Democrat wins bombastic Conn. Senate race

The Senate

Democrat Chris Murphy has won Connecticut's bombastic Senate race, defeating Republican and former WWE president Linda McMahon. Combined with her previous bid in 2010, McMahon has dropped $100 million of her own personal fortune to pursue a Senate seat.

Fox News has called Pennsylvania's race for Democrat Bob Kerrey over Republican Tom Smith.

Also, CNN is projecting Democrat Joe Donnelly to defeat Robert Mourdock in Indiana, while in Massachusetts, the rising Democratic star Elizabeth Warren appears to be ahead of incumbent Sen. Scott Brown.

Elsewhere, it's been a good night for Independents.? In Vermont, independent junior Senator Bernie Sanders has won re-election, while in Maine, former Governor Angus King has won the Senate seat.

Four other Democrats have also won re-election to the Senate: Bill Nelson in Florida, Sheldon Whitehouse in Rhode Island, Ben Cardin in Maryland and Tom Carper in Delaware. Meanwhile, in Tennessee, Republican Sen. Bob Corker held onto his seat.

The Senate races that remain toss-ups are in Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Republicans need a major upset to take over the Senate, winning all the seats where they are favored, four of the toss-ups and, if President Obama wins reelection and prevents Paul Ryan from becoming President of the Senate, also one formerly Democratic seat.

Certain contests remain intensely close, including those in North Dakota, Wisconsin and Montana, where polls show only 1 percentage point--or an even narrower margin--between the candidates.

Virginia's race between former Gov. Tom Kaine and former Sen. George Allen is widely believed to follow the results of the presidential race: Whether the state swings toward Obama or Romney will likely decide whether Kaine or Allen is the state's next senator.

The House

CNN has projected that the House of Representatives will remain in Republican control.

In the House, with 435 districts, a few contests stand out: in Minnesota's 11th district, the former Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is fighting an unexpectedly tough race against the Democratic challenger, Jim Graves.

In Utah's 4th district, Mia Love may become the first black, female Republican to serve in the House, if she wins the race against one of the last Blue Dog Democrats, Jim Matheson.

In Florida, the abusive race between Tea Party darling Allen West and Democrat Patrick Murphy remains a tossup in the 18th district.

Republican Bobby Schilling, a freshman congressman from the Tea Party movement, hopes to preserve his seat in Illinois' 17th district, against Democrat Cheri Bustos.

And California's 10th district sees a tight race between "Astro Jose" Jose Hernandez, former astronaut, and Jeff Denham, a Republican freshman.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/2012-house-senate-results-231006390--election.html

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