Democrats get new Senate candidates left and right

The hottest Senate news in the past week have undoubtedly come from New Mexico. Pete Domenici announced his surprise retirement, followed in quick succession by Republican Rep. Heather Wilson announcing a run and Democratic Rep. Mark Udall announced he would not. Today, Democrats seem on the verge of getting one of their strong candidates in the race: Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez is likely to announce tomorrow morning that he will run for the seat.

This guarantees Democrats have a strong candidate in the race, though the DSCC is also trying to convince Lieutenant Govenor Diane Denish to forego her plans to run for governor in 2010 and jump in the Senate race. Many Dems see Denish not only as more competitive, but also as more progressive. Chavez is not liked by Democratic activists because of his friendship with property developers in Albuquerque, and New Mexico is certainly not one of the red states in which a liberal Dem would have trouble winning.

Also very interesting is Chavez's assessment that Rep. Pearce, not Wilson, would be the strongest GOP candidate. The general sense is that Pearce might be too conservative to win a statewide race. Steve Pearce has still not announced his plans, and whether he will run against Wilson in the primary, but he says he is nearing his decision. Another GOPer, Pat Lyons, is also considering a run. This could set up a situation in which both Democrats and Republicans have a competitive primary.

In North Carolina, Democrats finally get a candidate in the form of an unknown investment banker from Chapel Hill, Jim Neal. The DSCC has been trying to get someone to run against Elizabeth Dole for months, and finally have someone in... Though they probably would prefer a candidate with political experience or some name recognition. While Neal starts as a tremendous underdog, he is comparing himself to John Edwards in 1998, a candidate with little experience who snatches a Senate seat. State Rep. Martin is still said to be looking at the race, and he could prove a stronger candidate against Dole.

Finally, Robert Novak reports that the DSCC is trying to expand the map even more to three states few people are paying attention to:

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), in his second term running the Senate Democratic campaign, publicly expresses doubt about picking up an additional nine seats to achieve a filibuster-free Senate. But he has been soliciting popular Democratic governors from Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming to run against incumbent Republican Senators from those "red" states - perhaps even to win the magic nine seats. The problem is that these governors do not relish running with Hillary Clinton at the top of the ticket.

Any of these three governors entering a Senate race would be huge recruitment coups for Democrats and would clearly push Republicans in a state of complete panic, for they would have way too many seats in play to even think about. All three post very high approval ratings, and would make a Senate seat very competitive. Naturally, they all seem very unlikely (why leave a safe job for a risky Senate run), but none of them would have to leave their post to run which would mean they would have a pretty good fall-back position if their Senate bid were to fail. As for the worry about Clinton on top of the ticket, many articles have been written about a negative Clinton effect in down-the-ballot races but where does that come from? Is Edwards going to win Wyoming? Most polls out for now show Clinton with very decent numbers in red states: in fact, a poll last week from Oklahoma show Clinton only trailing 47-44.

Meanwhile, we still wait for Bob Kerrey...