Control of Senate is a toss-up

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Much like the presidential race, Democrats were practising their touchdown dance just a month ago because they would soon be winning the Senate. Let's just say that the hubris has moderated.

It wasn’t too long ago that the conventional wisdom about 2016 leaned heavily in Democrats’ favor: Hillary Clinton was in the driver’s seat in the presidential race; Dems were well positioned to reclaim the Senate majority; and there was even some chatter about the House majority being up for grabs.
At least for now, it’s fair to say the conventional wisdom has changed quite a bit. Republican control of the House is a near-certainty; Hillary Clinton’s lead over Donald Trump has been cut in half; and Republicans are increasingly optimistic about holding onto the Senate.
The New York Times’ Upshot, for example, maintains a frequently updated forecasting model showing which party is favored to control the Senate in the next Congress. A month ago, by a roughly two-to-one margin, Democrats were favored to be in the majority. As of this morning, however, according to this model, there’s a 51% chance Republicans will be in charge.
Daily Kos has its own projections, and it too shows the GOP favored to keep its Senate majority. The Huffington Post’s forecasting model tilts even more heavily in the Republicans’ favor.

538.com still gives the Dems a slight edge to win the Senate.

You may have heard elsewhere that the Democrats’ magic number is four seats. But that assumes they hold onto all their seats and win the presidency, and as I hinted at above, that’s not a safe assumption; instead, they’ll require somewhere between four and six seats. Their first problem is Nevada, where they’re defending the seat held by retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. In theory, Nevada should lean slightly blue in a presidential year, but it hasn’t done so in either the presidential or the state’s Senate race so far; recent polls there show the Republican Senate candidate, U.S. Rep. Joe Heck, slightly ahead of Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, a former Nevada attorney general. Thus, Nevada is, at best, a tossup for Democrats, meaning that they might require five Republican gains instead of four.

Of the 34 seats up for grabs, Republicans hold 24 of them. This is because six years ago was the massive 2010 GOP wave.
Now they have to defend some seats they never should have won.
So unless the Dems are totally and completely incompetent, they are destined to win back at least a few Senate seats. We are most likely looking at something near a 50-50 split.
I'm looking forward to Russ Feingold getting back in the Senate.

Of course, there is a problem.
It's mid-September and Democrats have had to shift back to rallying their base because of the alarming lack of enthusiasm might effect turnout.
It's still early, but I see the Dems losing a couple close races and failing to win the Senate.

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Wink's picture

If registered Dems would actually get off their dead asses and get to the polls we'd pick up ten seats at least. Instead... instead we bow to an inferior party ruling our lame asses. "Mrs. Adams?" "Yes?" "This is Wink calling you today from Dem Headquarters downtown. What do you think are the chances you'll get off your dead ass this year and get to the polls?" "Who's running?" "Hillary Clinton." "Ha! Not a friggin' chance!" "Yeah, is what I thought. Have a nice day... "

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Pricknick's picture

to find a registered democrat.
After this election cycle, they may become extinct.
Maybe someone will miss them.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

I'm hoping for huge Republican wins in the Senate and the House if Hillary wins, and am hoping for huge Democratic wins in the Senate and the House if Trump wins.

Both need to be stymied, by whatever means.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

she has a lot of Republican politicians and donors on her side. The Bush side of the party is on her side. The Rand Paul side, which is smaller and less powerful, isn't.

That's looking at the donors and the politicians and pundits--Republican rank-and-file are not falling in line for Hill the way I think she thought they would. They have a moral problem with her--much the same as I do, and oddly, occasionally for the same reasons.

Very few people in this country like liars--or being talked down to.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

OzoneTom's picture

Working together with the GOP leadership to crush any leftist insurrections. Then signing horrid trade bills and privatizing Medicare and Social Security with the rationale "That's what they offered."

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Somehow I suspect that their votes will show up for the corporate candidate, even if the actual voters don't. Votes for others might be missed in the counting, but actual voters don't seem likely to be missed by the corporate Dems.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

(I haven't Demexited yet, mainly because I haven't gotten around to it; I'm certainly not sticking around for any reason I can think of.) So, as technically a registered Democrat--I don't blame registered Dem voters for a second for staying away from the polls. I'm closer to admiring their ethics.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Wink's picture

It's about having given up, that both parties are the same, nothing changes, so why bother? Well, guess what, potential voter? Sitting on your dead ass won't change anything either. The Repubs continue to kick our ass becuz our side stays home, too tired of it all to bother. They (Repubs) got us right where they want us. And know it.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

So vote Green and bypass both corporate parties and any TPP-supporting Libertarians.

