, and a Warner defeat is going to majorly change the political calculations of all the top tier Dems. It might even provoke an open civil war in the Dem Party as Obamas hung out to dry. ..
I’m new to Colorado but this was SO big it was news everywhere.
Feeling is this could push Colorado back to the Red if they can fight off The Machine.
Colorado ping!
The Oregon senate seat should be an easy pickup, as Merkley’s approval numbers are way down. But Monica Wehby isn’t very strong as a speaker & keeps missing debates with Jason Conger. Conger is currently in the Oregon House, but he’s got issues of his own. I’d dearly love to see Merkley go down!
Hugh is the mouthpiece of the GOPe. Do we trust this Gardner guy? Does he have Ted’s approval?
Taking the Senate is a given, sadly though, even if we swept the election completely which won’t happen, we are still not at the 67 votes needed to override vetos.
They’re in deep trouble
Oh, and Hewitt needs a raincheck if he think we’ll allow Kingston to win the Georgia primary
Good capsule review by Hugh Hewitt of the vulnerable ‘rat Senate seats, but I certainly wouldn’t rate New Hampshire last of the 14 in terms of likelihood of GOP takeover.
While Hewitt’s optimism makes forms nice read, it’s reaching pretty far beyond the bounds of reality. If all goes well, the GOP will pick up about four seats, and make for some other unexpectedly close races.
Never to be seen again...
Why would someone vote for Republicans? They abandoned or lost social issues. They abandoned or lost fiscal issues. They support ACA and amnesty. They are pretty open about hating conservatives now.