This is a damn impressive map for a year when Republicans were to make serious gains

http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2012/Senate/Maps/Oct14-s.html

This is the current political makeup of the US Senate Races for 2012. This was not to be a good year for dems in the senate mainly because there were so many retired democrats in states that tend to be moderate to republican leaning. Retiring democratic senators including Kohl in Wisconsin, Bingaman in Arizona, Webb in Virginia, Conrad in ND, Akaka in HI, Nelson of Nebraska, Lieberman in CT (Dem turned Independent who caucus'd with the Dems). That's seven retiring Democratic senators and along with that Tester in Montana, McCaskill in MO and Brown in Oh all seemed very vulnerable.

Look at that map and what do you see - There are 33 seats up for re-election this cycle with 23 of them owned (or once owned) by democrats with the other 10 owned by republicans.

You know what I see on that map today - Only FIVE states are solid red color. Utah, Texas, Nebraska, Wyoming and Mississippi. That is just freaking UNHEARD of when Democrats have to defend over twice as many seats as the republicans. Four of those states were safe Republican seats with Nebraska the only GOP pickup.

Of the 23 Democratic Seats up for election - right now 13 are safe, 5 are pretty much safe and one will probably be lost to the republicans leaving us a battle in just 4 states - VA, ND, MT and WI. As for the Republican - Only 4 of their 10 seats are safe, TN is competitive but an unsupported crazy is running on the Dem ticket and that leaves FIVE states that are very competitive.

Right now Massachusetts and Maine look to flip party although to be fair Maine is an Independent former democrat running. The other 3 states have been very competitive - Indiana, Arizona and Nevada. In fact today Indiana and Arizona have been polling blue.

I can only imagine that if we are doing this well with the senate then we'll have some good news with House & Governor races as well