Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/senate-governor-races-battle-to-the-end Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Democrats need to gain six seats to win control of the Senate, and Republicans are defending 22 governorships in the 36 states holding gubernatorial elections this year. Political journalists discuss the upcoming gubernatorial and Senate races. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: And now, onto the Senate and governors' races, and once again to Margaret Warner. MARGARET WARNER: In the Senate, Democrats need to pick up six seats to win control from the Republicans. Chris Cillizza from WashingtonPost.com joins us now for the latest look at the battle for the Senate.So, Chris, again, less than 24 hours before the polls open, how does the Senate landscape look? CHRIS CILLIZZA, The Washington Post: Well, you know, I think that the Senate is going to be a little bit of a tougher road to hoe for Democrats to take control than the House. It doesn't mean it's impossible; it just means it's more difficult.They're going to need to win six seats. There's eight to 10 seats competitive here, but only eight of those are held by Republicans. So they're really going to need to come close to running the table in order to take it back. MARGARET WARNER: Is it fair to say that the number of sure bets that they thought they had has shrunk in recent days? CHRIS CILLIZZA: I think it has. I think it shrunk from four to two. I think the two that we would still say are sure bets are in Pennsylvania, where Senator Rick Santorum is in a lot of trouble. Polling has never shown him above about 41 percent or 42 percent of the vote. He's having a very hard time.In Ohio, similarly, Senator Mike DeWine, a Republican, has really seen that race go downhill against Congressman Sherrod Brown, the Democrat. He is behind by 9 or 10 points. So those two are still very solidly looking like takeovers.Two others, in Rhode Island and Montana — Rhode Island is where Senator Lincoln Chafee is running for re-election; Montana is where Senator Conrad Burns in running for re-election — have tightened, actually. Burns and Chafee were both given up for politically dead a few weeks ago, and now both appear to be coming back. Now, we're not saying they're going to win, but they look like they now have a chance. And we wouldn't have said that just a few weeks ago.