Tactics - The Senate

One thing I think the Democratic Party should focus on like a laser is consolidating its regional strength. Consider the following:

Senate Control, By State and Party

Red indicates both Senate seats are held by Republicans, Blue indicates both are held by Democrats, and green indicates a split delegation.

There are 9 Republican Senators hailing from "the Blue States." There are 16 Democratic Senators coming from "the Red States."

In the next class of Senators up for re-election, 18 are Democrats and 15 are Republicans.

I hate to say it, but those moderate New England liberal Republicans need to be brought down. Democrats need to make New England Republicanism as rare as Southern Democrats have become. There's not enough "blue states" to regain control of the Senate through regional dominance alone. But without regional dominance, we're driving without insurance. And Rick Santorum? He needs to be brought down. If we can't take that bigot out of Pennsylvania's Senate seat in 2006, we'll deserve what we get.

I'll spend more time over the next year looking at individual Senators and try to figure out who's weak and who's strong. My instinct suggests we should go after Bill Frist with a vengeance in 2006, just as they've done to Daschle (hey, Al Gore! Got any plans?). If not to win, at least to take him down a notch and to keep them fighting for home turf... But to do so, would require a concerted effort to "soften him up" by pinning as much credit for Republican "misbehavior" as possible. I'd like to think Trent Lott can be drawn into a nasty campaign that, like Alan Keyes in Illinois would provide enough drama to embarrass Republicans throughout the nation. A good competition against Lott in 2006 seems like it could do a lot of good for Democratic candidates in liberal states.

Knowing nothing about the incumbents and their reputations at home, I'd suspect that Virginia, Missouri, Nevada, and Ohio offer some shots. If John Kyl is who I think he is, he'd be a hard candidate to beat in Arizona without developing an authentic libertarian plank for the Democratic Platform (something I strongly believe we should, and will clarify later).

As for the Democrats, I suspect they'll face stiff competition in 2006 in Nebraska, Florida, Wisconsin, Minnesota, West Virgina, New Mexico, and North Dakota.