Mr. Smith Takes a Rest? Democrats Eye Senate Supermajority
Retirements and recruitment woes plague GOP in Senate races.
March 12, 2008 — -- Mr. Smith, prepare to take a rest. If Senate Democrats have their way, come January, they'll have a firm grip on the reins of congressional power in Washington.
Democrats need to pick up nine seats in the Senate to obtain a filibuster-proof majority and while that will be difficult, they have a numerical advantage simply because Republicans are more exposed.
There are 23 Republican seats up for grabs versus 12 currently held by Democrats.
Six Republicans have either resigned or won't seek re-election. Three of those open seats, in Virginia, New Mexico and Colorado, are considered hotly contested.
Democrats have no resignations or retirements and are mounting full-scale assaults on the Republican-held seats in states like Oregon, Maine and New Hampshire -- reliably Democratic states in presidential elections.
But across the country, from New Jersey to Iowa to South Dakota to Arkansas, it is not that any given Republican Senate candidate lags in the polls; the problem for Republicans these days is that in many states they lack viable candidates.
Take Arkansas, for example.
The Natural State produced not one but two presidential contenders from Hope: former Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee and former President Clinton. And, arguably, there's a third Razorback in the race, given the candidacy of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.
The state favored President Bush over then-Vice President Al Gore in 2000 and went even more solidly for the sitting president over Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in 2004.
Yet, despite the political uncertainty of the state, Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., who won his first term in a tight 2002 election, will walk to re-election, unopposed by a Republican.
And it's not just Pryor's luck either.
None of Arkansas' four Congress members will face a challenger from the other party.
"A lot of people were interested in running, but nobody was interested in doing it right now," said Arkansas state Republican Party executive director Karen Ray.
Despite the drought of candidates on the federal level, Ray insisted the party has a strong slate of Republicans up for state seats and will be a competitive for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the presidential election.
"We had a tough year in 2006 and we are in a rebuilding phase," Ray said of a year in which a Democrat won the governor's office, giving the party unfettered control in Arkansas for the first time since 1994.
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