I stopped updating this site at the end of September because I was too busy with school work this semester and because the larger liberal blogs were covering all of the major Senate races in detail. When I began this site in January, 2005, the major liberal blogs were barely covering the midterm elections. As the elections approached, they began to cover these races and OurSenate became less necessary. Within the next few months, as the speculation about the 2008 Senate races begins, I will go back to updating this site regularly. I am excited to start discussing how we will expand our majority in 2008, as well as what we will do with our majority in the next two years.

For now, enjoy our new majorities in the House and Senate. To everyone who worked or volunteered on a campaign, donated money, and voted for Democrats, thank you for helping to put Democrats in the majority.

---

I've turned off the comments feature for now, due to the incredible amount of comment spam this site generates. Once the regular updates start again I'll turn comments back on. For now, if you have any questions, comments, or new tips about Senate races, e-mail me.

Some articles about the debate:
Times Dispatch:

Discussing Iraq, Webb, a former secretary of the Navy, said, "If we had the right people in the Senate there would have been more questions asked and a better policy in place in order to defeat international terrorism."

Conservative blogger Dean Barnett give Webb a positive review after the debate. Read his column to understand how conservatives could find themselves voting for Webb:
[on Webb's 1979 article criticizing women in the military]

For some reason, the Allen campaign spotted an opportunity in this ancient article, even though it is a common sense argument that women should not be leading recon missions or commanding infantry. I know not everyone will agree with the previous sentiment, but I’d wager 90% of the population would. So in other words, if you want to win an election and this becomes an issue in the election (which it is thanks only to the remarkably maladroit Allen campaign), you’re better off being with Webb’s 1979 argument than against it.

Again, for reasons that I don’t fully understand, Allen has decided to attack Webb from the left on this issue. When Russert pressed Webb on the matter, Webb was subtle and effective. While he apologized for his intemperate tone and wished that he had been more mature when he wrote the currently controversial article 27 years ago, he refused to throw his argument under the bus. He acknowledged room for women in the military, but he did not surrender the common sense ground that the infantry and similar areas should remain a male preserve.

There were also the notable stylistic differences between the two candidates. Allen seemed like a politician through-and through. Webb seemed like he was intellectually and spiritually slumming while exchanging barbs with Allen and dealing with the sometimes insipid questions from Russert (e.g. “Both of you chew tobacco. Is that a good example to set for the young?”).

The NYT has more on the debate.

The Washington Post discusses Allen and the question of his Jewish heritage in Monday's debate. More in the Times Dispatch.

AZ: A new SUSA poll shows Kyl leading Pederson 48% to 43%. If this poll is accurate (we'll need another poll or two to confirm), this race might be competitive. So far, its been a disappointment, but it looks like Pederson is moving in the right direction.

HI: A new poll shows Akaka defeating challenger Case 51% to 38%. The primary is next Tuesday.

RI: Chafee might have won his primary, but he's going to lose the general. Rasmussen has Whitehouse beating Chafee 51% to 43% (+/- 4.5%)

MN: Klobuchar leads Kennedy 56% to 32% in the latest Minnesota Poll. I doubt that Klobuchar really holds such a big lead, but I don't doubt that she has a solid lead, and will win this race.

OH: Rasmussen has Brown defeating DeWine, 47% to 41%. This is Brown's biggest lead in a Rasmussen poll. With Strickland's considerable lead over Blackwell in the Governor's race, it seems like Ohio is going blue this year.

MT: Conrad Burns gets more corrupt every day. From the Billings Gazette:

Sen. Conrad Burns flew on a private plane chartered by Vonage Holdings Corp., just days after he pushed legislation that the company has advocated for more than a year.

Burns accompanied Vonage lobbyist Frank Cavaliere on the company's chartered plane to and from the "13th Annual Burns Classic Golf Weekend" in Bigfork on Saturday. Cavaliere and a Burns spokesman both confirmed the plane trip.

PA: The GOP sponsored Green party candidate is still fighting to get on the ballot. The state supreme court is giving him a final appeal to get on the ballot. From the Post-Gazette:

Mr. Romanelli is challenging a Commonwealth Court ruling that upheld an unusually high 67,000-signature threshold for independent candidates seeking a spot on the ballot.

State law specifies that an independent's nominating petitions must include a signature total equal to 2 percent of the votes collected by the highest vote-getter in the previous statewide election. Election officials, in a decision endorsed by Commonwealth Court, said that means Bob Casey's 2004 election landslide for treasurer is the base for the calculation.

Mr. Romanelli's legal team is arguing that a 2005 judicial retention election, with a much lower turnout, should have been used, resulting in a much lower signature requirement.

The case could be crucial to the Senate election. Lawyers for the Democratic Party are trying to keep Mr. Romanelli off the ballot for fear the Green candidate, who favors abortion rights and an immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, might siphon liberal votes from Mr. Casey. The same analysis led GOP donors, reportedly with the active encouragement of the Santorum campaign, to fund the signature drive for Mr. Romanelli's nominating petitions.

The switch by the union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is the biggest labor boost Mr. Lamont has received since winning the Democratic primary last month.

The support of the union, which represents about 35,000 members, shows that Mr. Lamont has chipped away at enough of Mr. Lieberman’s union support to make it most likely that the state A.F.L.-C.I.O., the umbrella group of state labor organizations, will stay neutral in the Senate general election.
...
“When he was running in the Democratic primary, we felt he had a good labor record and we owed him our endorsement,” Mr. Luciano said Monday. “When Joe switched in the general election, we became increasingly concerned with him moving closer to Bush. We know Ned will stand up to the Bush agenda.”
...
Two unions that had stayed neutral in the primary, the United Auto Workers and the Service Employees International Union, have also endorsed Mr. Lamont in the general election. But several unions have said they will continue to support Mr. Lieberman.