If enough people do it, the votes will be there for Jill and it should be possible to prove and protest electoral cheating, while refusing to recognize/accept the false results and President. There is some mechanism to have the rest of the world not recognize a false, cheated in leader to which I've read references, although I'm not up to searching it out or researching it myself.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Wink's picture

a joke. A pretend party that shows up every four years to give some voters an "alternative." No thanks.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

us and the Repubs, it's between us and the elites.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Damn straight!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Wink's picture

don't have their own party. They own both. If we're going to defeat the elite we need to purge both parties, replace rubber stampers with "more and better Dems" and Repubs. The sooner we get our party back the sooner we get our country back.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

convincingly represents my views, I do. However, I did my DemExit and won't be back, even though I live in a closed-primary state. Never again will I vote Dem automatically. My reliable Dem vote for > 40 years no longer is, thanks to the DNC and Hillary Clinton and her campaign.

This year I'll vote for Dems for a number of offices, but #ImWithDrHer, the only candidate for president I can vote for this dispiriting charade of an election. I'll continue to check in with Brand New Congress and keep an eye on Canova's Progress for All. With Weaver at the helm of Our Revolution and the resulting departure of the sharp younger cohort that fueled Bernie's campaign, I'm much less interested in that organization.

Also: This isn't about Rs v. Ds anymore. It's about who fights for us. A D next to a candidate's name is not a guarantee of a "Berniecrat." Many (not all) other Ds may as well be Rs.

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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti

from linking their Republican opponents to Trump, because Hillary wanted to mine those votes. She wanted to run a campaign that makes Trump look like a lunatic, but she can work with reasonable Republicans.

Oh, and all those Democratic Superdelegates shoving her down our throat was expected to engender excitement for their own campaigns?

Thanks Hillary

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Wink's picture

candidates link their Repub opponents with the Drumpster. Wouldn't be prudent. They might, you know, Win! "Wink, Her Highness needs more sitting Repubs when she takes the oath in January to show how badass she is in dealing with them. It wouldn't be any fun if, you know, Dems controlled the Senate! Capiche?"
Sadly I do.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

TheOtherMaven's picture

Furballs unite, you know you're the true rulers anyway! Smile

Cat Stump Kitty4Prez-042716[1].jpg

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

appalled at Trump, scared of Hillary!
I spent my afternoon with a retired Republican elected official, a current Republican elected official, and a Republican party county operative.
They are as freaked out as I am.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Lily O Lady's picture

endorsed incumbent Republican Johnny Isakson over Democrat Jim Barksdale. Barksdale supported Sanders during the primary. He's vowed to vote against bad trade deals and says that capitalism isn't working. Apparently Democrats are against all that. I thought I was a Democrat, but they keep showing me that I'm not.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

SnappleBC's picture

... but I can't because I'm liberal.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

Lily O Lady's picture

You think you're on the high ground, when in an instant you are way downhill.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

the connection to the 1% they work for.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

karl pearson's picture

As long as the Democratic leadership and operatives act like Republican-lites in order to appease their big donors, they will continue to lose seats at the Federal level. Have they learned nothing from the Sanders' campaign and his supporters? They witnessed a winning message and much enthusiasm; instead they hunker down with the same losing playbook. There are millions of unregistered voters who would vote Democratic if the party showed an interest in the "little guy". It's sad to see how the Democratic party has changed over the decades.

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...It's sad to see how the Democratic party has changed over the decades.

Especially because this is due to their working for the hostile corporate take-over of America and the entire world, even though they'll rapidly kill off what remains of life - and the life support system it forms - on the planet in the taking and unrestrained industrial/military pollution/destruction/exploitation. Once parasites kill off their hosts and life support system, they die as well; it's unfortunate that in this case they're taking the results of billions of years of evolution with them, 'history/science/reality being bunk' and all.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Lily O Lady's picture

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Sister Havana's picture

"OMG REPUBLICANS ARE CATCHING UP GIVE US MONEY NOW OR WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"

And I'm thinking "well, if you hadn't spent piles of money in the primaries against actual Democrats (Pennsylvania and Florida, I am looking at you!), you might not have this problem!"

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Why don't you spend some more money on hackers. Keep purging voters until you get the result you want. Don't bother me with your bullshit.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Lol, wanna bet that's the sort of thing (purging voters, etc.) they need the voters money for?

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0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Hawkfish's picture

The latest FEC numbers show Clinton's individual donor levels are off the charts.

I think they are just trolling for votes among those unwilling or unable to give money. The subtext is "Well if you are too much of a loser to have money to spare, at least give us your vote".

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

Just remembered, as the coffee finally begins to circulate, having read it suggested that a major reason for the theft by multiple and unauthorized charges on small donors by Her Royal Campaign was to inflate the number of donors submitted to the FEC prior to the election.

