Two moderate Democrats from Pennsylvania won’t be returning to Congress next year after Tuesday’s primaries in the Keystone State — but only one can blame the new make-up of his district for his loss. In western Pennsylvania’s 12th District, Rep. Mark Critz pulled off an upset in his member vs. member race against Rep. Jason Altmire, who had…
Though it probably won’t start for a few more days, the “anti-incumbent election” narrative will grow loud during the next few weeks, as a handful of Members of Congress find themselves in tough races. It won’t matter whether they are defeated in primaries or just squeeze through in tight, nasty contests. And it won’t matter that the narrative…
To her friends, Martha McKenna is Baltimore’s ambassador, but Democrats have chosen her to be a critical part of holding their Senate majority. The 37-year-old Democratic operative was born in Chicago, but there is no question that Charm City is home. It’s where McKenna grew up, got her start in politics and notched her most significant win. But…
Now that the Club for Growth and other conservatives groups have decided to make a substantial investment in defeating veteran Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar, and polling suggests a tightening race, it should be pretty clear even to the Senator’s most loyal supporters that he has a very serious fight on his hands. Lugar’s adversary in the GOP primary,…
There is no single “right” way to handicap a race. You can evaluate where the race is at a particular moment and “rate” what you see. Or, after noting the candidates’ current standing, you can make an informed projection about how the race will play out, changing your rating if and when events don’t play out as expected.…
Latinos are growing into a powerful voting bloc, but there is the real possibility that the U.S. Senate won’t have any additional Hispanics next year. Last year, a handful of Latinos had an opportunity to get elected and join Florida’s Marco Rubio and New Jersey’s Bob Menendez as the only Hispanics in the chamber. But as the election…
Former Sen. Bob Kerrey’s last-minute reversal to get into the Nebraska Senate race is reason to re-evaluate our rating. In the last week’s edition of RPR, we moved the Nebraska race to Safe for the Republicans based on the lack of credible Democratic candidates, but we also wrote that Kerrey, 68, would have caused Republicans to devote some…