Close call concerning Virginia, Democrats in the Senate

Joe Lieberman has been projected to win in Connecticut. Santorum and Dewine are anticipated to lose their Senate seats. Cardin has just been projected to win in Maryland. Harold Ford is trailing in Tennessee.

For these reasons, Jim Webb's race against George Allen is crucial. Virginia has reported 72.49 percent of all their precincts. Allen has 805,944 votes to Webb's 772,957, a difference of about 33,000. The two most prominent counties for Democrats in Virginia are Fairfax and Arlington. Arlington has a reporting rate of 40 percent as of 8:45 pm. Webb as 17,857 votes from Arlington and Allen has 6,853. In Fairfax county, just over 81 percent of the precincts ave reported. Webb leads Allen with a total of 153,911 to 105,067.

There are many more votes in Arlington county than appears in the above summary. The current turnout is in the 20 percent range but will likely rate closer to 55 percent.

Allen and Webb will likely come down to just a few thousand votes. The GOP needs to win in two of the contested Senate races, or beat favored Democrats in Maryland or New Jersey. The latter looks unlikely. The former may come down to Lincoln Chaffee or George Allen in the next few hours.