Democrats Look to South in Senate Strategy
Jan 28, 4:37 PM (ET)
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats plotted an optimistic blueprint Wednesday to take back the Senate in November, despite losing incumbents in five Southern states where Republican President Bush is expected to run strong.
While admitting a tough fight ahead, strategists for Senate Democrats are banking on holding four of six seats in the South, winning an open race in Illinois, and picking off at least two incumbent Republicans.
That would put the Democrats at 50 seats - and the majority, with Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords, an independent, caucusing with the Democrats. The GOP currently holds 51 seats in the Senate, and the Democrats have 48.
"There's a path to 51," said Brad Woodhouse, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
"Each one of these races is going to be decided by circumstances and by dynamics particular to those states and those candidates," Woodhouse said. "And right now we're leading. Will we win them all? Perhaps, perhaps not. Will we be competitive in all of them? Certainly we will."
Sitting Democratic senators are retiring their seats in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana, while Republicans are leaving their posts in Oklahoma and Illinois. Meanwhile, Democrats have targeted Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Jim Bunning of Kentucky as the most vulnerable sitting Republicans.
But Republicans noted the Democrats had "a terrible time" trying to win open seats in the 2002 election when they lost the Senate. That year, GOP candidates in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas trounced their Democratic opponents by at least 9 percentage points in each state.
"Ultimately, we know we're in good shape," National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Dan Allen said. "Democrats are in a very difficult situation having to defend five seats in the South where the president ran very strong in 2000 and will probably run just as strong this year, if not stronger."
Republicans are looking to pick off Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota. He is facing former Rep. John Thune, R-S.D. who narrowly lost his Senate bid in 2002 against Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., by just 524 votes.
Democrats have set their sights on Republican Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Kit Bond of Missouri, longtime incumbents in two presidential swing states where a strong Democratic nominee could help Senate hopefuls.
In Pennsylvania, Specter is viewed as particularly vulnerable, since he is the only sitting senator facing a Republican primary challenge. If he survives the primary against conservative Rep. Pat Toomey, Specter would face Rep. Joe Hoeffel in the general election. Hoeffel, a three-term moderate-to-liberal lawmaker from the Philadelphia suburbs, is widely considered one of the strongest Democrats to challenge Specter in a Senate race. |
