Democrats in swing states 2014 election prospects under pressure to survive in next year’s vote | Democracy, elections, and voting at Democracy Chronicles

Long slog to 2014 election begins for Senate’s ‘red state’ Democrats

The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON — The agony of the 2014 election cycle has already begun for incumbent Democrats from “red” states.

That became apparent Thursday, when three Democratic senators from conservative-leaning states – Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana – rejected their own party’s fix for the budget-crimping “sequester.” It included $55 billion in tax hikes on the rich alongside cuts to farm subsidies and the Pentagon.

Earlier in the week, two powerful conservative groups had pegged Senator Pryor as a top 2014 election target.