GOP Picks Up 3 Senate Seats, Lose WV

AP – Former president Bill Clinton smiles as W.Va. Governor Joe Manchin campaigns at Tamarack in Beckley,

Arkansas, North Dakota and Indiana, Republicans picked up seats in the Senate. West Virgina was lost.

To gain the 10 seats they need for a Senate majority, Republicans will have to win all the remaining tight races, and pull off upsets in California and Washington.

Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida rocked the GOP establishment last spring by routing leadership favorites in party primaries. Then they beat back Democrats' efforts to paint them as too extreme, winning comfortably on Tuesday.

Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln became the first senator to lose in the midterm elections, falling to GOP Rep. John Boozman in a state that President Barack Obama lost by 20 percentage points two years ago.

Here are a few interesting points: 

_The Senate's most powerful member, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, could lose to a political outsider, tea party champion Sharron Angle.

_A tempestuous three-way race in Alaska could allow Democrat Scott McAdams to win a once-hopeless race for GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski's seat. Murkowski is running a rare write-in campaign after losing the Republican primary to another tea partier, Joe Miller.

• Three-term Democrat Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, was in severe danger of losing to GOP newcomer Ron Johnson.

Nevada, Colorado, Illinois and Pennsylvania are close races so, it may be some time before we get results.

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