Democracy
2012 Senate races to watch
Rachel Rose Hartman, The Ticket – Winning a majority in the U.S. Senate in 2012 was never going to be easy for Republicans. But over the past several months, new obstacles have continued to stack up as a few seemingly locked-up Senate races have become less than sure for the GOP. And given the Democrats’ success in recruiting popular candidates to run, the Republicans are working overtime to catch up and turn their own challengers into strong general-election contenders. They need to gain four seats to take control of the upper chamber.
“There’s been a lot of turbulence for Republicans,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee communications director Matt Canter told Yahoo News, noting the difficulties Republicans have had recruiting candidates.
One major setback occurred when Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine announced her surprise retirement in February. As one of the least conservative Republicans in the Senate, running in a heavily independent state, Snowe was a virtual shoo-in for re-election. Now her seat is up for grabs.
Currently, Republicans hold 47 seats in the Senate to the Democrats’ 51, plus independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont and independent Democrat Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. Only 10 Republicans are up for re-election this year, compared to 23 Democrats (counting Lieberman and Sanders, who caucus with the party). But Democratic recruiting successes have kept several of the open seats and contested races in play.
On the other side of the spectrum are the tea party candidates, who Democrats argue have hurt the Republicans by waging fierce primary battles—and even winning some of them.
“The impact of the tea party has been felt in almost every single Senate race in the country,” Canter of the DSCC said to Yahoo News. “The seeds have been sowed, but I don’t think we’ve seen the full impact yet. … We’re going to see a lot more fireworks before the dust settles.”
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Republicans fight to reclaim the Senate majority: 2012 races to watch
