Democrats see a door opening.

This race is more than uphill. At this point, for a team to come in and try to right the ship is going to be very tough. It’s going to be difficult as long as...

He’ll never have a better environment.

It is true, they don’t face the same threat. All industries go through cycles.

There will be cover for Byrd in that group. I think there’s a lot more tolerance of Byrd’s questions about the war than there was.

She wants to build a database of donors she could use in a presidential run, although I’m sure her campaign will deny that.

They’re angry at him for putting her there.

The trend in Virginia has merit. It says more if Kilgore wins because it means Bush wasn’t the albatross everyone predicted.

I think that the (Democratic) party and their allies understand he has not had to run a campaign in a long time.

I see Democrats picking up a couple of states. I think there is a slim chance they can pick up the Senate.

The Democrats are starting to draw blood and cause some pain for the Republicans. They are exerting their will.

I’m sure this is making a lot of Democrats very happy.

I don’t see evidence that voters are engaged in this. Barely half of voters had an opinion. For anything Democrats might gain, there’s also the downside of looking obstructionist and postponing the inevitable.

Until you get a viable opponent, … I consider it a third-tier race.

I see a storm coming, it’s forming. But since it won’t hit land for seven months, it’s hard to know what it’s actually going to look like.

It could end some careers.

Democrats have no incentive to come to the table, really. Not getting anything done is a victory for them, to be able to talk about the do-nothing Senate.

God help anybody who has to debate with Byrd.

The trend in Virginia has merit, … It says more if Kilgore wins because it means Bush wasn’t the albatross everyone predicted.

Even if it doesn’t result in a sea of voters going to the polls to take their anger out on the White House, what it may do is keep Republicans at home. That’s a problem...

Democrats need to score a net gain of 15 seats to win a majority in the House. Between Republicans retiring in several marginal districts and some Republican incumbents in the Northeast looking increasingly vulnerable, this...

Burns has mounted a pretty strong defense of himself, but according to a poll released last week, voters don’t seem to be buying it.

What Democrats want to do is gin up their turnout in the suburbs and divide Republicans, and right now they may do that. This is the first real wedge issue Democrats have had with Republicans.

It may appear that the Democrats have the upper hand, but this is a multiple-round bout.

This is one of those rare instances … where it would have been harder for Democrats to win an open seat than it would have been to beat an embattled incumbent.

I’m not terribly swayed by polls at this point.

It’s as early as it’s ever been. The battle for the hearts of this group is wide open … They make up a third or more of the Republican primary vote.

This is the marquee race in 2006. We hear all kinds of stories of people who are telling donors, ‘Hey, he’s not with you on all the issues, but he’s running against Rick Santorum.

It is such a bad cycle for Republicans.

Lott’s re-election is something close to a sure thing, but if he had vacated his seat, the contest to replace him would have been very competitive, giving Democrats a boost in their efforts to pick...

It’s an election year, so why are Republicans bringing up an issue that they are so divided on? It’s mystifying to me.

Republicans have probably recruited their best Senate candidate in years. The problem is he has to run in [overwhelmingly Democratic] New Jersey.

For the first time in a long time there’s no natural front runner for the Republicans. This is anybody’s game.

The Democrats have to sweep the competitive Republican races to take power, while holding all of their own. That’s tough.

I see the environment pulling down Republicans across the board. The question is, does it pull them down or does it pull them under?

Her reaction to the hurricane has really doomed her political future. All voters have to do is look next door to Mississippi and see how differently Gov. Haley Barbour handled things.

The joy of being a battleground state is that you get presidential hopefuls in 2006.

The environment is not on his side.

The bottom line is, Democrats will pick up seats. The question is how many.

The joy of being in congressional leadership and never having a competitive race is it lets you keep stuffing money in the bank.

Collateral damage could be somebody like Mike DeWine. He is from Ohio and he is a Republican and ethics is a big deal there.

Considering they didn’t see it coming, it probably threw them off stride quite a bit. This was a shot out of the blue.

A lot of the problem here is there is no enemy, no common thing to rally around. You can’t declare war on the weather.

Does it win them new voters _ probably not, … but it does solidify their bases.

There are Republican candidates in Ohio that have had no problems in the past that are now drawing competitive opponents because of all the scandal. It doesn’t help the national party, which is trying to...

It’ll be a competitive race.

There are some in the national Democratic leadership who think perhaps choice has become too much of a litmus test in the party, and it hurts them.

The fact is that Republicans have much more exposure to potential losses than do the Democrats in the Senate races. That President Bush’s job approval ratings are the lowest of his presidency, even in states...

Votes against him probably only look political. There’s not enough distance between Democrats and charges of obstructionism on judicial nominees that should make them comfortable. It wouldn’t take a whole lot for Republicans to dredge...

They all talked about it. It was a standard part of their pitch.