Political Wire asked Chuck Todd, Editor of The Hotline, which races he thought would serve as "bellwethers" for Election Night.
It depends on your definition of "bellwether."
A bellwether for a Democratic wave is KY-3, a non-targeted race by Democrats that's close. If Democrats win here, they are winning 35+ seats.
A bellwether for Republicans keeping the House is FL-22, a heavy Democratic area in a GOP-leaning state.
A bellwether for estimating Republican base turnout is OH-1. Democrats probably can't win unless GOP base turnout dips.
There are two ways to look at the bellwethers for the Senate: In Missouri and Virginia, how blue do the blue areas of the two states get? Or use Montana and Rhode Island; the strongest of the embattled GOP incumbents are Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) and Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI): if the Republicans keep one, they keep the Senate.
October 30, 2006
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