Since Hillary has been doing large-donor fundraisers to the exclusion of campaigning, (my speculation) one would expect that she'd otherwise have very large sums of money as compared to numbers of donors and it probably wouldn't even appear to be within legal limits without this, considering that campaign financial limits/laws also somehow don't apply to the Clintons/DNC.

After all, she's working for a very limited pool of large donors/prospective global rulers literally promised the world via Trojan Horse 'trade deals' (this based on illegal, unconstitutional clauses involving work-around 'technicalities' people are expected to swallow as somehow being binding upon them, rather than a privately conducted betrayal by a conspiracy of greedy traitors - and those bullied/blackmailed/brutalized into participating - in the public service) and doesn't need the voters she's working against, beyond the optics of her win being possible.

But those optics are all-important to her in denying charges of more electoral cheating.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2016/09/a-quick-senate-scorecard.html

Gaius Publius reports over at Down with Tyranny that the Dems have a real shot at Lisa Murkowski's seat in Alaska. Except Shumer can't stand that its not his kind of dem (the guy supported Bernie). So shumer is sabotaging things by trying to get Mark Begich to run as a write-in and split the democratic vote.

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GreatLakeSailor's picture

Isn't that how Harry Reid fuckt up North (or South?) Dakota senate race in 2014?

The Very Serious Beltway Democratic Elite do hate them Proggies. It's the Iron Law of Institutions.

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Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

GreatLakeSailor's picture

Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy in Florida, incumbent Republican Mark Kirk in Illinois, Democratic challenger Ted Strickland in Ohio, and incumbent Republican Ron Johnson in Wisconsin are doing badly enough that their parties either have already cut off the money (the two Republicans), or are close to doing so (the two Democrats).

I think most would call these races closed. (Note: Chuck Schumer actively interfered with progressive challengers in Florida and Ohio. The +2 Democrats could easily be +4 Democrats in this category, absent that interference.)

Again, The Iron Law of Institutions.

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Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

an economic policy advisor for Hillary Clinton's campaign. Clintons and their allies are all about payback. Make sense now?

The way Barbara Boxer's bad behavior in Nevada makes sense when you know that her daughter was briefly married to Hillary Clinton's younger brother, meaning that Boxer's grandson is Clinton's nephew.

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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Gee, why would the Democrats suddenly be losing in Nevada. It's not like, I don't know, there's something wrong with the Democratic party of Nevada, is there?

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/05/18/how-democrats-manipulated-n...

Bring in a bunch of cops to stand between the people and the politicians and then conduct a week-long smear telling the nation that Sanders supporters are a bunch of chair-throwing, death-threat-making thugs?

Guess maybe the Democrats of NV aren't, in general, inspired by this behavior.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

"We have to work together!"
"No. As the humans say, `Up yours, die!'"

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NsdQzoIXIE]

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

A Republican Senate is just what the oligarchy wants. The narrative must be, "poor Hillary blocked from doing the people's work, fighting for the commons. She could have done so much good".

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GreatLakeSailor's picture

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Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

Ssssshhhhhhh! Don't give them ideas! We don't even have any defensive nukes here, only the F-bomb.

(As far as I know, at any rate. FSM knows what Harper got up to, under The Cone Of Silence and after shutting out the Green Party's Elizabeth May from legislative discussion she was entitled to engage in and potentially also shame the NDP into living up to their original platform.)

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

orlbucfan's picture

here in the Sandbar/GunNut State last month. As long as you have Repukelican Lite fakers running as DINOS, DINOs lose. Even when they're human barf like Marco Rubio. Murray won't get my vote, that's for sure. REC'D!!

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

Hard to decide which is worse; that the elections were stolen, or that they weren't.

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SnappleBC's picture

LOL, I remember giddy talk sweeping house, senate, and oval office and even one breathless mention of a 50 state win.

Now it looks like a pretty decent shot at the oval office and a 50/50 for the Senate with no hope for the House.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

If it's the Clintons, it looks more like an indecent shot taking down the Oval Office to shift domestic law off-shore into corporate hands, where the public interest has no pretense of any standing against corporate/billionaire greed.

After all, the Clintons were 'broke and in debt' on a paltry Presidential salary and perks (actually had to rent out White House bedrooms and take White House furnishings with them merely to survive,) and stand to make much more money while needed as corporate management during the final transfer of power from the people to Those Who Matter Because They're Worth Real Money drained from, at and to the great cost of, the people and Earth's resources and ability to sustain life.

And the same goes for 'deal-making/deal-breaking' President Trump.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Plus she's a soporific (and visibly ailing). How many folks here who plan to vote for Clinton have enthusiasm for her, her record, and her campaign rather than fear of a Trump presidency? Right.

Pardon the repetition, but this is a predicted consequence of the DNC's actions in focusing more energy on stopping Sanders than on winning the White House and the Senate.

Is anyone at this site surprised? Didn't think so.

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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti