Article Contributed on: 9/28/2008 7:48:44 AM
Democratic Senate candidate Mark Udall and 4th District House Candidate Betsy Markey were bumped up in the Washington Post's "Line" of seats most likely to switch party control in the fall.
Udall's ranking jumped from 5th to 3rd, and Markey from 12th to 8th in the listing maintained by Post political analyst Chris Cillizza.
Udall, who is running for the seat currently held by retiring GOP nonentity Wayne Allard, has been consistently beating hapless opponent Bob Schaffer in the polls, and that has not changed,
Cillizza said in his Friday update.
"The last two polls conducted in the race -- one by a Democratic firm, the other by a Republican outfit -- have Rep.
Mark Udall (D) ahead of former Rep.
Bob Schaffer (R) by
11 points and one point. Average them out and you get a six-point edge for Udall, which seems about right. The
data from the presidential race shows
Obama running surprisingly strong in the state -- strong evidence that the much-debated demographic trends towards Democrats are real," he reported.
On the house side, the Democrats may finally have found a candidate strong enough to unseat the perenially weak Musgrave,
Cillizza reported.
"A quick look at Rep.
Marilyn Musgrave's (R) career in Congress shows a candidate who vastly underperforms in a comfortably Republican seat. Democratic nominee
Betsy Markey is the best candidate Musgrave has faced and, according to
polling in the contest, leads the incumbent. Republicans believe an
alleged conflict of interest on Markey's part is a silver bullet but we remain skeptical."
Musgrave has been running an increasingly desperate and dishonest campaign, accusing Markey of benefitting from questionable government contracts, but with no real facts to back up her claims.