Reasons to be optimistic in Alaska

Only one red-state Democrat has yet to figure out who his Republican opponent will be. Senators Pryor in Arkansas, Hagan in North Carolina, and Walsh in Montana have gone through their primaries already, and Louisiana's jungle primary system means that Sen. Landrieu already has her GOP opponents scoped out. All that remains is Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska, who can't yet say for sure whether he's up against former Attorney General Daniel S. Sullivan, Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, or 2010 nominee Joe Miller.

For reasons I've touched on before, I saw Sen. Begich, regardless of his eventual opponent, as probably the least-doomed of his fellow red-state Democrats. That was back in April, though, when Sen. Hagan looked like she wasn't doing all that well; now that she's seemed to have regained an edge over Speaker Thom Tillis, she's taken that spot. Nevertheless, I still see Sen. Begich as one of the least-doomed of red-state Democrats this year. For a refresher, here's the map of Sen. Begich's 2008 victory over incumbent Sen. Ted Stevens (slightly recolored):

2008 Alaska Senate election by county and by margin.

Close-Up: Doubly Dynastic

Only one half of the Senate match-up in Georgia has been settled: Michelle Nunn won the Democratic nomination essentially unopposed. Well, she faced three other Democrats, but they didn't exist as far as media coverage of the race was concerned. The proof? Unless you're from DeKalb County (home of runner-up, former state senator Steen Miles) or a member of the Board of Trustees of the Georgia Psychiatric Physicians Association (on which fourth place finisher Dr. Branko Radulovacki sat from 2007 to 2009), you don't recognize the names of any of the other candidates. (There's also a chance you read the Wikipedia article on the election, but even then the third place finisher, former U.S. Army Ranger Todd Robinson, doesn't have his own Wikipedia article, which is totally a good judge of notability.)

Lundergan, Carter, Nunn: What's in a Name?

In the South, 2014 is a "name" election. The trick to telling is by counting how many candidates are introduced Viking-style, as "[name], son/daughter of famous state politician". And especially in the South, there are a quite a few candidates who, at least early in their candidacies, got this treatment:

• "Alison Lundergan Grimes, daughter of former Kentucky Democratic Party chairman Jerry Lundergan...."
• "Michelle Nunn, daughter of former Senator Sam Nunn...."
• "Jason Carter, grandson of the former president and Georgia governor...."

Don't be surprised, by the way, if the candidates' actual qualifications are tacked on as an afterthought: "Oh, by the way, Grimes is also Secretary of State of Kentucky. Shoulda mentioned that."