[media-credit name=’BRYAN FAUST/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]University of Wisconsin political science professor Charles Franklin addressed a group of students Thursday about upcoming midterm elections, highlighting the possibility of a new Democratic Congress.

As an installment of Hillel's educational series "Coffee Talk," Franklin explained Democrats need to gain six seats in the U.S. Senate or 15 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to take majority control from Republicans this November.

"Today, while there are still some voices that think Democratic gains would be around 15 [in the House] … there's a lot more opinion that's come down to there being a 20-25 seat gain," Franklin said.

Franklin added that last week's scandal regarding former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., would likely have a negative effect on other Republican candidates come Election Day.

Foley resigned earlier last week after the discovery of sexually explicit e-mails to a 16-year-old male page. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., may also be implicated in the scandal after it was revealed he may have ignored warnings about Foley's e-mails.

Foley was up for re-election in Florida this November but has been replaced by a Florida state representative.

However, Franklin said the scandal that should affect the mid-term election the most does not involve Foley.

"Jack Abramoff spent money, bought votes, affected policy, and so on, and yet practically nobody in the real world cares about Jack Abramoff anymore," Franklin said, adding that the Foley scandal was fundamentally a private issue that did not affect policy.

As a lobbyist, Abramoff bought the votes of many Congressmen with bribes ranging from large sums of money to extravagant vacations.

While the Foley scandal may negatively affect current Republican candidates for both the House and Senate, Franklin said the Democrats are not necessarily guaranteed to win six Senate seats.

Senate polling in states such as Rhode Island, Tennessee, New Jersey and Missouri currently shows Democratic and Republican candidates neck-and-neck, and many pollsters, including Franklin, consider these to be pivotal races.

"Democratic control of the Senate actually looks considerably more uncertain at this point than the possibility of Democratic control of the House," he said.

Although Republicans are being held responsible for the Foley scandal, candidates of both parties will have to face difficult questions over the next two years about how to end the Iraq war, Franklin added.

Hillel's "Coffee Talk" series, sponsored by the Madison Israel Public Affairs Committee, aims to get UW students more involved in political issues, particularly those associated with Israel. Franklin is an expert on campaigns and political polls, not international relations or Israeli politics, and was not originally the evening's speaker.

"Democracy, in theory, gives everyone equal opportunity," UW junior David Urman, political affairs coordinator for MadPAC, said. "But you have to show up to get represented."

MadPAC, a group within Hillel that represents pro-Israeli UW students, will feature UW political science professor Chad Goldberg in the next installment of "Coffee Talk." Goldberg is slated to discuss U.S.-Israeli political relations.

"The reason we have this political program is because we think it's important to engage students in local political initiatives," UW junior Marina Boykis, campus relations coordinator for MadPAC, said. "It's important for them to exercise their democratic right."