This is an exciting evening. Santorum loses. Chafee — who voted against George W. Bush in the last election — loses. Menendez keeps his seat in New Jersey. Blue states are getting bluer. Hal Ford is going down in the South. Allen and Webb are flipping every few minutes.

Wow. Well, I did prefer that Senator Lincoln Chafee win his race — but also know that Sheldon Whitehouse is considered by many to be a great candidate. I very much hope that Whitehouse continue the same course on foreign policy that Chafee bravely pursued this year.

. . .

My former boss, Jeff Bingaman, has won decisively in the New Mexico senate race. He is no media hound, but he is the smartest guy in the Senate when it comes to good public policy. Congatulations.

While it was somewhat expected that Rick Santorum and Thomas Kean, Jr. were going into their respective elections in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in deficit positions, the fact that Kean was a moderate Republican and Santorum a right-winger does flag something.

I joined former Senator and presidential candidate Gary Hart for a speech to a small group in Pittsburgh at the Duquesne Club Friday night a few days ago. As usual, Gary Hart was mesmerizing.

This is another cool score sheet — from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. I like the “15 SEATS TO GO.

TPM Cafe has a very useful Election Central Scoreboard that will provide quick tallies once numbers are reported. Check it out.

Despite what I am hearing from different quarters and given my own Senate predictions, which of course could prove tremendously wrong, some exit polls are suggesting huge Democratic Party leads in key races. I report them now not to endorse them.

Arizona — Jon Kyl — Republican California — Dianne Feinstein — Democrat Connecticut — Joseph Lieberman — Independent Delaware — Thomas Carper — Democrat Florida — Bill Nelson — Democrat Hawaii — Daniel Akaka — Democrat Indiana — Richard Lugar — Republican Maine — Olympia Snowe — Republican Maryland — Ben Cardin — Democrat Massachusetts…