Cardin defeated Mfume. I feel pretty good about out chances of holding onto this seat in November.

A new SUSA poll shows Harold Ford Junior leading Bob Corker 48% to 45%. Essentially a statistical tie at this point, I think this race will be a tossup the whole way.

SUSA also shows Lieberman leading Lamont 51% to 38%. I hope this is an outlier...

In Missouri, McCaskill got herself a ton of great press by buying the last 100 tickets to the St. Louis Rams' home opener game.

To make tomorrow's primary especially exciting, the NRSC has announced that if Laffey, wins the RI primary it will concede the race. From the NYT:

In an extraordinary pre-emptive announcement, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has said it will concede Rhode Island to the Democrats should Stephen Laffey, the mayor of Cranston, defeat Mr. Chafee in the primary. Citing poll data, Republican leaders said they saw no way someone as conservative as Mr. Laffey could win in a state as Democratic as this; as it is, they are increasingly worried about Mr. Chafee’s hopes in a general election.

The Rhode Island primary is Tuesday, and Laffey has really made this a close race. Every poll seems to conflict with the poll before it, and recent polls have shown both Chafee and Laffey holding large leads. I can't make a prediction for the primary, but I'm hoping for a Laffey win, since Whitehouse beats Laffey by double digits in every poll. Of course, a Laffey win might give him enough momentum to make this a competitive race, its impossible to say right now.

"If Ronald Reagan made any speeches about George Allen, I would imagine George Allen would be wanting to use the footage," Webb said in response to a question about the statements. "I would encourage them [Allen's campaign] to try to go find some."

My prediction: I think Lamont is going to win this one. Lieberman is continuously damaging himself more, including horrible ads and campaign with Republicans. This race is a mess, and is incredibly hard to poll, but I think that Joe has angered enough Connecticut voters to lose.

Side-by-side Zogby telephone and interactive polls show nearly identical margins in U.S. Senate race

Two simultaneous polls of likely voters in Virginia, one conducted over the telephone and the other using Zogby’s innovative interactive survey process, showed very similar double–digit leads for incumbent Republican George Allen over Democratic challenger James Webb in the race for U.S. Senate.

MN: Klobuchar leads by 5% in new SUSA poll.

Klobuchar (D): 47%
Kennedy (R): 42%
Fitzgerald (I): 8%
Undecided: 4%

MoE: +/- 4%

TN: Corker holds huge lead in Republican primary.

Corker: 49%
Bryant: 29%
Hilleary: 15%
Harrison: 3%
Undecided: 4%

MoE: 4.2%

MI: Vicious GOP primary increases Stabenow's odds. (From the Detroit News)

While Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow stockpiles $7 million for her re-election bid, two Oakland County Republicans are battling for the right to challenge her in November.

It's a scenario that some analysts say improves Stabenow's chances of holding on to her seat in Congress and should embarrass the GOP: The first-term incumbent hoarding her cash while two would-be opponents pour their resources into the Aug. 8 primary.
...
"They're like two drones fighting for the right to be stung to death by Queen Bee Stabenow," saidBill Ballenger, publisher of the newsletter Inside Michigan Politics, and himself a former GOP office-holder.

Arizona: SUSA's poll of the Senate race shows Kyl defeating Pederson 52% to 40%.

Minnesota: A new poll from the Minneapolis Star Tribune shows Klobuchar defeating Kennedy by a stunning 50% to 31%. The Hill has an interesting article about how the Minnesota GOP is questioning this poll, as they should.

Tennessee: "Bryant supporter in chicken suit run downs Corker supporter" Yes, this is real.

Wisconsin: Robert Lorge, the Republican candidate challenging Senator Kohl, is accused in a lawsuit of molesting a female relative twenty years ago. Link

Montana: From the Hotline Blog:

A Lake Research poll taken 6/20-6/26 for state Senate Pres. Jon Tester (D) shows him in a statistical tie with Sen. Conrad Burns (R), leading him 43%-42%, with 3% for the Libertarian and 12% undecided. That's a pretty good place for a Senate challenger to be only 4 months out from election day, though GOPers might note that Tester has actually held slightly larger leads in previous public polls. The Lake poll has quite a large sample size (1200 LVs, +/-2.8% MoE) and shows Burns with a fav/unfav of 46%/50% compared to Tester's 48%/18%.

Maryland: From the Baltimore Sun:

With the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate less than two months away, Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin and former congressman and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume remain locked in a virtual tie, according to a new Sun poll.

If the primary were held today, the survey finds, each candidate would get about three out of 10 votes.

More than a third of the state's Democrats haven't decided on a candidate to face probable Republican nominee Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele in the general election for the rare open seat - a huge bloc of voters that remains unmoved from a Sun survey conducted eight months ago.

New Jersey: Quinnipiac University has a new poll showing Kean defeating Menendez 40% to 38%. This contrasts with the recent Strategic Vision (R) poll which found Menendez leading by 6 points.

Chafee is viewed favorably by 58% of all voters and by only 46% of the GOP, an extremely low favorable rating from a purported base. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Democrats view Chafee favorably, as do 62% of unaffiliated voters. Whitehouse is viewed favorably by 60% of all voters, 77% of Democrats, and 54% of unaffiliated voters.