CQ: Mississippi Senate race makes top 5 most likely to flip

Congressional Quarterly just released their top five Senate races that are likely to change hands. All five of these seats are currently held by Republicans facing Democratic challengers. In fact 9 of the top 10 contested races are for seats currently held by Republicans. The GOP is playing defense all over the map. Moving up the list at number five is Ronnie Musgrove's bid to win the Trent Lott seat from Roger Wicker who was appointed by Governor Haley Barbour.

Here is the list:

1. Virgina - Mark Warner (D) vs. James S. Gillmore (R) for the seat vacated by the retiring John Warner (R)

2. New Mexico - Tom Udall (D) vs. Steve Pearce (R) for the seat vacated by the retiring Pete V. Domenici (R)

3. New Hampshire - Jeanne Shaheen (D) vs. John Sununu (R) (i)

4. Colorado - Mark Udall (D) vs. Bob Schaffer (R) for the seat vacated by the retiring Wayne Allard (R)

here is what CQ had to say about number 5:

5. Mississippi, where interim Republican Sen. Roger Wicker , appointed to his seat last December, faces competition from a well-known Democrat, former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, in a special election to fill the final four years of resigned Republican Trent Lott’s unexpired term. As in most of the South, conservative Mississippi long ago shed its old-school Democratic traditions and swung hard toward the Republican Party. But the national downturn for the GOP has had its effect even here, as boldly illustrated by the victory for Democrat Travis W. Childers May 13 in the special election to succeed Wicker in the 1st Congressional District seat he had held for 13 years. State voters’ ingrained Republican voting habits in statewide races, which make Republican presidential nominee John McCain a solid favorite to carry Mississippi, give ample hope to supporters of Wicker, who is known as a mild-mannered and diligent lawmaker. But Democrat Musgrove, though he lost his 2003 bid for re-election to Republican Haley Barbour , is known statewide, while Wicker is well-recognized in just one of the state’s four House districts. Republican strategists have tried to open up some breathing space for Wicker by hammering Musgrove for past campaign donations he received from figures now involved in a state political corruption scandal.

Well it looks like the GOP has not learned their lesson and plans a negative line of attack on Musgrove. If that is all they have, they are going to lose, again.