There is a little bit of clarity creeping into the Battle for the Senate. Today we have moved four races: three toward the Democrats and one towards the GOP. (View the changes on RCP's Senate summary page which you can access from the top right corner of the front page.)

Rhode Island and Ohio have been moved to Likely Democrat. Along with Pennsylvania, that gives Democrats three of the six seats they need for control. Incumbents Santorum, Chafee and DeWine all trail by 9-12 points and are stuck in the low 40's in the latest RCP Averages, and it's very hard to see how they win in an environment where the Generic ballot favors Democrats by 15 points.

New Jersey moved to Leans Democrat and Tennessee to Leans Republican. Both Menendez and Corker lead by 5 or more in their respective RCP Averages and both have the benefit of playing on friendly turf in each state. These races have been Toss Ups for much of the campaign and while it is possible they could close again, right now they look like holds for each party.

This leaves three races as clear Toss Ups: Missouri, Virginia and Montana. Assuming a Ford loss in Tennessee, Democrats will need to sweep all three of these states to win control of the Senate. Montana had been a race that Democrats felt they had in the bag due to Burns' Abramoff problems, but Burns started to creep back into the race a couple of weeks ago and has closed to within 2.3% in the latest RCP Average. Tester retains the slight edge, but Burns has the momentum.

The slow-motion implosion of George Allen in Virginia continues as Jim Webb moved out in front in Virginia in the RCP Average for the first time on Monday. But did he peak too soon? And can the Republican ground game in the conservative-leaning state pull this out for the GOP? Webb probably retains a slight edge at the moment.

Missouri has been a dead heat all year, teetering back and forth between Talent and McCaskill. As of today, the Democrat now has a small edge in the latest RCP Average up 1.4%. This race is basically a coin-flip, but given the anti-GOP atmosphere you might have to give a very small edge to McCaskill.

So Democrats need to sweep three very close races -- and they are in a very credible position to do just that. However, as we've been saying for some time now, the wild card on election night could very well be in the solid blue state of Maryland, where Republican Michael Steele has a legitimate chance to upset Democrat Ben Cardin. We're monitoring this race very closely and currently still have it in the Leans Democrat column, but Steele has all of the late momentum. With Bob Ehrlich closing hard as well in a very competitive governor race, Steele has a shot. Incredibly, a black Republican from Maryland could save the Senate for the GOP.