I'm probably not alone in wanting to help take back the Senate and repeal Obamacare. And I'm probably not alone in not knowing which Senate races to invest my limited time and money in.
So I'm wondering if together we could crowdsource a list of the most important races where our donations of time or money might make the difference between living with this monstrosity and rolling it back.
There are 33 Senate seats up for election this year (see list below): 21 currently held by Democrats, 11 by Republicans and 2 by Independents who lean center/left and hard/left respectively. That leaves 30 Democrats and 37 Republicans in place for the next 2-4 years.
It takes 51 Senators to repeal a tax bill and 67 to repeal other legislation. Let's assume that the SCOTUS decision means the Dems agree to treat Obamacare as a tax. Let's also assume that we might not be able to get any Dem votes for repeal. (In practice, the former may be overly optimistic and the latter overly pessimistic.)
At a minimum, then, conservatives who wish to repeal Obamacare most likely must defeat 4 Democrats, plus defeat additional Democrats in the event that one or more Republican seats are lost.
So, Rantburgers, taking into account those who are not running for re-election or who were defeated in their primaries,
a) Which Republican seats in the Senate are in danger of being lost this year?
b) Which Democrat and Independent seats are most vulnerable to being captured by the Republican candidate?
c) Where should we be focusing our money, volunteer efforts and outreach to influence friends and family?
Here are the current Senators whose seats are competed this year:
Republicans: Kyl-AZ (retiring), Lugar-IN (lost primary), Brown-MA, Snowe-ME (retiring), Wicker-MS, Heller-NV, Corker-TN, Cornyn-TX, Hutchison-TX (retiring), Hatch-UT, Barrasso-WY
Independents: Sanders-VT, Lieberman-CT (retiring)
Democrats: Feinstein-CA, Carper-DE, Nelson-FL, Akaka-HI (retiring), Cardin-MD, Stabenow-MI, Klobuchar-MN, McCaskill-MO, Tester-MT, Conrad-ND (retiring), Nelson-NE (retiring), Menendez-NJ, Bingaman-NM (retiring), Gillibrand-NY, Brown-OH, Casey-PA, Whitehouse-RI, Webb-VA (retiring:Kaine-D vs. Allen-R), Cantwell-WA, Kohl-WI (retiring), Manchin-WV
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