Focus On The Senate

I came into the night thinking that we could get eight seats. Right now we have five, and four are still outstanding.

First, the winners. Welcome to new Democratic Senators Mark Warner, Tom Udall, Mark Udall, Jeanne Shaheen and Kay Hagan. Of these, Tom Udall is a good, solid progressive, and so that represents the biggest ideological shift. He will be a good addition to the Senate. The others will go along with modest agenda items like SCHIP and stem cell research (both of which will likely pass quickly in an Obama Administration), but will be tough to get for other directives.

Now, the four races still out there.

• Jeff Merkley is currently down by about 9,000 votes under 7,000 votes in the Oregon Senate race against Gordon Smith. However, only 73% of the vote has been counted, and only half of Multnomah County (Portland) is in. Merkley has already gotten 67,000-plus votes out of that county, so I think he's going to win once they all come in. A local pollster there sees it going for Merkley. As a progressive Dem, he would be a major asset in the Senate.

• The Al Franken/Norm Coleman race is going to a recount. Right now, the margin is around 1,000 votes with 2.9 million cast. Franken is not conceding, and the recount is set to begin. We're weeks away from knowing who won this one... But not if Norm Coleman has something to say about it



Apparently, not objecting to an automatic recount mandated by law is a betrayal of the process.

• Alaska is, well, Alaska. Ted Stevens is holding a lead despite being convicted in a court of law. The evidence there, combined with Don Young clinging to a small lead over Ethan Berkowitz, shows me that Sarah Palin had the biggest coattails of the night, at least in her home state. There are still about 40,000 absentee ballots to be counted and Stevens leads by 4,000 votes, so it's not quite over.

• The Georgia Senate race is going to a runoff. This could be an early test for the Obama campaign, to see if they can muscle through a victory in a low-turnout race to be decided by base votes. Saxby Chambliss couldn't manage 50% in the general election, but he would be favored to win a runoff. We'll have to see.