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With Election One Week Away, Campaigns Focus On Numbers

(CBS) - Only seven days left, and right now, all sides in the Pennsylvania campaigns are concentrating on the numbers.

With a week left in the mid-term mania, the statewide and congressional candidates are pouring over voter stats to try to manuever a win, and nearly all the insiders we talk to agree on one thing: Republicans are revved up -- Democrats not as much. That makes the Philadelphia media market the key to victory or defeat.

A full 42% of registered Democrats in Pennsylvania live in this region from Allentown to Philadelphia which includes the 5 counties around Philadelphia and Berks County. With that many Democrats in the eastern tier, the turnout becomes critical. If the turnout is high, Democrats like Joe Sestak have a chance. If it's low to moderate, then it's good news for Pat Toomey and the Republicans.

If turnout is higher in the central and western parts of Pennsylvania than it is in the east and northeast, it will be a very difficult challenge for Democrats. Philadelphia had just a 41% turnout in the last Senate election in 2006.

Reported by Larry Kane, KYW Newsradio

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