Senate News & Analysis

2012 Senate Landscape Is Far From Finalized

by Nathan L. Gonzales January 10, 2011 · 8:40 AM EST

Senate race ratings make good headlines and cable news fodder, but two years out from an election, they can be poor predictors of what’s to come.

Looking back over the past decade, plenty of seats deemed safe in the off-year could be found later in the “lost” column…

Nation’s Challenges Won’t Be Any Easier in 2011

by Stuart Rothenberg December 20, 2010 · 8:00 AM EST

For Democrats, 2010 is ending on a low note.

The party’s circular firing squad over the tax cut deal didn’t help the party’s image, the economy doesn’t yet show signs of a strong enough rebound to bring down unemployment and potential foreign policy problems continue to loom just…

Have Democrats Forgotten the Election Already?

by Stuart Rothenberg December 15, 2010 · 9:48 AM EST

Many House Democrats apparently figure that November’s elections had nothing to do with them, their agenda or their leadership.

Sure, their party lost 63 House seats, with voters more than wiping out the Democratic gains from 2006 and 2008 and rejecting their argument that the election was a…

DLC’s 100 Democrats List Predicted Governors, Stars

by Nathan L. Gonzales December 14, 2010 · 2:34 PM EST

In the summer of 2000, Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley appeared on the cover of the Democratic Leadership Council’s magazine. A decade later, O’Malley was re-elected to a second term as governor of Maryland and is the new chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.

O’Malley was one of the…

Rothenberg’s End of the Year Awards for 2010

by Stuart Rothenberg December 10, 2010 · 11:02 AM EST

Every year, I look back and nominate a number of politicians, campaigns and politically related entities as the “best,” “worst” or even “weirdest” of the cycle. I’m doing it again this year, because — let’s be honest — it’s a way of combining political analysis with personal animosity.

Feingold Couldn’t Re-Create ’92 Magic

by Nathan L. Gonzales December 8, 2010 · 10:25 AM EST

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Russ Feingold’s reputation as a maverick and clever campaign ads were supposed to insulate him from the national wave that swept out dozens of his Democratic colleagues.

But after 18 years in office, the shine had worn off the Wisconsin…

Well, That was Quite an Election, Wasn’t It?

by Stuart Rothenberg December 3, 2010 · 4:01 PM EST

I know, everything has been said about the 2010 midterm elections but not everyone has said it. Don’t worry. I’ll be brief.

The exit polls showed movement toward the GOP by most demographic groups. Independent voters went strongly Republican (by 18 percentage points), thereby reversing their 2008 and…

Ohio Blowout Raises Red Flag for Democrats

by Stuart Rothenberg November 23, 2010 · 10:06 AM EST

A little more than a year ago, I wrote a column in this space (Will the Buckeye State Swing Back to the GOP in 2010?, Oct. 22, 2009) that noted Ohio’s bellwether reputation and suggested the state could see a major effort by a rejuvenated Republican Party to…

Most Outrageous, Absurd Candidates of 2010

by Stuart Rothenberg November 19, 2010 · 3:43 PM EST

Every election cycle, a few candidates and campaigns stand out as remarkable for their absurdity, their outrageousness, their futility or their sheer gall. They need to be recognized.

No, I’m not talking about a campaign that proves to be remarkable for its weak fundraising (such as Ohio Democratic…

Democrats Lost the Faith of Religious Voters

by Nathan L. Gonzales November 18, 2010 · 10:06 AM EST

Ever since Barack Obama uttered the words “awesome God” in his 2004 convention speech, Democrats embarked on a multiyear journey to convince voters of faith. But any inroads Democrats made with religious voters over the past four years were essentially washed away in this year’s midterm elections.

Voters…