Senior Republican leaders have concluded that Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio, a pivotal state in this year’s fierce midterm election battles, is likely to be heading for defeat and are moving to reduce financial support for his race and divert party money to other embattled Republican senators, party officials said. ~The New York Times

This means that the GOP has been reduced to the “firewall” states of Tennesse, Virginia and Missouri, and their candidates are trailing in two of those states and dead-even in Virginia.  If they have written off Ohio, that frees up stretched Dem resources to solidify the leads Ford and McCaskill have been slowly piecing together and allows them to make more of a competitive bid against the far better-funded Allen in the Old Dominion.  Senate control is looking extremely shaky, but it will probably all hinge on whether the tainted Menendez can hang on in New Jersey.  The irony of a Menendez victory in the year of supposed anti-corruption politics would almost be entertaining enough to make it worthwhile.

Update: Apparently reports of GOP defeatism in Ohio have been greatly exaggerated.  But the numbers for DeWine still don’t look very good–Rasmussen has him down by five points according to the last information I saw.