Keystone Bill Denied

A controversial bill to approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline failed in the US Senate Tuesday evening. It received 59 "aye" votes, just shy of the 60 needed to send the bill to President Obama's desk. The fight isn't over yet; Republicans have said they plan to prioritize approving the pipeline once they take control of the Senate next year. This decision has an impact not only on the country, but on current runoffs for the senate race. This democratic decision could swing votes for the democratic senate candidates. 
I am surprised by this decision, but when the Republicans take over the Senate on January 1st, they will put up the Keystone bill again and it will most likely pass. Its just interesting that the urgency to put this bill up to vote was during senate runoffs. 

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2014/11/whats-happening-keystone-xl-week-explained

Oregon stays Democrat in GOP Storm

http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2014/11/jeff_merkley_leads_monica_wehb.html

While his fellow Democrats lost their Senate majority Tuesday night, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley cruised to a strong re-election victory over Republican challenger Monica Wehby.

Merkley's victory was clear minutes after the polls closed as he held a commanding lead of a more than 2-to-1 ratio over Wehby in partial results.

Winning his first re-election victory helps the 58-year-old Merkley cement his political standing in Oregon, and he will now have a more senior position on the Senate Appropriations Committee. But he'll have to operate from the minority in the Senate, making it harder to get things done.

This win for the democrats is one of the few as the Republicans gained 7 spots on the Democrats. It just goese to show that some states will never change even if the rest of the country does. Oregon is highly democratic and has been for years. I'm not sure of the effect this will have on the Senate, I just thought it was an interesting view to look at the "losing side" of the Senate elections.