2010 Maryland Senate - Wargotz vs. Mikulski

Oddly enough, in the early 1970s, Maryland had two Republican senators. One, Glenn Beall, Jr., was conservative and suffered one of the ten worst drubbings of any Senate incumbent in history in 1976 (his father had a top-five loss in 1964). The other one, Charles McC. Mathias, was cut from classic New England establishment Republican cloth. As a result, even in a terrible Republican year such as 1974, he was able to win with a convincing 17-point margin of victory.

Mathias retired in 1986 and was succeeded by the woman whom he had defeated in 1974: Barbara Mikulski (other Democrats who lost in 1974 but went on to solid careers include Harry Reid and Bill Clinton). Mikulski has won re-election four times with at least 60 percent of the vote. She’s polled below 60 percent of the vote several times this cycle against Queen Anne County Commissioner Eric Wargotz, but that doesn’t make her particularly vulnerable.