July 22, 2008 08:36 PM UTC

Mark Udall has a better chance of winning than his cousin, Tom, in New Mexico?

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• by: Canines

Well…at least according to one pundit, Mark Udall may have a better chance of winning a Senate seat than his cousin, Tom, in New Mexico (who will likely win handily).

From a political roundtable put together by Salon.com:

http://www.salon.com/news/feat…

[Thomas F. Schaller for Salon.com]: Let’s fly down to the Rockies. There are Mormon cousins running in two Southwestern states. You’ve got representatives Mark and Tom Udall vying for the open seats respectively in Colorado and New Mexico, made available by the retirements of Wayne Allard and Pete Domenici. If I told you it’s Wednesday, Nov. 5, the day after the election, and there’s one Sen. Udall and one failed Udall candidate, who is the Sen. Udall most likely to win in those two states?

[Jennifer Duffy, senior editor of the Cook Political Report]: That’s an easy one. That’d be Tom Udall in New Mexico. I moved that race today to leaning Democratic. The Republican, Congressmen Steve Pearce, really starts this race as the underdog and probably does not have the time or the means to catch up in an environment like this.

[Amy Walter, editor of the Hotline, the premier daily news digest of Washington politics]: Totally agree. I would argue that it’s more likely than not that [both Udalls] end up serving together.

[Nathan Gonzales, political editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, a nonpartisan newsletter covering U.S. House, Senate and gubernatorial campaigns]: The most likely scenario is that they both win. I think that Tom Udall is running a great campaign. His ads are particularly good in my opinion, but the only case I can make to, be the contrarian, [is] that because of the Democratic attacks and the amount of information they have against Bob Shaffer, former congressman, who’s the Republican nominee in Colorado, I wonder if Steve Pearce has a better chance in New Mexico because he isn’t saddled with some of the baggage that Democrats are going after Shaffer with.

And, yes, to add insult to injury, Salon.com did spell Bob Schaffer’s last name wrong in the above report.