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Franken 208,357 44% Coleman (Incumbent) 190,986 40% 11% of precincts reporting

Some GOOD News for a change... Mary Landrieu is only 3000 votes ahead of her challenger!

SENATE PREDICTIONSELECTION DAY...FROM NOV 2008 election, here’s a list of the 35 Senate races. (including 33 regular and the MS & WY special elections)The GOP is defending 23 seats, and the Dems defend 12.THere are 65 Senate seats that are not up for election. The GOP starts with 26 carryover seats, and the Dems start with 39 (counting the 2 “independents” Lieberman-CT and Sanders-VT).I was way TOO OPTIMISTIC in the 2006 Midterms, so I am trying to be less optimistic this time...There are another 26 seats that appear SAFE, barring some major change of events over the next 50...

The Minnesota U.S. Senate race remains a tossup on the final weekend of the campaign, with the outcome likely to be decided by who can snatch away the most voters from third-party contender Dean Barkley. A new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll shows DFLer Al Franken clinging to a slim lead over Republican Sen. Norm Coleman among likely voters, 42 percent to 38 percent. That's within the poll's 4.1 percentage point margin of sampling error. Independence Party candidate Barkley, who held steady at 18 percent in the two previous Minnesota Polls, slipped three points to 15 percent. The fluid nature of...

ABSTRACT: Two Houston-area congressmen under political siege likely face opposite fates in the Nov. 4 election, according to a poll conducted for the Houston Chronicle. U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, trailed Republican challenger Pete Olson by 17 percentage points early last week, according to the survey by Zogby International. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, led Democratic challenger Michael Skelly more modestly, by 7 percentage points, with virtually the same margin of error. In both Republican-friendly districts, a key factor appeared to be the Democratic candidates' inability...

Poll: Dole leads Senate race, but plenty still undecided Posted: 20 minutes ago Raleigh, N.C. — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole is supported by many North Carolina voters that other Republican candidates haven't reached, according to a new WRAL News poll. Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. surveyed 800 likely voters statewide between last Wednesday and Friday and found Dole leads Democratic challenger Kay Hagan by 46 to 42 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Illinois political insiders say Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who defended Barack Obama after his father famously threatened to castrate him, is the favorite to replace the Democratic nominee in the Senate. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) scolded his father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, publicly after his comments were caught unexpectedly on tape before an interview with Fox News this summer.

Incumbent Democrat Tom Harkin continues to hold a solid lead over Republican challenger Chris Reed in Iowa's U.S. Senate race. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state finds Harkin leading 57% to 41%. Harkin has expanded his lead somewhat from late September,, when he led by 14 points. The senator has been well ahead since tracking of the race began in June. Harkin is seeking his fifth term in the Senate. In his last re-election bid, Harkin beat his Republican opponent, Greg Ganske, 54% to 44%. Reed is a Navy veteran and businessman. The race is noticeably close...

A new poll released this week shows one Western Pennsylvania Congressional race a lot tighter then many were expecting. Long time incumbent Democrat John Murtha has only a narrow lead in his race for re-election in he 12th Congressional District. Now in his 18'th term, Congressmen John Murtha is used to winning re-election by comfortable margins. But this time around, it appears a strong challenge is underway. The Democrat Murtha was first elected to Congress back in 1974. In recent years, he's been able to base his re-election campaigns on the economic benefits he has brought back to his...

It seems that Darcy Burner's flimsy resume is sparser than she would like voters in the 8th District to believe. It is being reported that she did not earn a degree in economics from Harvard; a claim she has made repeatedly during the course of the campaign.

Former Gov. Jim Gilmore picked up the endorsements of two veterans groups today. Vets for Freedom and Iraqi Veterans Group said they are backing Gilmore's U.S. Senate campaign because of his military background and experience in fighting terrorism. Appearing with veterans at a news conference at the General Assembly Building, Gilmore said he supports the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which allows gays and lesbians to serve in the military until their behavior becomes overt. Gilmore, a Republican, is running against Democrat Mark R. Warner, also a former governor, for the seat of Sen. John W. Warner, a...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says Democrats will expand their majority to 250 seats in the House next year and might have gone further if the party had more money. Pelosi’s claim to talk show host Charlie Rose — that resources are the only obstacle holding the party back in the fall elections — is surprising given that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has raised $120 million, or nearly $30 million more than the House Republican fundraising committee.

Congressman Tim Mahoney's reelection efforts have been "destroyed" by his recently revealed sex scandal, according to the latest polling information on the race for Florida's 16th District.

WASHINGTON - New campaign finance reports show that DFL challenger Al Franken raised nearly twice as much money as Republican Sen. Norm Coleman. But Coleman still had a healthy advantage in cash going into the campaign's final weeks.

Senate Republicans are pulling advertising from the Louisiana Senate race, the only contest in which they were on the offense. The decision, reported by local media, is a blow to the GOP candidate, Louisiana state Treasurer John Kennedy, and good news for Sen. Mary Landrieu, long seen as the lone vulnerable Democratic senator in this cycle. Landrieu won election in 2002 with just 52 percent of the vote, and some believe the state has turned more Republican since Hurricane Katrina, which shrank the size of New Orleans. Still, Landrieu has been comfortably ahead in recent polls. She led by 13...

Last time we wrote this very article, it was 9/26/08. So, let’s take a look at whether any changes are in line. Revisions or changes will be in RED. Here is the Tracker –> Senate Race Table. (Our Methodology: We take the polling average of the 4 MOST RECENT polls and average them together to reach a real number of where the race is at, statistically. That prevents outliers from effecting our numbers too much and needlessly shifting races) We have listed THREE GUARANTEED DEM Pickups: Virginia, New Mexico, and Colorado. Out: Virginia, Senator John Warner and New Mexico Senator...

District 22 Republican congressional candidate Pete Olson picked up the endorsement of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal during news conference Monday afternoon in Houston. Jindal, whose name was widely circulated as a possible running mate for GOP presidential candidate John McCain, made the announcement during an appearance with Olson at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in the Galleria area. Jindal said he was endorsing Olson because the two shared conservative political philosophies. A two-term congressman from Louisiana and former Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, Jindal said every day people in Washington wake up and ask what they can do for...

The slogan on the Morton Salt boxes is, "when it rains, it pours." For Republicans, the past few years must seem like monsoon season. On the presidential level, the Gallup national tracking polls have shown Sen. Barack Obama with 50, 51 or 52 percent in every three-day moving average since Oct. 4, with Sen. John McCain between 41 percent and 43 percent in every average over that same period. No presidential contender in modern times has successfully closed this wide a gap in this short a time. At this point, a major international event would be required to shift the...

Darren White and Erik Paulsen were prized Republican recruits, House candidates poised to be the new face of the GOP on Capitol Hill. But as the two head into the homestretch of their campaigns, GOP operatives say they’ll probably have to win — or lose — on their own. The money national Republicans earmarked for White in New Mexico and for Paulsen in Minnesota will likely go instead to protect GOP incumbents who once looked like locks for reelection. GOP Reps. John B. Shadegg of Arizona, Lee Terry of Nebraska, Henry Brown Jr. of South Carolina and Dan Lungren of...

Here are our latest House ratings. Our latest estimate is a Democratic gain of 25-30 seats. Any seats not listed are currently considered to be at limited risk for the incumbent party. For our race-by-race analysis, you must subscribe to the print edition of the Report.