Democrats Looking Safe in 2010 US Senate Races

It is looking like Democrats will pick anywhere from 6-10 Senate seats this election. Republicans, however, think things are looking much better for them in 2010 though.

From Daily Kos...

Republicans lament 2008, but they profess hope for 2010:

One indication of the Republicans’ mood: They’re already looking past this grim election season.

“2010 looks pretty good for us to pick up three or four or five seats pretty easily,” the McCain official said.

Boy, delusional to the end. As I've written before, the 2010 map looks even better for us, on paper, than this one did earlier this cycle.

First, the Democrats:

Arkansas: Blanche Lincoln
California: Barbara Boxer
Colorado: Ken Salazar
Connecticut: Chris Dodd
Hawaii: Daniel Inouye
Illinois: Barack Obama
Indiana: Evan Bayh
Maryland: Barbara Mikulski
Nevada: Harry Reid
North Dakota: Byron Dorgan
Oregon: Ron Wyden
Vermont: Patrick Leahy
Washington: Patty Murray
Wisconsin: Russ Feingold

There's a strong chance of retirements in Hawaii and Maryland. Maryland would be an easy hold, but Hawaii has a popular Republican governor who could make a race out of it. The GOP may make a stab at Lincoln in Arkansas, but they couldn't even muster up a challenger against freshman incumbent Mark Pryor this year. They have no bench in the state. They'll also go after Murray in Washington, and Feingold in Wisconsin, but if they couldn't get ousted in the far more Republican year of 2004, 2010 shouldn't be much more difficult for them. And given the pathetic state of the Colorado GOP, Ken Salazar should hold on easily.

Kos concludes...

So off the bat, we have 13 potentially competitive GOP-held seats, and few Democratic takeovers. So no, 2010 won't give Republicans 5-6 "easy" pickups. That's ludicrous.

Things will be much different in 2012 and 2016 when we're slated to play HUGE defense (defending our gains from 2006 and this year). Republicans can brag about the gains they'll make those years because chances are they will. But 2010? Heck no. At this pace, we're headed toward a 65-70-seat Democratic majority in the Senate by the end of 2010.