Minnesota: Since Paul Wellstone's death just over a week ago -- when Wellstone appeared to be pulling away from his challenger, St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman -- former vice president Walter Mondale has been enlisted by Democrats to put his name on the ballot. Polls show the race's outcome is still uncertain. Coleman, a former Democrat recruited to run by the White House, received a bizarre boost in the polls after Wellstone's memorial service was criticized as inappropriately partisan. Ventura retaliated Monday by appointing an Independent to hold Wellstone's seat. Will voters be vindictive, too?
Missouri: Two years after being appointed to the Senate seat won by her late husband, Jean Carnahan is the Democrats' most vulnerable incumbent. The race to fill the final four years of Mel Carnahan's term has been a showdown between Carnahan and former Rep. Jim Talent, a Republican who came within a few thousand votes of becoming the state governor in 2000. Carnahan has called Talent too conservative; Talent calls Carnahan too inexperienced.
New Hampshire: Republicans chose pragmatism over ideology in the primary, picking Rep. John Sununu, son of the former White House chief of staff, over colorful incumbent Bob Smith. But polls indicate the state's large bloc of independent voters remains up for grabs, giving hope to Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, the Democratic candidate, as the campaign winds down.
Georgia: This race has emerged as something of a sleeper. For months, Sen. Max Cleland, a Democrat, seemed poised to win fairly easily over Rep. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. Chambliss has made a campaign issue out of the Senate's failure to pass the bill, supported by President Bush, to create a new Homeland Security Agency, and he has used the issue to help secure the endorsement of the Veterans of Foreign Wars -- a startling development for Cleland, who lost three limbs while serving in Vietnam.
North Carolina: Slowly but surely, Democrat Erskine Bowles, Bill Clinton's former White House chief of staff, has chipped away at the large lead Elizabeth Dole once held in this race to succeed Republican Jesse Helms. Republicans have criticized Bowles' corporate past and even attacked his wife's business for moving jobs south of the border. Bowles, meanwhile, has sought to focus on anything but Clinton, his former boss.
Texas: Democrats have pinned their hopes on former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk, something of a summertime darling of the national press corps, who has given attorney general John Cornyn a stiff challenge. Democrats would love to embarrass Bush by defeating his party in the president's home state, but polls show Cornyn clinging to a small but steady lead. Kirk maintains that those polls underestimate the number of blacks and Latinos who will come to the polls Tuesday to vote for Kirk and the party's gubernatorial candidate, Tony Sanchez. But Bush, as a safety precaution, plans to end his whirlwind campaign swing stumping for Cornyn.
South Dakota: This race between two popular statewide elected officials has become a proxy war for President Bush and Tom Daschle, the Senate Majority Leader. Sen. Tim Johnson, a Daschle protégé, has been joined at the hip to the majority leader as both struggle to keep their jobs next year. Bush has visited the state five times to stump for a candidate he personally helped talk into the race, Rep. John Thune.
