Begich grows lead, gives Dems hopes for 58

Anchorage mayor
Mark Begich (D) increased his lead over Republican Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska) to
1,022 votes as of late Friday, giving Democrats hope of raising their Senate
majority to 58 seats.

State officials
suspended their tally for the weekend and are scheduled to begin counting the
remaining absentee and provisional ballots early next week.

{mosads}Campaign
officials estimate that there are about 25,000 ballots left to count, including
about 15,000 absentee and provisional ballots from the Anchorage area and
nearly 10,000 absentee ballots from the Kenai Peninsula and Juneau.

Democrats say
they are confident about the race because, since election officials began counting
nearly 90,000 absentee and provisional ballots at the start of the week, Begich
has erased a more-than 3,000-vote deficit.

Democrats argue
that Begich has taken the lead since the counting of absentee ballots because
many of his supporters were encouraged to vote early.

“The Democrats
were very aggressive with early-vote efforts,” said Begich spokeswoman Julie
Hasquet. “We had super-aggressive canvass efforts across the state to get
people out voting early.”

The Alaska race
now seems the best opportunity for Democrats to pick up their 58th seat in the
Senate. They also have a chance of capturinf Republican Sen. Norm Coleman’s
seat in Minnesota.
Coleman leads by 206 votes out of
nearly 3 million votes cast. The Republican led by 725 votes on Nov. 4 but watched
his lead shrink after state election officials counted missed ballots and
double-checked their totals.

A laborious hand
recount of all ballots is set to begin next week and may take weeks to
complete.

Democrats have a
smaller possibility of winning the seat now held by Republican Sen. Saxby
Chambliss (Ga.). Chambliss failed to win over 50 percent of the vote in his
race against Democrat Jim Martin. State law requires the two candidates to square
off again in a runoff scheduled for Dec. 2.

A major question
for Democrats in Georgia is whether they can still mobilize as many
African-American voters in December without President-elect Barack Obama on the
ticket. African-Americans voted overwhelmingly for Obama and other Democratic
candidates on Nov. 4.

Senate Democrats
view 58 as a crucial number in the Senate because it would give them enough
votes, when combined with Maine’s two liberal Republican senators, to quash
obstructionist Republican procedural tactics.

Republican Sens.
Susan Collins (Maine) and Olympia Snowe (Maine) are considered the most likely
to vote with Democrats on procedural votes that need to be cleared to pass
controversial legislation. Some conservative activists believe, for example,
that it would be useless to attempt to filibuster liberal judicial nominees if
Democrats control 58 seats because they expect Collins and Snowe to vote with
the majority often.

Control of 58
seats will also give Democrats a strong chance to pass the controversial
Employee Free Choice Act. The legislation is a top priority for labor groups
but hated by business interests because it would make it much easier for labor
activists to organize unions. It would allow labor activists to organize
without holding secret ballot elections.