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Top Republican: Palin boosts GOP Senate chances
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS
Associated Press
September 18, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) -- John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate has boosted Republican chances of holding key Senate seats and denying Democrats a filibuster-proof majority next year, the GOP's Senate campaign chief said Wednesday.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee still lags far behind its Democratic rival financially, however, and public polls show GOP candidates trailing in competitive contests and the party's incumbents tied in several others.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., the campaign arm's chairman, said adding the Alaska governor to the ticket "totally changed things," giving his party a chance at reducing its losses in the November election to one or two seats. Democrats hold a razor-thin 51-49 Senate majority. That's a more cheerful assessment than a month ago, when Ensign said Republicans would be lucky if they lost only two seats, and far better than earlier this year, when he said it would be a good night for the GOP if they could hold their losses to four seats.
It's also a long-shot. Democrats are widely expected to win the Virginia seat now held by retiring GOP Sen. John Warner and likely capture another one in New Mexico, where veteran Sen. Pete Domenici is also stepping down.
Public polling shows incumbent Republican Sen. John Sununu trailing in New Hampshire and the GOP behind in Colorado, where Republican Sen. Wayne Allard is retiring. Republican Sens. Ted Stevens in Alaska, Norm Coleman in Minnesota, Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina and Gordon Smith in Oregon also are in danger.
Republicans are fighting to hold onto a Mississippi seat in a special election to succeed retired Sen. Trent Lott.
Just one Democratic senator, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, faces a challenge.
Ensign pointed to polls conducted after the two parties' conventions showing that Republicans were closing what had been a double-digit gap in favor of Democrats when voters were asked who they would rather see control Congress. The GOP is still behind, however. An AP-GfK poll taken Sept. 5-10 showed Democrats ahead on that question, 46 percent to 41 percent.
Palin "excited our folks about getting out to vote," Ensign said. She "had a lot of people take a second look at the Republican Party and the Republican message. ... It's going to help races at the bottom of the ticket."
He said Republicans expect Palin to campaign with GOP Senate candidates and hope she will help them raise money as well. The McCain camp has made no commitments that she will.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has a clear edge in fundraising, $43 million to spend at the end of August compared to $25 million for the Republicans.
Democrats said there's no evidence of a Palin boost in targeted races, and noted that since she was chosen, Republicans abandoned a planned TV ad campaign in New Mexico, where their chances of a win look slight.
"Their incumbents are in a worse position now than they've been all year," said Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the DSCC.
As for Democrats' hopes of commanding a supermajority that would let them bypass parliamentary hurdles without Republicans' help, Miller said: "We've always said that it would be very difficult to get to 60, and that's still the case."
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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