National Senate Races

I was hoping to find time to write about some cool new tech in the works, but since it is political season, I decided to keep going while people are still interested enough to read about the national scene.  The national senate races have been quite interesting this year.  Let me break it down.

Republicans are slated to take 2 democrat seats: 1 from Nebraska and another from North Dakota. 

Democrats are likely to steal one Rep seat up in Maine from Snow who is retiring from politics.

This puts Democrats at 46 seats and Republicans at 44.  The 10 toss up senate races are in 

Arizona

Connecticut

Indiana

Massachusetts

Missouri

Montana

Nevada

Ohio

Virginia &

Wisconsin

If Republicans can bump up to 51 seats they will control both sides of the house. How likely is this?  Well the elections are about a week away and according to polls here are the current standings:

Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia are solidly (enough) in Democrat hands.  This pushes them up to 49 seats meaning they only have to grasp 2 more to maintain majority in the Senate.  It is very likely that Ohio will fall into the democrats court and Missouri has a slightly blue tilt after Akins now famous remarks about "legitimate rape".  If somehow Akin pulls off a win then the democrats are on shaky ground.  The Republicans are solid in Montana and Arizona with a good chance of winning Nevada.  Wisconsin, Indiana and Missouri are all true ties in the polls.  It would be unlikely that the Republicans would gain all 3 seats and here is why -the Tea party.  Todd Akin in Missouri had a solid lead and a spot at the table in DC until he gave his remarks about "legitimate rape".  He quickly squandered his lead and now the good people of Missouri are questioning whether he is sane enough to be in the Senate and the Democrats are up 2 points in the polls.  In Indiana Richard Murdock beat out long time favorite Richard Luger in the primaries by leaning further to the right.  Luger, who had kept the seat safely republican for 36 years.  Last election they couldn't even scrounge up a democrat to run against him.  Now Murdock is the nominee and in a dead heat and liable to loose the seat.  Loosing these two "safe seats" in the senate leave republicans in the lurch.  Last election cycle 3 weak Tea party candidates cost the republican ticket 3 seats in the senate and it looks like now they will loose 2 more.  Why does this even really matter you ask?  Back when Bill Clinton was president a unified republican house led to budget compromises and much was accomplished.  With a divided house we can expect little to be accomplished over the next 2 years as Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has promised preemptive gridlock for 2013 stating: the idea of any attempt at bipartisan tax reform next year is "obsolete".  So the final count comes down to 49 solid blue and 47 solid red.  

The most interesting Senate race actually comes out of Ohio despite all the Tea party's "thoughts" on rape.  There you have a young 33 year old republican names Josh Mandel.  After serving 2 tours in Iraq and getting degrees in communications and law, he joined his local city council.  After a brief stint he somehow managed to become Ohio's state treasurer without a degree in accounting.  His campaign positioned his black opponent as an extremist Muslim (he wasn't Muslim) and proclaimed if he were Treasurer he would install qualified staff instead of his friends as the democrat had done.  I guess he didn't count on reporters looking into his administration.  Friends who had been paid 13.50 to help run his campaign suddenly had salaries of $100,000.  Once again, these people have no relevant degrees to the the office they are working in.  This candidate also avoided taxes while running his campaign by labeling employees as contractors.  This way he avoids paying payroll and other necessary taxes on his employees because he calls them independent of his operation.  However they had campaign email addresses, worked exclusively for his campaign, etc.  Then he missed the first 10 meetings while in office.  Does he really care about the office of treasurer?  In less then a year of obtaining the office he had already filed papers to run as a republican contender for Senator and now he is running.  Many are questioning if even his time in the military was politically motivated.  Then there are also questions floating out their as to whether he misappropriated funds while in office as treasurer but I haven't researched those claims yet.  If this 33 year old unqualified candidate can be a state Senator for Ohio then I fear for our nation.  As the political saying states: As goes Ohio, so goes the nation.  Anyway the senate races can be fun to watch as well so I hope you do pay attention to them.  The Senate may play a greater role in what is accomplished in the next for years then even who we choose as president.