CNN POLLS FIVE KEY SENATE RACES. With just a week to go before the midterm elections, CNN released a new poll this morning on the five states political observers are watching most. * Missouri -- Sen. Jim Talent (R) and state Auditor Claire McCaskill (D) are right where they've been all along, tied at 49 percent support each. However, the CNN poll showed that expanding the field to registered voters (instead of likely voters) shows McCaskill ahead, 51 percent to 43 percent. * New Jersey -- Like nearly all recent polling in the Garden State, Sen. Bob Menendez (D) still leads state Sen. Tom Kean Jr. (R), 51 percent to 44 percent. * Ohio -- No wonder the GOP establishment bailed on Ohio; it appears increasingly uncompetitive. CNN shows Rep. Sherrod Brown (D) leading incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine (R), 54 percent to 43 percent. * Tennessee -- In perhaps the biggest setback to Democratic hopes of regaining the Senate, CNN shows former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker with a six eight-point lead over Rep. Harold Ford (D), 52 percent to 44 percent. * Virginia -- Shortly after Sen. George Allen (R) decided to make Jim Webb's (D) fictional novels the key to his homestretch strategy, voters appear unimpressed. The new poll shows Webb with his biggest lead in an independent poll to date, 50 percent to 46 percent. With Democrats favored to win Republican seats in Pennsylvania, Montana, and Rhode Island, and with Ohio and New Jersey appearing increasingly favorable for the party, Democrats are still right where they've been for weeks -- they need two out of three in Missouri, Tennessee, and Virginia to take back the Senate majority. According to the CNN poll, they just might pull it off.
--Steve Benen (crossposted on Midterm Madness)
