Control of Congress

At the Washington Post, Aaron Blake reports bad news for Republicans:

Sen. Olympia Snowe’s (R-Maine) retirement announcement Tuesday and former senator Bob Kerrey’s (D-Neb.) announcement Wednesday that he will seek a return to the Senate punctuated what has been a gradual rolling back of the GOP’s early momentum in the race for control of the Senate in 2012.

Gallup has better news for Republicans:

U.S. registered voters are currently split in their intentions to vote for the Republican or Democratic candidate in their congressional district, with 47% saying they would vote for each "if the elections for Congress were being held today." This reflects a more competitive race for control of the House than was seen last year.

These results, from a Feb. 16-19 USA Today/Gallup poll, are slightly more even than two previous measures from December and August of last year, which showed Democratic advantages of four and seven percentage points, respectively. The current divide on this congressional vote measure reflects a similar divide found when Americans are asked about voting in the presidential election, underscoring the possibility of close elections on both fronts next fall.