Is the Colorado Senate race over?
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The National Republican Senatorial Committee will not be buying ads to support Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer during the last week of his campaign in Colorado, presumably because they've given up hope for a win. This decision comes after the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee withdrew their funding from the Colorado race, presumably because they don't think that Mark Udall, the Democratic candidate, is in danger of losing.
Given how well Tom Udall is doing in the polls in New Mexico, it's looking more and more likely that there will be two members of the Udall family -- arguably the most influential family in the history of the Western conservation movement -- in the Senate next year. There might be three, if you're willing to count Gordon Smith, a moderate Oregon Republican and distant cousin of the other two Udalls, as part of the clan. But that depends on whether Smith manages to survive his hotly-contested re-election fight. With Obama polling well in Oregon -- and voters angry at incumbents in general -- that's anything but a foregone conclusion.
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Of the 59 Democrats up for re election, 54 are strongly supported. These are many times, incumbents. But only 37 of the Republicans seats are safe out of 41 up this year. (The rest of the seats are not up for election this year)
Sadly for Smith, part of his unpopularity with his Republican constituents is that he is one of the very few Republicans to cross the aisle and vote with Democrats on environmental protections and building more climate-safe renewable energy.
http://www.electoral-vote.com/[…]/Oct26-s.html