The Daily Background
| Senate update
by Arlen Parsa
With Ted “series of tubes” Stevens loss in Alaska, Democrats will have at least 58 seats in the Senate come January.
Up in Minnesota, the state-required recount process is continuing, with over 80% of the votes left to be counted or recounted, and already Norm Coleman’s margin of lead is shrinking. The margin is now down to 172 (it had been 215), and that’s only after a conservative area of the state was recounted, so Al Franken’s campaign is hopeful.
If Franken is declared the ultimate winner, that would bring Democrats hold of seats to 59, one short of having a fillibuster-proof majority, if one counts Joe Lieberman as a Democrat.
The only other state besides MN which does not yet have an official declared winner is Georgia, where a state-required run-off election is being held after neither the Democrat Jim Martin, nor the Republican incumbent, Saxby Chambliss, got 50% of the vote. Chambliss did however lead Martin in the November 4th election by a few percentage points, so Martin faces an uphill battle, which will be decided on December 2nd when the runoff is held.
