A Senate race to watch
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle — one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington and a harsh critic of President Bush — is locked in a tough re-election battle at home in South Dakota.
Daschle faces former GOP Rep. John Thune, who left the House to run for the Senate in 2002 — a race he lost to Sen. Tim Johnson by about 500 votes.
Remember that? Watching the results come in from the 2002 Senate elections, when the Republicans gained a majority in the Senate (at least on paper anyway)? I, like many others, watched the Thune/Johnson race eagerly, hoping beyond hope that he’d surge ahead right there at the last minute. It was close all evening. Anyway, Thune is well liked in SD – not sure if he’ll be able to beat Senator Daschle, who is also well liked in that state, but he’s definately going to give him a run. More from the same piece:
Thune has broad name recognition, having won the statewide election for South Dakota’s lone House seat in 1996, as well as re-election in 1998 and 2000. He also has the support of President Bush, who carried South Dakota by a wide margin in the 2000 election and has personally campaigned for Thune.
The race sure will be more hotly contested than the Illinois race for Senate, Keyes vs. Obama. That particular race is shaping up to be more entertaining than anything, with Obama expected to trounce Keyes, thanks to some incompetent Republicans running things in IL 
Although I’m sure the debates will be quite spirited between those two, hell would have to freeze over first for Keyes to win.
