Democrats Starting to See Chance of Keeping Senate Seats in South

The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004: "Not so long ago, the South provided a bleak landscape for Democrats. Struggling to recover from devastating defeats in the 2002 off-year elections, the party saw five of its incumbent senators announce their retirements ?D John B. Breaux in Louisiana, John Edwards in North Carolina, Ernest F. Hollings in South Carolina, Zell Miller in Georgia and Bob Graham in Florida.

Because President Bush won all five states in 2000, Republicans saw the vacancies as fertile ground for solidifying control of the Senate. But now, some of those election contests are shaping up as unexpectedly spirited. With a sluggish regional economy, continued bloodshed in Iraq and a certain distance from their own party, Southern Democrats say they sense political daylight ?D and a slim possibility of recapturing the Senate. "