By most historical metrics it would seem impossible for Republicans who currently hold 41 seats in the U.S. Senate to win enough races in November--with only 37 seats are up for grabs-- to take control of the chamber, but a new poll shows GOP candidates in 13 battleground states holding a collective commanding edge over their Democratic counterparts.

The eight-point spread is a considerable advantage 84 days until the election.

The poll was conducted by Glen Bolger of Public Opinion Strategies and commissioned by American Crossroads, a group affiliated with Fox News Contributor Karl Rove and former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie. It is not a generic ballot poll which asks respondents about their party preference but rather mentioned specific candidates by name. The 47% - 39% margin comes from polls in 13 battleground states: Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington.

"The landscape that has tilted so dramatically toward Republicans in the House is continuing to move in a dramatic way on the Senate side as well," said American Crossroads communications director Jonathan Collegio in a statement announcing the results. "People often think that only House races can get swept up in an electoral wave, but this survey shows that Senate may very well get swept over in the same wave." (read more)

After many months of hard politicking for success in Tuesday's primaries in Colorado, Connecticut and Georgia those who came up short in the eyes of the voters are now coalescing behind the candidates who won.

With only 84 days to go until the November election Democrats in Colorado and Republicans in Georgia in Connecticut appear well on their way to bridging their past disagreements and avoiding the crippling post-primary sniping that can lead to political doom.

"This of course is not quite the result we were hoping for," Colorado's Andrew Romanoff said Tuesday night after coming up short in his bid to take the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. "I realize this is not what you wanted to hear, and certainly not what I had hoped to see, but it is important to me, important to our party, important to our cause, that we offer our full unequivocal support to the Democratic nominee."

That support is undoubtedly welcome to Sen. Michael Bennet, D-CO, who won the contest with 54% of the vote and will now face Republican Ken Buck in November.

In Georgia, a very close primary to get the Republican line on the November ballot ended Wednesday when Karen Handel conceded to former Congressman Nathan Deal. Handel said the tightness of the race (less than 1% difference) allows her to ask for a recount but says the best thing for the party is to rally around Deal. (read more)

A large percentage of The Rocky Mountain State has already voted, but will have to wait until this evening for the results. According to Colorado's Secretary of State's office, nearly 60-percent of registered voters will do so by mail-in ballot, and record 'turnout' is expected.  Ballots went out July 19th and what they have to say about where Colorado's notoriously independent electorate stands, will start to trickle in at 7:00 pm MT/9:00 pm ET.

At stake for the Obama Administration: A U.S. Senate seat held by an incumbent having trouble inspiring his own party faithful to rally around him, instead of the fellow Democratic insurgent. 

Senator Michael Bennet is in a statistical tie, according to the latest Denver Post poll, with former Colorado State Senate Speaker, Andrew Romanoff, who is leading by three percentage points, which is within the margin of error.

It's a feat Romanoff has managed, even though for much of the primary race, he trailed in both polls and money.  Romanoff's been credited by political watchers for having a stronger ground game in this race and a much stronger connection with caucus goers and delegates to the state nominating assembly earlier this year.  Romanoff cleaned house on both caucus night and at the assembly, but was struggling with the larger Democratic base, until recently, when he launched a series of negative campaigns against his opponent.  (read more)

When embattled Senator Chris Dodd decided not to run for re-election the long-serving Democratic lawmaker set the stage for a wild political match-up in Connecticut.

Now with just days to go until the state's Senate primary on Tuesday, August 10th, wealthy one-time professional wrestling promoter Linda McMahon is continuing to open campaign offices, convinced Republican voters will back her over economist Peter Schiff and former Congressman Robert Simmons, who suspended his campaign in May only to resurface in recent weeks.

McMahon has spent roughly 22 million dollars of her own self-made fortune on her Senate bid, received her party's endorsement and the latest Quinnipiac poll released on Wednesday shows her with a double digit lead over Simmons. She's unapologetic about the spending.

"I really believe how important this election is and I have the ability to fund it myself with money that I've earned and I believe that it helps me be independent," said McMahon.

McMahon's opponents have blasted her as a privileged liberal who's trying to buy the election. (read more)

We don't even know if it's constitutional (a federal court battle is assured),
but Missouri's Proposition C is bad news for the Obama administration
and the Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress.

Prop-C was overwhelmingly approved by Show-Me State voters in Tuesday's
primary. The ballot initiative (in theory because again there's a court case
coming) attempts to void a controversial provision in the new federal
healthcare law which requires all Americans to have (or buy) medical insurance.
The Prop-C victory is hailed by Republicans as a rebuke of Democratic
leadership in Washington.

The secret inside the primary numbers is...it got lots of Democratic votes.

Here's how we know:

(And these numbers are courtesy the Missouri Secretary of State's website.)

PROPOSITION-C

Yes 667,680
No 271,102

Republicans cast a lot more primary ballots (perhaps because Prop-C). For
the sake of argument, let's say every GOP primary voter was a Yes.

TOTAL REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTES CAST: 577,615

Subtract the Republicans from the "yeses"...and you have 90,065 "yeses" that came
from non-Republicans. (read more)