U.S. Election 2006 - Can the GOP pull it off?

Updated: Click here to see the Governor election results.
The states of interest to me are TX, where Republican Rick Perry held on to his position, and OH where as most expected Democrat Ted Strickland received 60% of the votes against incumbent Republican governor Blackwell who received just 37% of the votes.

The balance of power in the Congress looks like -
Senate: D-51; R-49
House: D-229; R-196



Well, with the House, Senate and gubernatorial elections all round the corner to take place on Nov. 7th, the polls look pretty close. But I think the Democrats have an edge this time.

The Projected new Senate looks like:
49 Democrats
49 Republicans
2 ties

The Projected new House looks like:
241 Democrats
193 Republicans
1 tie

To track the latest poll changes and see a red-blue map of the US updated daily using the latest state polls, click here.

Overall the Democrats seem to have the upper hand as well in the gubernatorial elections. Wikipedia (although I don't trust it normally for facts) has put together a clean table (scroll down on the page) of the incumbent governor and the Democratic and Republican candidates contesting for governor for each state.

Some of the key common campaign objectives for the Democrats in general are:
(1) Education: Increase funding for education. Recruit more teachers, increase their salaries. Increase scholarships and provide education to all children.
(2) Health care: Make health care more easily accessible. Provide health insurance to all.
(3) Increase investments in alternate sources of energy: Focus on ethanol and bio-diesel. Decrease dependence on foreign sources for oil and energy
(4) Tax System: Reduce taxes; encourage people to spend more

In addition, the Bush Government's position on the war in Iraq has also frustrated the public. So, it seems to me that the Republicans (GOP) cannot pull it off this time, the Democrats are coming back strongly. But we'll have to wait till the 7th to see what happens...