In which state do Democrats have their longest Senate race winning streak?

a) Massachusetts

b) Hawaii

c) West Virginia

d) New Jersey

Answer: c) The fact that Democrats have won 18 Senate elections in a row in West Virginia is not that surprising, given the party’s longstanding overall dominance in state politics — and the fact that nine of those victories have been scored by one man: Robert C. Byrd, who was last re-elected in 2006 and is, at age 90, the longest-serving senator in history.

The Democrats’ West Virginia streak began in 1958, when they won two races. Byrd won his first Senate contest in 1958 by unseating the state’s last Republican senator, Chapman Revercomb, who had won his seat in a 1956 special election. In the other 1958 race, Democrat Jennings Randolph won a special election contest to fill the seat vacated by the death of Democratic Sen. Matthew M. Neely.

Byrd was subsequently re-elected in 1964, 1970, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000 and 2006. Randolph was re-elected in 1960, 1966, 1972 and 1978, then was succeeded by current occupant John D. Rockefeller IV, who won in 1984, 1990, 1996 and 2002 — and is heavily favored to extend the streak to 19 by winning re-election this November.

Hawaii is second with 13 straight Democratic Senate wins. Daniel K. Inouye has won eight races since 1962, including six that date to the beginning of the streak in 1974. Spark M. Matsunaga won races for the Democrats in 1976, 1982 and 1988; current Sen. Daniel K. Akaka won the 1990 special election to succeed the late Matsunaga and was re-elected in 1994, 2000 and 2006.

Massachusetts is tied for third with New Jersey with 11, and is virtually certain to move ahead this year as John Kerry is strongly favored to win a fifth term. The streak began when Edward M. Kennedy, first elected in a 1962 special election, won his third election for a full term in 1976. Democrat Paul E. Tsongas then unseated Republican Sen. Edward W. Brooke in 1978 and served one term; Kerry won to succeed him in 1984 and was re-elected in 1990, 1996 and 2002. Kennedy, meanwhile, was re-elected to the seat he still holds in 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000 and 2006.

New Jersey, where the next scheduled Senate election is in 2010, has a complicated chain of events within its long Democratic winning streak. It began with Harrison Williams’ re-election to a fourth term in 1976. Bill Bradley was then elected in 1978 and subsequently re-elected in 1984 and 1990, when Robert G. Torricelli won to succeed him. Meanwhile, a Republican, Nicholas F. Brady, actually was appointed to the Senate and served for eight months in 1982 after Williams, convicted in a bribery sting, resigned his seat, but Democrat Frank R. Lautenberg kept the Democrats’ election streak alive that November. Lautenberg won again in 1988 and 1994 and did not seek re-election in 2000; he was succeeded by Jon Corzine, who won for governor in 2005 and appointed Democrat Robert Menendez, who then won a full term in 2006. Lautenberg, though, came back to win in 2002 after Torricelli, facing ethics controversies, quit his re-election campaign; Lautenberg this year is favored to win re-election.