Do you want to make your life better? Do you have a short attention span and can only really focus on one project for a few weeks at a time? I’ve got the project for you!
We have the opportunity to change things in Washington a little bit, coming up in less than six weeks. I’m talking about the November mid-term elections.
If we can change the Senate from a Harry Reid-led Democrat chamber to a Mitch McConnel-led Republican chamber, there’s a chance to make the last two years of the Obama Administration a bit less bad.
We need to pick up 6 seats.
Yeah, I’m downplaying the expectation of “real change” but don’t think I’m downplaying the importance. Being able to actually really really STOP bad legislation or nominees, and maybe being able to defund a few horrid executive actions may be the only good things that can come from Washington in the next two years. And if it’s possible, we really need to make an effort to make it happen.
So, for the next few weeks, who cares about the Presidential race, let’s try to get the Senate turned around.
There are 36 races (33 regular and 3 special elections). That’s not so hard. But wait! We can narrow it down further by eliiminating the Democrat races we can’t win, the Republican races we won’t lose, and just look at the races that need our help.
That gets the list of races to worry about down to 16. That’s totally manageable. I’m gonna lay that out here in part 1. Later, I’ll show you the ones that are most important right now, and then give you the contact info so you can DO SOMETHING to help.
It’s not enough to just follow along with the horserace stories.
Do you want to just observe and report on history as it happens to you, or do you want to make an effort to influence it for the better?
For part one here, I’m gonna just list the 36 races, in 3 sections
- Safe Hold – no need to pay attention, the locals have this one handled
- No Change / No Chance – safe Democrat seats, no point paying attention, we have no chance here
- Needs Attention – either because we could lose it, or because we could know off an incumbent Democrat
Tomorrow we can start to look at those “Needs Attention” races a bit more closely.
This will be a work-in-progress blog post series, and it can only get better with your feedback, so please help me out!
Safe Hold – don’t worry about these right now
- Alabama R-Sessions
- Idaho R-Risch
- Maine R-Collins
- Mississippi R-Cochran
- Nebraska R-Johanns
- Oklahoma R-Inhofe
- Oklahoma R-Coburn (retiring), Lankford running
- South Carolina R-Graham
- South Carolina R-Scott
- Tennessee R-Alexander
- Texas R-Cornyn
- Wyoming R-Enzi
No Change / No Chance – don’t waste a moment’s thought on it
- Delaware D-Coons
- Hawaii D-Schatz
- Massachusetts D-Markey
- New Mexico D-T. Udall
- Rhode Island D-Ree
- Virginia D-Warner
Focus List – THESE are the ones to work on, in alphabetical order
- Alaska D-Begich
- Arkansas D-Pryor
- Colorado D-M. Udall
- Georgia R-Chambliss (retiring)
- Illinois D-Durbin
- Iowa D-Harkin (retiring)
- Kentucky R-McConnell
- Louisiana D-Landrieu
- Michigan D-Levin (retiring)
- Minnesota D-Franken
- Montana D-Walsh
- New Hampshire D-Shaheen
- New Jersey D-Booker
- North Carolina D-Hagan
- Oregon D-Merkley
- South Dakota D-Johnson (retiring)
- West Virginia D-Rockefeller (retiring)
I’m getting my info from these and other sources. If you’ve got some good overview sources, let me know and I’ll add them to this list