WASHINGTON (By Devlin Barrett, Associated Press) December 28, 2005 — Despite being New York's less-famous senator, Charles Schumer stayed busy in 2005, keeping a hand — or quote — in almost every major congressional battle.

Now he is out to prove he has the strategy to elect Senate Democrats and maybe wrest control from the Republicans.

Schumer, the head of Senate Democrats' campaign efforts, said Tuesday he is focusing on seven states where he believes they can take GOP-held Senate seats in 2006: Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee, and Arizona.

"If the stars align right, we could actually take back the Senate," Schumer said.

The Senate currently has 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and one Democratic-voting independent. In 2006, there are five open Senate seats, as well as 14 Democratic senators and 14 Republicans seeking re-election.

Schumer heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which had more than $22 million available, according to their last fund-raising report. That's more than double the cash available to their counterparts in the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

NRSC spokesman Brian Nick said Schumer's current funds advantage "means zilch" and his list of target states "is suspect at best."

The NRSC also is looking at replacing Democratic senators in places like Maryland, Minnesota and New Jersey.

Arizona's race between incumbent Republican Sen. Jon Kyl and former state Democratic Party chairman Jim Pederson has been attracting national notice because Pederson, a wealthy developer, has the resources to mount a formidable campaign. However, Kyl holds a substantial lead in early polls, and Republicans enjoy a 5 percentage point voter registration edge in the state.

Senate minority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will visit five Western cities next month to drum up Democratic support. According to Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, one of his stops will be in Phoenix to campaign for Pederson.

Margaret Kensky, a Tucson pollster who has worked for Kyl, doesn't share Democrats' optimism about how competitive Arizona will be.

"It's not one I would put a lot of money into if I were them," Kensky said.

Though Kyl's favorable ratings have slipped since early this year and President Bush's ratings have taken a deep slide, Kyl continued to lead Pederson 50 percent to 30 percent in a new Rasmussen Reports Election 2006 poll released Monday. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Arizona Democratic Party Chairman Harry Mitchell said the Senate Democrats' focus on the race will pump new resources into the state, and he expects those poll numbers to change once the campaign gets fully under way next year. Democrats also expect Bush, who helped Kyl raise more than $1 million at a Phoenix fund-raiser last month, to push some voters into Pederson's camp if he associates himself closely with Kyl.

"Democrats are pretty pumped about this," Mitchell said.

Missouri GOP strategist Lloyd Smith, who is a senior adviser to Republican incumbent Jim Talent, said that Democrats will need a lot more than a financial edge to win next year's race in his state.

"There's gonna be an attempt to nationalize this race by the Chuck Schumers and the Hillary Clintons, but ultimately the political singing senators from New York aren't going to play that well here," Smith said.

But one political observer, Bruce Oppenheimer, a Vanderbilt University politics professor, said the conditions in Tennessee may be ripe for a Democratic win.

"People think this race would lean Republican, all other things being equal. But it's in play," said Oppenheimer. "For the Democrats, it's certainly doable."

Schumer is trying to pare his party's message down to a few straightforward ideas.

"Mostly, it's the meat and potato issues: Save Social Security. Fix prescription drugs. Energy independence," he said.