Latest Senate polling shows Dem. uptick - updated Oct. 1 — Posted By John Isaacs Sep 30, 2008

During the hot presidential primary season, polling firms focused on presidential primary outcomes and not too much on congressional elections.

Now there are several new polls on Senate races each day that provide a glimpse of the contests.

There are some very interesting developments in the past few days.

Most surprising – a Kentucky poll showing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) dead even with his challenger, businessman Bruce Lunsford. This is the second poll in a week showing Lunsford catching up.  It is rare for party leaders to lose re-election battles in their home states, but it happened to Tom Dashle in South Dakota a few years back.

In Georgia, while some polls show incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss with a comfortable lead, two recent polls -- one listed below -- show a margin of as little as two points.

In another unexpected development, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R), who appears to be spending all his time campaigning nationally for John McCain, is now only 9 points ahead of his little known challenger, Bob Conley (D). While no one believes that Graham is seriously threatened, he may have to spend more time before the home folks instead of strolling the country arm-in-arm with John McCain.

In two other Senate contests, Oregon and North Carolina, the Democratic challengers may have taken narrow leads over Republican incumbents.

In fact, political guru Stu Rothenberg has moved the Oregon Senate race to "lean takeover" for Jeff Merkley (D).

Nationally, most polls show Barack Obama with a narrow lead after trailing a couple of weeks ago.

Could there be a similar trend in Senate contests?  Stay tuned, and check back frequently.  This compendium will be updated almost every weekday.

Full polling data is here.