Unlike other media sources which reports on political race, D.C.'s Political Report tries to present material in an entirely different manner. Most newspapers tend to report elections like horse races: Who is ahead? Who is the underdog? Who is coming from behind?

D.C.'s Political Report however follows elections like show business: For pure entertainment value.

Therefore, our rating system is the same as rating a movies: on a five star scale.

Unentertaining Races pit an incumbent against a third party candidate only, or are unopposed. These incumbents are definitely returning to Congress next year.

Boring Races have incumbents against underfunded candidates or sacrificial lambs. There has to be some major national trend to defeat the incumbent.

Entertaining Races will either have an incumbent who faces a credible major party opponent or have an open seat in a district which heavily favors one party. If you are looking for surprise victories, it is in this category of races that they will occur.

Very Entertaining Races have not only credible challengers, but have districts in which national trends could easily affect the outcome. In years where a tidal wave over takes incumbents, it is in this category of race that incumbents get taken out. These races, and not the Entertaining Races, will be the races to look at for major changes in national politics.

Exciting Races receive the majority of attention from the media. These races have either open seats with two (or more) credible candidates or highly vulnerable incumbents.