Has Debbie Stabenow become unbeatable?

Did the 2012 election push Debbie Stabenow into the territory of politically invincible?

Some political analysts apparently view Tuesday’s results as Stabenow’s “Carl Levin election.” Meaning that she has proven her popularity and resiliency – and fundraising prowess -- to the extent that she may never face a strong Republican challenge again – ala Levin, her Democratic Senate colleague.

I’m not suggesting she has a job for life but the Republican Party certainly took notice that a year ago Stabenow was in a GOP-targeted seat and by the time Election Day arrived the incumbent had swamped a top-tier Republican candidate, Pete Hoekstra, by nearly 1 million votes, a 58 to 39 percent margin.

The 62-year-old Lansing Democrat has established a reputation as a strong retail campaigner (though I think her skills in that area are overrated) and she's benefited greatly by landing the Senate Agriculture Committee chairmanship.

In that position of power, the senator has established new ties in the Michigan farming community and boosted her support in the out-state areas. She has also earned glowing, bipartisan reviews from her Senate colleagues for her handling of the new farm bill.

Republican operatives who consistently underestimate Stabenow may finally come to grips with this: She has never lost a general election. She is now 15-0.

And some of those victories were unlikely: running as a 24-year-old woman in the 1970s, she beat a Republican incumbent to win a spot on the Ingham County Board of Commissioners; after capturing a state House seat and then receiving a lift to the state Senate, Stabenow knocked off GOP incumbent Dick Chrysler to land a seat in Congress; and then in 2000 she upended Republican incumbent senator Spence Abraham.

Since then, she has racked up two overwhelming re-election wins. At some point, it would seem likely that her campaign engine will be put on cruise control.

After all, when 2018 approaches and GOP recruiters start searching for a quality candidate to run against Stabenow, how many prospects do you think will respond simply: “Don’t you guys have better things to do?”