It will be very interesting the order we see the races come in on election night. It’s fun that we predict through our “Cattle Calls” which seats we think are going to flip from the most likely to the far-reaching, but even more so, we will know rather quickly on election night if Democrats will have a shot at the magical-filibuster-proof majority (for the last time, 60 seats is NOT a veto-proof majority).
EAST: As the east coast polls close we’ll see Maine, New Hampshire, Virginia, and North Carolina first at varying times given the different poll closing times, getting 2 to 4 seats and a big indication of if it’s going to be a 5-6 seat pick-up or 8-9.
CENTRAL: Then we get some big-time news with Minnesota and Mississippi-B (even Louisiana to boot). Right there, we’ll have a lot of the current “Lean GOP” races called (if they can be) in Maine, North Carolina, Minnesota, and Mississippi-B.
As we complete the Central area, Democrats will know if their dream of a 60-seat filibuster majority is viable or if they are in for a good night with a 6 seat pick-up. Of course by this point, we Democrats hope that we can take whatever races we have won thus far and add +4 more onto them.
MOUNTAIN WEST: We move into the next category which should hopefully be races that are called as soon as the polls are closed in New Mexico and Colorado. Let’s hope there is no uncertainty when these polls close.
PACIFIC: Finally we have Oregon, followed by Alaska. Neither of these of course are certain, and if things aren’t going out way, we could end up with the “floor” of seats at DEM+4, or we could be riding a Democratic wave all the way to DEM+10 (and my dream of having 60 without Lieberman being needed for cloture).
I am hopeful that by the time the polls close in my home state of Florida (panhandle included), we’ll be off to an excellent start with at least 3 seats on the East coast which will make my nerves a little bit less stressed as we move across the nation, both for the presidential election (which should be a no brainer) and our fate in the Senate.