THE STANDINGS – AT 8:45 A.M. ET:  With a week to go, the standings in the polls remain remarkably stable.

In Pennsylvania, Pat Toomey has restored his momentum.  The Morning Call tracker now puts him up eight.

But the Connecticut Senate race looks grim, with Quinnipiac confirming other polls and putting Blumenthal up 12 over McMahon.  Linda McMahon was on TV last night reminding us that Scott Brown was behind in the polls by an even greater margin at this time in his campaign.  Yeah, true, but Linda isn't Scott Brown, unfortunately, although she's run a very respectable campaign.  Hope for a miracle.

RealClearPolitics pegs the House at 222 Republicans, 180 Dems and 33 toss ups.  It takes 218 for a majority.  But RCP pegs the Senate at 48 Dems, 44 Republicans and 8 toss ups, unchanged in days.

And note this, from David Paul Kuhn at RCP:

Republicans are likely to have the advantage drawing congressional seats for the first time since the modern redistricting process began in the 1980s.

Welcome to the furthest reaches of the coming Republican wave. The GOP is on track to win at least the House in one week. But the story extends far beyond Washington. Republicans' gains in the states will likely match those in Congress, or possibly exceed them.

There'll probably be more polls later today.

October 26, 2010