Now there are seven

Virginia — Republican Sen. George Allen
Virginia is the most recent addition to the list of states where a Republican-held Senate seat is very vulnerable. The reasons seem fairly obvious: Sen. George Allen's general election campaign got off to a terrible start because of his own missteps, beginning with his calling an aide to his challenger "macaca."

Post-macaca, Allen has been like a baseball player in a batting slump. Nothing has seemed to go right for him. His solid performance in a recent debate was the equivalent of finally getting a hit: It wasn't a home run, but it might indicate that the slump is over.

As in several other contests in which a Republican senator is in danger, this race has been about the incumbent, not his Democratic challenger. The Democratic nominee is former Navy Secretary Jim Webb. And although Webb's campaign has been busy drawing attention to Allen's problems, Webb himself has stayed largely on the sidelines.

Just three months ago, Allen was expected to cruise to a second term. Now he's caught in a close race. The most recent polling shows Allen holding a statistically insignificant advantage. With the polls and the increasingly moderate nature of the state's electorate in mind, both national parties are on television attacking their respective opponents.

This will be a nail-biter.

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