ASHINGTON - While conceding that Democrats ''have a chance'' to win control of the Senate next year, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell yesterday said that his party's 10-seat advantage would be hard to overcome.
McConnell, chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, acknowledged in an interview on NBC's ''Meet the Press'' that a number of Republican senators face difficult reelection bids next year.
Of the Democrats' prospects of winning back control of the Senate, which they lost in 1994, the Kentucky Republican said, ''I would agree ... they have a chance.''
''Their problem is, we're going to win the states of Nevada, Virginia and New York,'' McConnell said.
Republican victories in those states would quash the chances of a Democratic takeover because the Republican Party starts out 10 seats ahead in the contest for control of the Senate, he said.
But not surprisingly, McConnell's Democratic counterpart, Senator Robert Torricelli, predicted that if the November 2000 election were held today, Democrats would win ''48 to 51 seats.''
Torricelli, chairman of the Democrats' Senatorial Campaign Committee, said he expected his party to pick up seats in Florida, Rhode Island, Michigan, Washington, Missouri and Pennsylvania. But to capture control of the Senate, the party also must hold on to vulnerable seats in Virginia, New York, and New Jersey, he said.
In one of those races, Torricelli predicted that Hillary Rodham Clinton would run successfully for the seat being vacated by New York Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is expected to be the Republican candidate in that contest.
