Preview of some 2010 senate races

[Hawaii Hiker]

Good summary of some tough senate battles ahead in 2010..

http://electoral-vote.com/

Does anyone know much about that Marco Rubio who will challenge Charlie Crist in the FL. senate Republican primary?....I know Rubio was endorsed by Club for Growth, so he must be a real far right kook...Looks like a repeat of NY-23 where Republicans will kick out the moderate for an extremist...

[Motown_Johnny]

1. 5 barely GOP v 1 barely Dem

My God I would love to pick up a Senate seat and get to 61, all the nuts who claim that the liberal agenda has been rejected by America would shit themselves. Also we could strip Traitor Joe of everything since we wouldn't need his sorry ass anymore

[MadBadger]

3. These numbers are not up to date.

For instance, they have Chris Dodd's seat as Strongly Democratic because he won big in 2004. It's going to be a real struggle for him in reality.

[Motown_Johnny]

5. Buzz kill (kidding... kinda)

[bluethruandthru]

2. I'd love to see Louisiana get rid of Diaper Boy! n/t

[Feron]

11. So would I, but..

the only real challenger so far is Melancon and he's not any better than Vitter.

[SteppingRazor]

4. Marco Rubio is the former Speaker of the Florida House.

Jeb Bush protege. Very conservative, but in the fashion of old-school Cubans, which is slightly different than your garden variety conservatism.

Last I read, Crist still led the primary, 50-23, despite the recession having hit Florida harder than most places during his governorship, despite a state budget crisis, and despite Crist having installed his own chief of staff, George LeMieux into the U.S. Senate to replace the retired Mel Martinez.

New allegations of corruption in the Scott Rothstein case may continue to bog down Crist, but I still don't think it'll be enough for Rubio to win out, unless Crist is specifically and unambiguously tied to corruption.

In any case, the Democrat in the race, Kendrick Meek, probably stands a better chance against Rubio than Crist, so who's to say what Dems should prefer in the primary? Actually, the best-case scenario might be a very, very narrow win for Crist, which causes the conservatives to stay home on election day. Hard to say, though.

[Hawaii Hiker]

7. What about Debbie Wasserman-Schultz?

Is there any chance she would run for senate, she has name recognition?....Probably would be a good general election candiate..Florida is an interesting state - some solid blue areas like Miami/Dade, Broward County, then some real far right areas in the Panhandle, etc...

[SteppingRazor]

9. The Wass has already endorsed Kendrick Meek:

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2009/06/klein_and_wasserman_schultz_en.html

[Ineeda]

6. Rubio info:

snip from: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/1322675.html

"Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio is emerging as the champion of activists fed up with Republicans who don't stay true to conservative principles.
But if those turning against Gov. Charlie Crist are looking for a pure, uncompromising conservative, Rubio's legislative record might give them pause.
"He was a big disappointment to us when he was the speaker," said NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer, who saw Rubio do little to help pass a bill allowing employees to take guns to work. "He talked the talk, but he didn't walk the walk."
As speaker of the House, Rubio consistently presented smaller budgets than the governor and the Senate. But he also spent eight years casting votes and cutting deals that reflect the reality of the legislative process: hard-line ideology rarely triumphs over compromise.
The 38-year-old campaigning as an authentic, from-the-gut conservative is the same person who spent tens of thousands of dollars to test political messages on focus groups, gave out big staff salaries and, like Crist, favored a $60 million subsidy for a new Florida Marlins stadium."

[Grown2Hate]

8. Is there ANYWHERE to get up to date polling for the 2010 Senate races?

Or are they just too far out to get anything? I always check in with electoral-vote, but those numbers appear to have been static for the last year.

[SteppingRazor]

10. It's way too early yet. Even if there were a one-stop-shopping place for 2010 Senate polls...

the numbers would be meaningless. I wouldn't be too, too interested in polling numbers until at least March or April of next year.