This is a fascinating race, and it will be extremely instructive no matter which way it goes.
I’ve never seen a Senate race that polled as steadily as this one has for so long. Since way back before the Republican primary, Boxer has consistently run 2-3 points ahead of all Republican challengers, but not more than that against any of them. She flatlines at 47% or so, never reaching 50%. (She did get above 50% in the bogus Daily Kos/R2000 poll, which is now defunct and in litigation.)
If she hangs on it will be by pure partisan inertia – the same thing that has elected and reelected people like Patty Murray, and filled up the senior ranks of the Senate with a lot of mediocrities.
Boxer and Murray are currently 27 and 30 on the Senate seniority list, and if they survive they will jump several slots. Byrd, Kennedy, Dodd, Specter, and Dorgan are already gone; Reid and Feingold are probably gone.
State population counts towards seniority, so if Boxer survives this round, nothing but a few old men stand between her and permanent elder statesman status, at which point you apparently can’t get thrown out no matter how big of a bum you are.
BTW, if Reid does go down, Democrats can look forward to having Barbara Mikulski as Senate Majority leader. She’s almost the only choice, since all the other senior Democrats have important chairmanships they won’t give up, and Joe Lieberman got sent down to the minors for some reason.
She’s well to the left of Reid, and even Boxer, and has zero history of working with Republicans. This should come as good news to everybody, for different reasons.
I couldn’t. There is an intrinsic difficulty for Spanish speaking people to call a woman _senator_. It should be _senatrix_.
This is a fascinating race, and it will be extremely instructive no matter which way it goes.
I’ve never seen a Senate race that polled as steadily as this one has for so long. Since way back before the Republican primary, Boxer has consistently run 2-3 points ahead of all Republican challengers, but not more than that against any of them. She flatlines at 47% or so, never reaching 50%. (She did get above 50% in the bogus Daily Kos/R2000 poll, which is now defunct and in litigation.)
If she hangs on it will be by pure partisan inertia – the same thing that has elected and reelected people like Patty Murray, and filled up the senior ranks of the Senate with a lot of mediocrities.
Boxer and Murray are currently 27 and 30 on the Senate seniority list, and if they survive they will jump several slots. Byrd, Kennedy, Dodd, Specter, and Dorgan are already gone; Reid and Feingold are probably gone.
State population counts towards seniority, so if Boxer survives this round, nothing but a few old men stand between her and permanent elder statesman status, at which point you apparently can’t get thrown out no matter how big of a bum you are.
BTW, if Reid does go down, Democrats can look forward to having Barbara Mikulski as Senate Majority leader. She’s almost the only choice, since all the other senior Democrats have important chairmanships they won’t give up, and Joe Lieberman got sent down to the minors for some reason.
She’s well to the left of Reid, and even Boxer, and has zero history of working with Republicans. This should come as good news to everybody, for different reasons.
So you’re voting Republican?