much. now, to u.s. senate races to watch around the country and we travel southwest to kentucky. it seems like it is making news almost every day as the most contentious race in the nation. the senate battle between jack conway and republican rand paul. paul according to the real clear politics average has a 7-point lead which is the average of polls. new democratic leaning poll out today. pppp that gives paul a 13-point advantage. monday night the candidates met for the last time. the final time for their debate. correspondent mike tobin is in lexington tonight to show us what happened. this time they shook hands. an attempt was made to stick to the issues but following the bad blood which almost canceled the final debate a tax claiming that rand paul forced a woman in noo a by da bizarre ritual,t could not resist taking
in recent weeks says he just tries to stay above the fray. what could be a problem for hickenlooper despite his lead is his failure to break through that 50% ceiling in the the polls. analysts say that is because of how voters are feeling towards the democratic brand of president obama and other big-name dems. bret? alicia, thank you very much. another race, a three way race for governor being staged in rhode island and that is where we find democrat frank caprio and republicans john ro robetae going head to head. the former gop senator has a new ad touting his relationship with president obama. this, of course, the day after democrat caprio told president obama he could take his endorsement or lack of one and shove it . the candidates will meet
republicans. obviously portman has the senate seat at this point. that is one away when you get up to 15 points. what it tells us about the governor s race, though, is interesting because that is governor strickland has managed to keep this pretty tight with john kasek and now he is a little bit ahead. think about the republicans going to the polls and voting for portman, probably not good news for governor strickland. bret: gentlemen? this is the core larry to the feingold race. bret: the apocalypse again? portma bush is now more popular in ohio than obama it. they are turning portman into a bush lackey and it is not working and that does not have traction. signs basically the entire rust belt upper midwest is turning into a graveyard for a lot of the aagain that and hard to see how obama wins in 2012 if he
barack obama. you are an obama liberal. that is exactly why they are endorsing you. bret: this is a hot race. 7 days to go. the florida governor abouts contest. a debate last night in florida and an unusual event, take a listen to this, the democratic candidate admitting that she was getting notes from her staff. so we can get notes and have people that work from us come and give us messages? no. i just wanted to know. she got a message from her staff. that aide has one been fired according to the democrat and this is how the race stacks up. the real clear politics average of polls has this very, very close with rick scott just barely ahead. one of the races we will look at. bring in our panel. joe that bloom berlg.
and that is where we betbin. and it is in the begin. it is in the 12th district of pennsylvania. there we find democrat mark kirtz in a rematch against the man he defeated in a special election last spring, republican tim byrnes. just to show you how this district stands and how equally split it is, look back to the presidential election in 08. president obama 49% and john mccain 49%. that is how close this district is. we also have another race in pennsylvania that is going the other way. chief political correspondent carl cameron is in the 12th tonight. reporter: in rural western pennsylvania with fellow gop candidates tim byrnes is struggling to become the first republican to represent pennsylvania s 12th congressional district in decades by ousting the incumbent who beat kirtz in a special eelection six months ago. both are out to fill the see the held for 36 years by