Incumbents elected in the 2010 midterms will face an electorate that is demographically more daunting in a presidential year. No mat­ter how en­ter­tain­ing the cir­cus of the pres­id­en­tial cam­paign, also re­mem­ber this: Con­trol of the Sen­ate is def­in­itely in play. Mag­gie Has­san offered a re­mind­er Monday when the Demo­crat­ic gov­ernor of New Hamp­shire an­nounced that she will chal­lenge Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a first-term Re­pub­lic­an, in next year’s elec­tions. Has­san had been si­lent about her in­ten­tions, but pub­lic polling sug­gests that the race would be very close; most sur­veys show the Re­pub­lic­an in­cum­bent with the nar­row­est of leads. Re­pub­lic­ans hold a 54-to-46 ad­vant­age in the Sen­ate. This means that Demo­crats would need a net gain of four seats if they hold onto the White House, or five seats if they don’t (be­cause the vice pres­id­ent can break a Sen­ate tie). The GOP’s ma­jor­ity is flimsy, though. Re­pub­lic­ans have 24 seats at risk next year, com­pared to just 10 for the Demo­crats, and sev­en are in states that Pres­id­ent Obama car­ried in 2012. One of those sev­en seats looks safe; Iowa’s six-term

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