Results in key Senate races: Reuters poll

[Ron Burgundy]

Reuters - Democrats must gain six seats in the November 7 election to recapture U.S. Senate control, and they lead in three of the seven most vulnerable Republican-held states, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Thursday.

Results in key Senate races: Reuters poll

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
2 hours, 36 minutes ago

Democrats must gain six seats in the November 7 election to recapture U.S. Senate control, and they lead in three of the seven most vulnerable Republican-held states, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Thursday.

Democrats lead Republican incumbents in Montana, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. Republican incumbents lead in Virginia and Missouri, the polls found, with races in Republican-held Ohio and Tennessee deadlocked.

The polls of at least 600 likely voters in each state have a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Here is a summary of the results in each race polled:

CONNECTICUT - Sen. Joseph Lieberman (news, bio, voting record), running as an independent, has a 53 percent to 33 percent lead on Democratic anti-war challenger Ned Lamont. Lieberman, a three-term Democratic incumbent, lost the party primary in August after Lamont attacked his support for the Iraq war.

MARYLAND - Democratic Rep. Ben Cardin leads Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele by 45 percent to 37 percent in the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Paul Sarbanes (news, bio, voting record).

MISSOURI - Republican Sen. Jim Talent (news, bio, voting record) leads Democratic state Auditor Claire McCaskill by 43 percent to 39 percent in a contest that has been close all year.

MONTANA - Democrat Jon Tester leads Republican Sen. Conrad Burns (news, bio, voting record) 46 percent to 42 percent after Burns suffered a series of problems, from returning donations from associates of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff to comments seen as insensitive to some ethnic groups and to out-of-state firefighters.

NEW JERSEY - Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, considered vulnerable after polls showed a tightening race, leads Republican challenger Tom Kean Jr. by 45 percent to 35 percent.

OHIO - Republican Sen. Mike DeWine (news, bio, voting record) has pulled into a dead heat with Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown (news, bio, voting record) at 41 percent each. DeWine had been trailing in other recent polls.

PENNSYLVANIA - Rick Santorum, the third-ranking Senate Republican, trails Democrat Bob Casey Jr., the son of a popular former governor, by 48 percent to 36 percent.

RHODE ISLAND - Sen. Lincoln Chafee (news, bio, voting record), a moderate Republican in one of the most Democratic states, trails Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse by 45 percent to 41 percent.

TENNESSEE - In a race for the open seat of retiring Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist, Democratic Rep. Harold Ford (news, bio, voting record) Jr. and Republican Bob Corker, the former mayor of Chattanooga, are deadlocked at 40 percent each.

VIRGINIA - Republican Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record) has survived a series of recent campaign missteps to take a 48 percent to 37 percent lead over Democratic challenger James Webb.