Senate Wrap-Up

Election '06 | A look at some key Senate races in the 2006 election | John Dawson

Rhode Island

Rhode Island voters essentially told incumbent Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee not to take it personally. They ousted him because of the "R" next to his name. Exit polls indicated more than 60 percent of respondents approved of the way Chafee did his job in the U.S. Senate—figures most Republicans could have only dreamt of this cycle. But Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse convinced enough Rhode Islanders that a vote for Chafee equated to a vote for Bush.

New Jersey

Many pundits acknowledge that Thomas Kean Jr.'s charges of corruption against incumbent Sen. Bob Menendez had merit. But to New Jersey voters for whom corrupt politicians seem like the norm, Kean's charges never really stuck. Menendez won reelection. With the war in Iraq as the main campaign issue, most acknowledge that Kean was the right candidate at the wrong time.