Pundit: Keys to Nevada Senate race

In his latest assessment of the U.S. Senate races for 2012, political analyst Stuart Rothenberg identifies some potental key factors in the Nevada showdown between Democrat Rep. Shelley Berkley and Republican Sen. Dean Heller.

"Polling shows the race even, and the outcome could well turn on the size of Hispanic turnout, Berkley’s ability to sell outside her Las Vegas base and the extent to which voters, angry at the national and local economic downturn — and particularly the state’s dismal real estate market — choose to send a message of dissatisfaction to Obama and candidates from his party," Rothenberg writes today in Roll Call.

"A Berkley win in a GOP-held seat would be a huge development, affecting the net change of the election," according to Rothenberg.

With less than a year to go until the election,  Rothenberg identifies a half dozen states that are both key battlegrounds for control of the Senate and also control of the White House:  Nevada, Florida, New Mexico, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.  The Senate seats in five of the states. all but Nevada, are held now by Democrats.