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.
Any word on New Mexico.
The other Udall is a freshman Senator up in 2014 too.
The map is expanding.
I live in Minnesota and have a big problem with Mike McFadden’s campaign.
Other than the obviously desirous ability to self-fund, he is more or less an empty suit. He has dodged a number of GOP debates and has not responded to GOP activists’ inquiries about his campaign and what he stands for.
The Minnesota GOP can do better than Mike “Empty Suit” McFadden. Her name is Julianne Ortman, state senator from the southwest suburbs of the Twin Cities.
Check out her campaign: http://julianne.mn/