Agreed with User#1153.

2014 looks pretty bad for Democrats. You guys took everything in 2008. I suppose you could pick up Maine if Collins retires... Meanwhile you have Begich, Landrieu, Rockefeller, Hagan, Johnson, Baucus, maybe a Harkin retirement...

If the GOP is struggling in ND, I don't see it happening this year.

2014 and 2016 will be interesting for similar reasons. Even if the political climate isn't necessarily dreadful for the party in power, it would still be a tall order to hang on to many of the seats up in those years. The seats left on the other side would be too safe and too few in number to make up for lost ground elsewhere. 2016 could be one of those years where a Republican wins the White House while various Republican Senators elected in 2010 are weeded out, much like in 2000 with Bush and the class of 1994.

If the GOP is struggling in ND, I don't see it happening this year. Well, conversely if the Democrats are struggling in Massachusetts...

2016 could be one of those years where a Republican wins the White House while various Republican Senators elected in 2010 are weeded out, much like in 2000 with Bush and the class of 1994. Kirk is gone certainly, Johnson and Toomey are in blue states, but not ridiculously blue states. Everybody else is from a state Bush won. And Republicans still have at least a few targets in Nevada and Colorado.

2012 may also ride on who Angus King caucuses with. He better not morph into Joe Lieberman 2.0

If Romney wins this year I wouldn't necessarily assume 2014 will be a smashingly successful cycle for the GOP, regardless of what that class looks like right now. If Obama wins, 2014 will be an excellent year for the GOP.

Kirk is gone certainly, Johnson and Toomey are in blue states, but not ridiculously blue states. Everybody else is from a state Bush won. And Republicans still have at least a few targets in Nevada and Colorado. Idle speculation and so forth, but 16 years is a long enough span of time to assume that certain Bush states aren't coming back. The Pacific Northwest was competitive as recently as 2000 and nobody thinks Romney is winning there. Conversely, some states Democrats are strong in now could move solidly within the GOP column in a realigning election, much like Appalachia (again, 2000).

If Obama wins, 2014 will be an excellent year for the GOP. A big part too will depend on the GOP. They would already have the Senate majority if they would stop nominating people like Angle, O'Donnell, and Buck. And this cycle Indiana is appearing to be somewhat competitive when it should already be a double-digit blowout.

So, I was thinking about this today. Are there currently any senators-in-waiting on the scale of pre-2010 Blumenthal? Not people you'd like to run for Senate, but people who are heavily expected to run and win once there is a retirement or something. Maybe even someone who's been waiting a while. Chip Pickering of Mississippi was one for a while, but of course that never panned out.

Loretta Sanchez comes to mind.

The rumors I heard in my circles is that since Frank Pallone wasn't appointed to a seat in 2006, he's waiting for Lautenberg to go (hopefully by retiring after an election).

Chris Van Hollen? Kristi Noem? (Although to some degree all At Large House members are... except Don Young) Shelley Moore Capito has been talked about for years, but I certainly don't think she'd just walk into the seat.

Van Hollen definitely-Noem is only in her first term-she isn't there yet.

I don't understand why Capito didn't just run in 2010.

I think she's a political wimp. She almost certainly would have won in 2010, but didn't want to chance a loss. I don't see her ever running now.

Chris Van Hollen will make an excellent Senator one day. Hopefully Jared Polis and Tim Ryan will make it to the upper chamber as well.

Noem's status depends in part on Tim Johnson's health, but any SD Rep. should be considered to be in waiting. Should Stephanie Herseth have run against Thune in 2010? It seemed like a no-brainer not to go in a Republican year like 2010, but since she lost anyway, do you think she should have tried for it? Do you think she still could?

Herseth would have been soundly defeated, and by a much larger margin than she lost her House seat by.

I need a list of pro-choice current GOP Senators for a project for work. Where can I find one?

Snowe, Collins, Brown and Hutchison. Those are the only ones I can think of.

Murkowski?

She GOP or Indy?

thought Indy but saw she was listed as GOP on senate.gov while Joe and Bernie are listed as Indy