ben chandler is running against andy barr.here are perils to be a first- time incumbent. >> he's not a first-time incumbent. he was elected in the special in 2004. we didn't ben chandler would be in trouble at all. i mean six months ago a year ago. the republicans spent some money on andy barr. he's a former deputy chief counsel under governor ernie fletcher who was rather unpopular. he's an attorney. this is a district that is... was a 43% obama district. so itit is a conservative district with conservative voters. republican voters. andy barr is doing very well. it is a good indicator of how big the wave is. ben chandler may still win. does he squeak it out? does he win comfortably or does andy barr pull an upset? ben chandler voted for the stimulus and cap-and-trade but not for health care. a lot of republicans tell me they only need one, certainly two. if they have all three they have a winner argument here. this has turned into a tough race. a blue dog democrat who wasn't supposed to have a hard race is having one. >> ifi

get is if they're starting to lose seats like the ben chandler seat. then, what you're talking about is potentially 60 and up. >> as you said from democratic perspective a grim night. what about senate? >> less grim. much less grim. and bottom line is that democrat are holding seats they hoped they would for example in connecticut taking advantage of the delaware opportunity and won that seat z if it holds, there seems to be picking up the seat or getting the seat in west virginia. that is important. that probably gets them to 50. that looks like there is a good shot at getting at least 51 seats. >> any surprises? you've talked about some of the seats that perhaps look to be going one way. are there other surprises this sneng. >> not so far. i mean, you like to hope pollsters are wrong. projections are pretty much accurate. that is what we've found in 2008 as we'll this is a referendum on the economy? >> absolutely. exit polls show that is number one thing. it's not so much health care that. is down the list. but it's jobs. >> jobs. they want to blame

district race was decided yesterday when the republican andy barr conceded to democratic candidate ben chandlerrkowski and miller in alaska, filled with back and forth accusations during the campaign. now post-campaign, a lot of back and forth going on. shannon travis in seattle for us now making his way back from alaska where he's been. you know, i don't know if we can call it a recount you're covering or a spelling bee. what's going on in alaska? >> it's a lot of drama is what it is. it's definitely not a recount but feels look a recount, t.j. they're not recounting anything. they're trying to finish counting outstanding ballots. but in terms of the spelling bee part what they're doing, these are write-in ballots. lisa murkowski, as you said, she ran as a write-in candidate, a republican, where you had to write in her name. so they have to physically count ballots and say, is lisa murkowski's name written in and an oval filled in next her name so that qualifies as a vote for her. but there's a little bit of drama about spellings and miss spelling, should a misspelling if one letter's off qual

digest what has occurred and hear from our remembers, those who have lost and won and i understand ben chandlere carolinas, and we welcome -- excuse me, from kentucky, we welcomes him back to us. and, that we take the time to really study what has happened. in 1994, when there were historic losses, the leadership elections did not occur until november 30th. and we're not asking much here. we are just asking a little bit of space to come back and meet like a family around the table, and to assess what has happened in the different regions of the country and as you know in the heartland we have had a significant washout of democratic members. >> mike: you have had a lot of loss. i want to ask you, have you had personal conversations with speaker pelosi or some of the other leadership, steny hoyer and that have they said, look, why don't you disappear with this conversation? >> i'll say this: each of the leaders have spoken with me, and i know they are talking to every member of the caucus, but in some ways i feel it somewhat unseemly to talk about their elections when many of our colleagues are c

to hear from our members, those who have lost, those who have won and i understand ben chandler just finally made it in the carolinas, and we welcome or excuse me from kentucky. we welcome him back to us. and that we take the time to really study what has happened. in 1994 when there were hurricane losses the leadership elections did not occur until november 30th. so we're not asking much here, just a little bit of space to kind of come back and meet like a family around the table and to assess what's happened in the different regions of theheartland. we've had a significant washout of democratic members. >> you have had a lot of loss. i want to ask you, have you had any personal conversations with speaker pelosi or some of the other leadership, steny hoyer and have they sort of said to you, look, why don't you just disappear with this conversation? >> well, i'll say this, that each of the leaders have spoken with me. i know they're talking to every member of the caucus. but in some ways, i feel a somewhat unseemly to be talking about their elections, when in fact, so many of our col

and, no more questions about this race, democratic congressman ben chandler won his close re-electionace in kentucky, his republican challenger, andy barr, conceding ten days after election day and the win by a narrow 648 votes. one of the few bright spots for the democrats in the southern states and won in a district republican john mccain carried in 2008. and now that he knows for sure he's back in office he says he'll focus on job growth and the economy. president obama, in the meantime, wrapping up his trip to japan with one last high-level meeting scheduled, he'll sit down with russian president dmitry medvedev shortly and will be flying back to the u.s. in a few hours. did the president get what he wanted during the ten day trip to asia? let's ask wendell goler who joins us live from japan tonight, hi, wendell. >> reporter: the president certainly didn't get as much as he wanted, he hoped to reconfigure a bush administration free trade agreement with south korea. that basically shut the u.s. out of the korean auto market and also, gets international pressure on china to stop adj

gary peters, rick larson in washington state, gabby giffords and even ben chandler in kentucky all have uncalled races. some members are actually trailing, solomon ortiz is actually trail anything this texas. you've got to feel bad, his son is a state representative in the state of texas. he lost last night too. it was a big day for republicans in the state of texas. jerry connolly, right across the river, also running in this an uncalled -- in an uncalled race. the scope of this loss is truly tremendous for the democratic party. take a look at the chairmen who lost their seats last night. congressman john spratt of south carolina, congressman ike skelton of missouri, and the one that shocked me and i think shocked a lot of people, congressman jim overstar in the iron range, the very traditionally democratic iron range of minnesota lost his seat after a very late surge from a democratic challenger. on the armed services committee alone, congressman ike skelton, john spratt and gene taylor, three of the four ranking members have lost their bids for re-election, and the fourth ranking mem

ben chandler is up by a fewer than a thousand votes. and congressman gerry connolly out in virginia and the washington, d.c., suburbs has won as well as rick larson from washington state. both of those races are now over after republican candidates conceded. out in california's 20th district, congressman jim costa in a very tight contest against a first-time candidate named adam. the republican candidate leads by 145 votes at the moment. but there are still 50,000 absentee ballots left to be counted. the fresno area doesn't count their ballots fast. it looks like jim costa will be safe in the long term. turn then to illinois' eighth congressional scrict. start to get bad news for democrats. melissa bean, sort of off-the-radar campaign. not a lot of people expected her to be challenged this coming year or in the 2010 mid terms. now she trails our opponent, joe walsh, by a couple hundred votes. if melissa bean does not take the lead, the republican ballots will come in later this month from other more republican parts of that district. th

congressman ben chandler is the democratic candidate with 3% reporting, 54% of the vote, compared to barr with 46%. >> these are two races that democrats really do need to hold onto. if you saw republicans easily taking these contests, that would be a sign of the doom, potentially, for democrats. >> our guest is the managing editor at cq weekly. thank you for being with us. we have some early numbers coming in in kentucky and indiana. are there trends? >> there is no trend get beyond what has been pointed to already. because the democrats are holding a couple of these tossups early on, it suggests -- if only small lee -- it is a small suggestion that this is a moderate way, not a tsunami- strength wave. if yarmuth and chandler were swept out, and we give would be of republican night. the results of the senate do not tell us much either. rand paul is a tea party candidate, but he is holding a senate seat for the republicans. dan coats was the low hanging fruit for the republicans, representing some of the opposite spectrum of republican candidates. dan coats was the consummate insider