An encouraging and reasonably well-researched article by Pema Levy in Newsweek last week, about Dem advances in GOP Southern strongholds. Up until recently I've been glum or lukewarm (at best) about the Senate given such an unfavorable map, as well as the prospects of ousting Governor Voldemort in Florida. And this really is a do-or-die election for the Senate-- if the Republicans gain a Senate majority and block all of Obama's appointments (even more than they've already been doing), then the prospects are about nil for accomplishing anything through the finish of his term.
But I've been getting more sanguine given the sheer political skill of Pryor and Begich, Hagan's war chest and organization, and especially articles like this. Howard Dean and Pres. Obama himself helped to gear up efforts toward such well-tailored registration and GOTV drives, and it looks like they're finally bearing some fruit in Southern states (including, possibly soon, even in Texas). Not sure if it'll be enough to tip the scales this November (especially with all the voter suppression the GOP's managed to rig up in many of those states), but it certainly puts us in the running where we wouldn't have been before. And Stacey Abrams-- wow, she really seems to be one of the great unsung heroines for progressive action in the whole region, fantastic how much she's already accomplished.
On an interesting side note-- I noticed that Levy also made mention of South Carolina as a potential pick-up for Democrats with better registration and GOTV efforts, if anything requiring a good deal less than many other Southern states (we almost got a Democratic governor there). And Lindsey Graham is looking surprisingly vulnerable there. He had an awful primary performance-- only around 57% of the vote against a gaggle of unknown, underfunded, inexperienced primary opponents who spent their limited primary funds squabbling with each other (since they couldn't line up behind any particular opponent), which AFAIK was worse than almost any other GOP Senate primary result aside from Cochran's collapse in Mississippi. Now adding to Graham's woes is that there's apparently a very conservative libertarian, Thomas Ravenel, who's successfully gathered well above the minimum number of signatures for an independent candidacy for the South Carolina Senate. He's apparently a bonkers reality TV show star with a bizarre personal history to match. But the upshot it that he'll be drawing votes away from Graham when Graham is already unpopular.
It would be great to snatch that Senate seat out of Lindsey Graham's hands if for no other reason than to shut up his bombastic arrogance on the Sunday talk shows. Even compared to the other gang of blowhards in the Republican Senate stable, Graham has always struck me as one of the more irritating and repulsive given all his naked warmongering and endless shilling about Benghazi. And it's not just Dems who despise Graham. I have some good Republican friends and family members (become well versed in the art of delicate conversation at family get-togethers), and while they seem able to hold their nose and support other non-Tea Party Republicans, practically all of them seem to hate Lindsey Graham with a passion. Not my business to know why, what matters is that for their own reasons, Democrats, Republicans and Independents all seem to detest Lindsey Graham.
South Carolina really seems like a perfect Senate pick-up opportunity for the Dems, and given the demographics of South Carolina, seems like it'd be doable with a halfway credible Dem candidate and decent enough ground game. Thing is I haven't heard a thing about Dems' efforts in South Carolina (or much out of the state Democratic Party there at all), which would be a really miserable lost opportunity given Graham's unpopularity, vulnerability and Ravenel now running to Graham/s right. (More like a spectacular blunder of organization if we don't have a strong challenge to Graham in that Senate race-- given the small margin for error to hold the Senate, the national and state Dems need to be pouncing on every opportunity.) Does anyone with more local familiarity have a better read on what's going on in the Palmetto state?
(apologies in advance if I don't get around to making suggested edits or updates, have a rough and very long day at work coming up)