After the elections two weeks ago, there were still a handful of races to be decided, including three Senate races that could possibly give the Democrats carte blanche to do as they please in DC for the next two years. Of those three races, we now have the results of two, with two more left to be decided. No, I haven’t suddenly become mathematically challenged; explanations follow:

Two Down

In Alaska, it looks like Ted Stevens will be winding down his illustrious- and occasionally controversial- Senate career after losing to Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich. Not only did Stevens have to fight his way through a contested primary, some ethical issues, and conviction in a DC court, his opponent was the son of a former Alaska Congressman, Nick Begich, who died in a plane crash in 1972. If Alaskans had elected Stevens, a special election would have been held (assuming the Senate would have refused to seat Stevens) that the Republicans could have won. Instead, the Senate seat has gone to the Democrats, possibly for a long while.

In Minnesota, the state election board has finally announced that Norm Coleman won reelection. However, his margin of victory, 215 votes, is small enough to trigger an automatic recount. Former actor (I cannot, in good conscience, call him a “comedian”) Al Franken is not only going to allow the recount to continue (some candidates have waived their right to a recount after close losses), but it appears headed for some nasty legal showdowns.

Two To Go

Of course, the Minnesota recount is going to be long, drawn-out, and ugly. Minnesotans will probably tell you that’s how the race has been all along. Democrats will complain that rejected ballots (those filled out improperly) should be counted, a la Florida in 2000. Republicans may have an issue with the Secretary of State, a Democrat, sitting on the recount board. This one could drag into mid-December.

In Georgia, Republican Saxby Chambliss has already defeated Democrat Jim Martin once, but fell just short of the 50% of the votes needed to preclude a runoff election. This should be an easy win for Chambliss, but, with Begich winning and Minnesota going into a recount, this will be the final stand for Republicans looking to maintain any sort of control in Congress- or a huge coup for Democrats, should they pull off the upset and steal the election in Minnesota.

The big winner, as I stated several days ago, is Joe Lieberman. Senate Democrats realized how important he was, after all, to their possibly filibuster-proof majority, so they had to play nice with him. He did lose membership in one committee, but is still chair of the Homeland Security Committee.

Tags: Al Franken, Alaska, Georgia, Jim Martin, Joe Lieberman, Mark Begich, Minnesota, Norm Coleman, recount, Saxby Chambliss, Ted Stevens