Six Key Races the GOP and Dems are Watching Tuesday
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Election 2014: Will Republicans wrestle control of the Senate from the Obama Democrats for the first time in eight years? Will embattled GOP governors hold on in states like Florida, Kansas, Michigan and Wisconsin?
Can House Speaker John Boehner and the Republicans expand their House majority? Or will Democrats hold their base — blacks, Hispanics, women, millennials — in big enough numbers to hold off a Republican midterm tide?
These are the political mysteries that will be solved Tuesday. The polls are tight in scores of high-profile races around the country. Here are six we think poll watchers should pay special attention to:
• New Hampshire senator: If Republican Scott Brown knocks off incumbent Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, in one of the first races that will be reported, expect a very long night for the Dems.
• Kansas governor: GOP incumbent Sam Brownback is under assault from the left for his supply-side, tax-cutting agenda. If Democrat Paul Davis wins, Democrats will crow that voters have rejected tax-cutting.
• North Carolina senator: This mud-slinging race between Democratic incumbent Kay Hagen and GOP challenger Thom Tillis has seen record spending by both parties. Democrats badly need a win to remain a viable political force in the South. Republicans say this race may deliver a crucial knockout punch to the Dems and hand Mitch McConnell the Senate gavel.
• Wisconsin governor: Can embattled Scott Walker hold off a massive national union campaign in favor of Mary Burke to oust him in Madison? Walker turned around the state's finances, but infuriated teacher unions and labor bosses with his reforms. If he wins, he could emerge as a major presidential candidate.
• Kentucky senator: Democrats badly want to defeat the man who's been a thorn in Barack Obama's side and aspires to be the next Senate majority leader: Mitch McConnell. The four-term Republican is blamed by some conservatives for not being tough enough in battling Obama's taxing and spending, and blamed by Democrats for being an agent of gridlock.
If he loses to Alison Lundergan Grimes, it will shake up the Senate GOP and may doom Republican chances of taking control of the upper chamber. The $80 million spent in small state Kentucky shows the stakes.
• Florida governor: This may be the biggest prize up for grabs this year. Incumbent Republican Rick Scott has turned around the state's finances, but the left accuses him of policies that have defunded the schools and hurt the poor and minorities.
His opponent, Charlie Crist — a political cross-dresser who was a Republican governor, an independent for the Senate and now a candidate for governor again, this time as a Democrat — is widely seen as a political opportunist. Both parties need to control the governor's mansion in Florida for the 2016 presidential race.
The outcome of these and other nail-biters around the country will tell us just how angry voters are at this president and his policies, including ObamaCare.
President Obama several weeks ago told Americans that voters can't vote for him, but they can vote on his policies. That's just what elections are for.