The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

p> HOLDING ON br> For all the talk about Republicans wallowing in pity and mediocrity, the Senate GOP is beginning to sense a bit of a shift in perspective. National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Sen. Elizabeth Dole has been spending the past couple of weeks touting her committee's candidates, and her remarks have been buttressed by private remarks made by White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove . /p>

As it stands, Republicans appear to be looking at minimum at a wash in terms of holding the majority in the Senate. That's because of a failure on the part of the NRSC to find truly viable statewide candidates in Florida, a serious challenge to Sen. Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania and growing unease among some Republicans in the Virginia Senate race, where Sen. George Allen was thought to have an easy go at it, only to run into a possible challenge against former Navy Secretary James Webb, who served in that post during the Reagan Administration.

Republicans have high hopes for three of their candidates, Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele, state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. in New Jersey, who is challenging Sen. Robert Menendez, and former Safeco CEO Mike McGavick, who is challenging Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell.

Two other Senate candidates, executive John Raese in West Virginia and former Ameritrade COO Pete Ricketts in Nebraska have garnered attention, but are running behind incumbents Robert Byrd and Ben Nelson, respectively.

Kean and McGavick are perhaps the biggest surprises thus far. Polls now have Kean running as much as seven points in front of Menendez. And Kean has shown the political instincts to possibly keep up the heat -- his support of deportation of illegal immigrants garnered attention last week and separated him enough from the President to make it more difficult for Menendez to tar him as a White House drone.

McGavick is now within five percentage points of Cantwell in Washington, with momentum clearly on his side. His campaign has garnered increasing attention nationwide among Republicans, with donors paying close attention to the race.

"That's one race that has everyone paying attention now," says an NRSC staffer. "We're already getting offers from longtime Republican supporters to go out there in September and October to help on the get out the vote program. Mike has a lot of people excited."

The same can't be said for Dole's failures in Florida, where national Republicans have essentially conceded the seat to incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson. Rep. Katherine Harris's failures as a candidate continued to mount throughout the spring, as much of her staff quit and a possible ethics investigation hangs over her head over a $2,800 dinner for two she shared with a defense contractor tied to the Rep. Randy Cunningham scandal.

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