That’s The Hill’s assessment:
The first edition of The Hill’s 2012 race ratings puts five Democratic-held seats in the toss-up column. Republicans need a net gain of at least three seats to win the Senate.
Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) are the two incumbents that top of the list of vulnerable Senate Democrats in 2012. And, thanks to retirements, another three Democratic-held seats are toss-ups — the ones held by Sens. Kent Conrad (N.D.), Jeff Bingaman (N.M.) and Jim Webb (Va.).
As for the House, current GOP control over most of the states makes it unlikely that the Democrats will be able to redistrict their way back into power. Of course, November 2012 is a very way long off. But at this point, pretty much everyone in Washington is betting on GOP control of both chambers of Congress.
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