Senate: 60 is still possible
Posted: Friday, November 07, 2008 1:17 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Congress
From NBC’s Doug Adams
The Democrats' road to 60 Senate seats isn't dead yet.
Yes, it's a long road, with a lot of twists and turns and "ifs," but it's still possible.
With the win in Oregon yesterday, they now have picked up six, and control 57 total seats.
In Minnesota, Sen. Norm Coleman leads Al Franken by a scant 237 votes, and NBC’s John Yang reports that Democrats are hopeful Franken can make up that difference in a recount. If the Democrats can pull out a squeaker in Minnesota, they'd be sitting at 58.
In Alaska, the race isn't over yet either -- Democrat Mark Begich trails embattled Ted Stevens by 3,400 votes, but there are 55,000 absentee and provisional ballots that won't be counted until next week. So if the Dems pull that one out too, then they're at 59.
If both of those things happen, then it gets really interesting. That would leave the potential 60th seat as the Georgia runoff next month. Official word should come early next week, but that runoff would be scheduled for Dec. 2nd.
The conventional wisdom is that incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss would win any runoff, because African Americans likely won't turn out in the same numbers for a runoff. And national Republicans would be motivated to win this one after the stinging losses this week.
But if Georgia is the magical 60th seat for Democrats -- would that prompt Obama to invest time, attention and campaign resources to the Democratic effort?
That would change the equation. Should be fascinating.
