Retirements Create Historically Big ‘Open Seat’ Gap for Senate Republicans - CQPolitics

[WillyT]

Retirements Create Historically Big ‘Open Seat’ Gap for Senate Republicans

A historic disparity in the partisan distribution of retiring senators is creating headaches for Republican strategists, who already faced an uphill battle to regain control of the chamber.

Five of the 22 GOP senators whose seats are up for election next year have announced they will not seek re-election. By contrast, all 12 of the Democrats whose seats are in play next year are running for new terms.

If there are no more Senate retirements — and any additional incumbent withdrawals at this point would be a surprise — the partisan distribution of “open” Senate seats would be the most lopsided in half a century, according to a comprehensive CQPolitics.com analysis of elections over that period.

The last time either party had five more open Senate seats to defend than the other was 1958, a year in which Democrats won 13 seats that had been held by Republicans — including three open seats.

The 1958 campaign was also atypical for the large number of defeated incumbents. In typical election years, the vast majority of incumbents are re-elected, manifesting the advantages they have built with name recognition, superior campaign fundraising and records of delivering for their constituent

But when an incumbent steps aside, the nominee of his or her party doesn’t have those advantages. Thus, open seats, at least in politically competitive states and districts, can become much more vulnerable to takeover by the opposition party. That’s the problem Republicans face in 2008 as they try to reverse the 2006 result, when Democrats gained control of the Senate.

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More: http://www.cqpolitics.com/2007/10/retirements_create_historicall.html

Any other rePuke Senators not willing to be relegated to minority status for the next several years???

:shrug:

[ck4829]

1. IF we play our cards right, 2008 could be the perfect storm election-wise.

[Bitwit1234]

2. Wonder why they are all retiring.

But just because a republican is retiring, doesn't mean a democrat might get the seat. I see where one guy (republican) had been elected for 19 terms and that seems to me to be a republican stronghold.