Last month, when a prominent Alabama blog published election race rankings for every state legislative seat in the state, we noted that other state-wide rankings might be in the works. On Thursday, a Swing State Project contributor published rankings and summaries for every Michigan State Senate Race.

The cycle is still early in Michigan (primaries are August 3rd, 2010, with a May 11th filing deadline), but the senate landscape is slowly starting to take shape. One interesting pattern is that there will be almost no incumbents on the ballot for Michigan Senate races in 2010. Because of term limits, and barring any unexpected retirements, voters will fill 30 open seats while only 8 incumbents run for reelection (including the winner of an upcoming special election in District 19).

This year's special election is one we at the DLCC will watch very closely. Democrat Marty Griffin -- a former House member -- has announced his intention to run for the open seat.

Also, these rankings include presidential election results by district, and it’s pretty shocking to see how badly the Republican gerrymander broke down in Michigan last fall. Some of the most Republican senate districts in the state, even some ranked “likely Republican” by the author, were won by Obama. Between those results and the huge number of open seats, Michigan Democrats have to feel optimistic about gaining the 4 seats they need to take a majority.