54 actually 46. two of these independents actually are with democrats. democrats would need, let s assume, on the assumption hillary clinton wins. that means all they would need is a net gain of four to control the chamber. that would get them to 50/50 and tim kaine who is the vice president is really the senate of the president. he would be the deciding vote. however, however is that with tim kaine leaving, that means they re going to have to appoint somebody to his seat and then have a special election and, quite frankly, in 2017, republicans could maybe win back the chamber in 2017. but your point there are some folks such as marco rubio in florida who is looking at split ticketing and probably will win. these independents you have king up there in maine and bernie sanders. we re picking them. so, when you look at this race, you see this as a key race. you don t think that the incumbent has it? she has been struggling. she has been struggling because she has been embracing don
a time not for split ticketing but for straight party voting. so now i think the republican candidate will be clearly favored. it may be that the democrats can t even come up with a first-class nominee. jon: they have been talking about senator bob kerrey who used to represent that state. he has been in new york for a long time but would he be a possibility, a strong contender? if he runs. i ll be surprised if he does. you know he hasn t been back to nebraska for a long time and he was there and got elected governor and senator in a very different environment, when nebraskans and other people in republican red states were more willing to elect democrats to these sorts of positions. we live in a highly polarized environment now and i think it would be much tougher on him this time than it was in those previous times when he won the governorship and a senate seat. jon: larry sabato, center for politics at the university of virginia, thank you. thank you, jon.