Reversing the Slide

...Democratic Attorney General Ken Salazar is ahead in the polls, in what will likely be a big battle against beer scion Peter Coors...

...As the Administration keeps doing its work on the economy, terrorism, and Iraq, those numbers may keep dropping...

...In Colorado, Republican Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell suddenly stepped down-an unexpected blow to his party...

...But now Erskine Bowles, President Clinton's former White House chief of staff, is neck-and-neck with Republican Representative Richard Burr in what will probably be a tight race to the finish...

...Obama, whose father is from Kenya, was the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review and eschewed the legal big-time to pursue public interest work for poor clients on Chicago's South Side...

...On the House side, those generic poll numbers are getting Democratic leaders all excited...

...But what a difference Iraq makes...

...In Florida, both the Republican and Democratic parties have slates of candidates competing for soon-to-be-retiree Bob Graham's Senate seat, with no clear leader...

...Democratic control of both houses is not beyond the realm of possibility...

...So far, the Democrats have done well in special elections in Kentucky and South Dakota, but face overwhelming odds in Texas, where redistricting has carved the state into a series of odd-shaped Republican fiefdoms...

...In North Carolina, many pundits saw a sure win for the Republicans when Democratic Senator John Edwards abandoned his run for reelection to focus on his unsuccessful Presidential bid...

...Sure, John Kerry is no rock star- as Iraq burns and America faces its worst moral crisis since Vietnam, the Democrats' shy fianc?© is touring the country to promote his moderate views on health care...

...In Alaska, former Governor Tony Knowles is ahead in a race to replace appointed Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski...

...Whereas before I would have said that the Dems would be lucky to lose a couple seats, rather than crash to, say forty-two seats [in the Senate], now they could well stay even," says Lou Jacobson, deputy editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill...

...On the down side for the Democrats, Minority Leader Tom Daschle could lose his reelection bid this year in South Dakota to former Republican Representative John Thune...

...In Wisconsin, the lone opponent in the Senate of the Patriot Act, Russ Feingold, is still way ahead of all his Republican challengers, despite being an early target on Karl Rove's hit list...

...But, he adds, "The likelihood of that tide is greater now than I would have expected...

...Whatever pick-ups they get [in the House] will be wiped out in Texas-unless there's a national tide for the D's," says Jacobson...

...The Senate is closely divided, with the Republicans in control by two seats...

...Meanwhile, in a few key races around the country, Democrats are making unexpected gains...

...In Oklahoma, Republican Senator Don Nickles is retiring and Democratic Representative Brad Carson is a strong candidate for his seat...

...All things considered, Charlie Cook of National Journal calculates, "The GOP's chances of keeping the Senate have dropped, from perhaps 90 percent earlier this year to about 60 percent now...

...In one race that is a sure write-off, Georgia's Zell Miller-like Breaux, a conservative Democrat who might as well be a Republican-is also retiring...

...Likewise, in South Carolina, where Democratic Senator Fritz Hollings is retiring this year, initial predictions that the Republicans had a certain pick-up have given way to polls showing a close contest between State Superintendent of Education Inez Ten-enbaum and an undetermined Republican rival, yet to emerge from a contentious primary...

...In Louisiana, where conservative Democratic Senator John Breaux is stepping aside, there are two strong Democratic candidates-State Treasurer John Kennedy and Breaux's favorite, Representative Chris John...

...A slew of other polls show similar results-a big shift in the Democrats' favor over the last few months...

...In Illinois, in the most thrilling race of the year, Democratic State Senator Barack Obama ran away from the primary field...

...In the House, the Republicans have a majority of twenty-two seats...

...Ruth Conniff is Political Editor of The Progressive...

...Bush won big in South Dakota in 2000, and the Republicans are pouring money and attention into the race to defeat Daschle...

...With a rash of retirements in the Senate this year, and redistricting all over the country favoring the incumbent majority in the House, things had been looking bleak for the D's...

...Louisiana has not elected a Republican to the Senate in more than a century...

...Generic ballot" polls that gauge whether voters want an unnamed Republican or an unnamed Democrat for Congress show the Democrats doing better than they have since 1998...

...A Time/CNN poll taken on May 12 and 13 asked likely voters, "If the election for Congress were being held today, do you think you would vote for the Democratic candidate for Congress in your district, or the Republican candidate...

...The Democrats can kiss that seat goodbye, say Jacobson and other Congress watchers...

...He is seen by colleagues in both parties as a big political star...

...He ran a charismatic, progressive campaign (anti-war and anti-NAFTA) and is charging to a likely victory, despite a barrage of negative ads from the Republican attack machine...

...But as the Bush Administration sinks further in the polls, and the hearings and investigations and more bad news pile up, formerly gloomy predictions of a Republican sweep in Congress are giving way to Democratic optimism...

...Fifty-three percent of respondents said "Democrat," and 40 percent said "Republican...