2012 Senate

[Kaine for Senate '18]

2012 is going to be a tough year for us.  Luckily, most of the Open Seats will be in states which lean Democratic (MA), or have almost no Statewide GOP force (HI, WV).  Most of our pickups are states where the GOP bench is weak; our most difficult seat to hold will likely be Webb's, and if McDonnell loses, then I don't see who can win statewide for the GOP.  Also, most of our incumbents in McCain states that didn't win in 2006 are so thoroughly entrenched (Nelson of Nebraska, Conrad) that they likely won't draw a major challenger.

We need to make sure that we begin fundraising early, and try to prevent major chllangers appearing.  I think we have 13 safe seats (HI, CA, WA, NM, NE, ND, MN, WI, MD, DE, NY, MA, and RI), but that still leaves us with 8 seats to defend.  The GOP, by contrast, only has 9 seats to defend in total, of which only 1 (NV) is potentially close.

This will be a tough year, but as long as there isn't a massive wave against the candidates, we should be able to hold most of the seats.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

13 safe seats[...]NE

Alright that's kind of funny

If you read the entire post, I said that Nelson is safe because he is so popular, nobody will challenge him.  If he got a top notch challenger, then it would be a close race.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Hasn't Nelson been around in Nebraska through Democratic popularity lows before?  Like in 1994 he won reelection by one of the highest margins ever in Nebraska...I mean, he is the Senator with one of the highest (used to be THE highest) popularity rating among his own constituents.  But that probably doesn't even mean anything to your noggin

Exactly.  Nelson is going to be safe.