With one week left until the 2006 election, time for you pundits to roll out the predictions. Give your election prediction for Republican pickups or losses in the House, Senate, and Governorships.

Senate balance 54 R, 44 D, 2 I
Whitehouse will hardly be worse than Chafee, and Joe will probably get a bit closer to us, though still caucusing with the Dems. Santorum’s got Mo, but I don’t know if it’ll be enough. I won’t be shocked if he pulls it off, though I expect him to come up short. I’m feeling much more optimistic about Maryland and possibly Michigan, and a bit less so about New Jersey.

If the national mood were really so anti-Republican (based almost exclusively on Iraq according to the narrative), Lieberman wouldn’t be walloping Ned Lamont. There’s your bellweather right there. No need to look to the Show Me state to see if the Republicans will hold the Senate. Lieberman’s certain reelection tells you they’ll hold.

To statisically lose 40+% to Steele along with the undecideds puts Cardin at a palpable disadvantage.

As for Santorum, he deserves to lose for throwing the base overboard in order to support Spectre. I have yet to recall anyone making that linkage.

I’ll buy the notion that Menendez is losing the race. He started off with the advantage of incumbency and has steadily eroded his lead. If we had another month, he’d be trailing double-digits.

Ohio is a mess and the GOPs deserve whatever misfortunes is heaped. It will be well worth it if the Ohio GOP, led by Blkackwell, rebuild from scratch starting with a “Contract with Ohio”.

Stabenow is a goner. Her base is Detroit, which is deep in Kwame’s pocket, however, I don’t think they’re getting out to vote. They had the chance to get rid of Kwame last time after all of his thuggerism and wound up keeping him, after a 3 way split that saw him barely get 40% that became barely 50% after the run-off. Oakland Co on the other hand will get out the vote for Bouchard. The governorship is probably still in the Canuck’s grasp, but then again, the UP and Eastern Counties may give her the boot. Another thot is that if Stabenow loses by double-digits, say 15%, Conyers and even Levin will start sweating.

How do you conduct a poll in montana, with smoke signals?

CT- Lieberman by 15%
VA – Allen by 2%
NJ – Kean by 1%
MO- Talent by 1%
MD – Steele by 3.5%
AZ – Kyle by 7%
MI – Bouchard by 2%
MT – Tester by 1%
OH – Brown by 6%
PA – Casey by 2%
RI – Chafee by 2%
TN – Corker by 2%

I’ll expect a hat tip on Nov. 8.

Kean and chafee…I’m not saying kean is the next chafee, but he might even exceed him. The things I accept for caucus vote. I keep hearing about a fiscal conservative with northeastern liberal streak being a viable candidate, like say…rudy.

but chafee and kean?

Whitehouse is not well-liked and has a tremendous capacity for alienating people.