Mr Webb is far from being a lion of the Senate, roaring from the comfort of a safe seat.
The critics point to a recent parliamentary by-election in a safe seat, which the UMP held by only the thinnest of threads.
But many expect that Mr Gandhi, who was re-elected to his safe seat in UP, will take over the job within a year or two.
Among the Lib Dems' high-profile casualties was Lembit Opik, who lost the previously safe seat of Montgomeryshire, and Evan Harris in Oxford West and Abingdon.
It has been held by Labour since 1950 but at the 1999 election the party came very close to losing what had been thought a safe seat.
That effort will lead to a number of Tea Party-backed primary challenges in 2014, which could oust some pledge-breaking incumbents and put a safe seat into play.
Nor has the nasty row about the selection of Khalid Mahmood, the new candidate for the safe seat of Perry Barr, done Labour's standing any good in the city.
Mr Prodi has also gained by remaining aloof from another big decision: Mr D'Alema's offer to Antonio Di Pietro, the magistrate-turned-politician, of a safe seat in a forthcoming Senate by-election.
In Indiana, the Republican faithful contrived to put a safe seat at risk by tossing out the incumbent of 36 years, Dick Lugar, in favour of Richard Mourdock, a tea-party hero.
The party took four seats from the Conservatives in Sunderland, a safe seat was snatched from the Tories in South Tyneside and the party gained in Gateshead and Hartlepool at the Lib Dems' expense.
Parmjit Gill Singh's victory in the Leicester South by-election was the second rising Lib Dem star to inflict a damaging defeat on Labour in a once safe seat and push the Tories into the third place.
Elected to parliament in 1981 to a safe seat in the north-west Peloponnese, grandpa's birthplace, he spent several years twiddling his thumbs before his father gave him a junior ministerial post, as official link with Greece's large, mostly American and Australian, diaspora.
In November 2012 he resigned the safe Labour seat he had held for 18 years.
Having lost an election in Manchester, Churchill was handed a safe Liberal seat in Dundee, which he won comfortably in a by-election.
There will now be a by-election in the constituency - a safe Labour seat - which Mr Wicks had served since 1997.
Disgruntled male panjandrums in some constituency parties, who see a safe assembly seat as their right, are stirring up discontent over the new selection method.
In 1992, as plain John Taylor, Lord Taylor had stood as the Tory candidate for Cheltenham, which is normally a safe Conservative seat when the candidate is white.
If you don't have black ghettos if 50% of the black population has moved to the suburbs, which is the accurate figure you've got a problem creating a safe black seat.
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Her decision "relieves House GOP leadership of an unflattering distraction who not only perennially put an otherwise safe GOP seat at risk but damaged the party's brand nationally, " David Wasserman, analyst of House elections for the Cook Political Report, wrote Tuesday.
They forced a moderate Republican out of the race for New York's 23rd congressional district last year (though the perverse result was that this allowed a Democrat to win in a normally safe Republican seat), and claim the credit for electing Scott Brown last month in Massachusetts.
Although Kensington and Chelsea is regarded as a safe Tory seat - Mr Clark held it with a majority of 9, 519 in 1997 - Mr Portillo faces competition for the right-of-centre vote from the Pro European Conservatives, the Referendum Party and the UK Independence Party among others.
With her seat safe on plane to Germany, Dobriskey, who won gold at the Commonwealth Games in 2006, is looking forward to competing at the highest level again.
Political handicappers Stuart Rothenberg and Charlie Cook both rate the open seat as safe for Republicans.
As for David Cameron, the rampant Conservative leader, who earlier in the week had mischievously pointed out that his party does not hold a single seat as statistically safe as Glasgow East, he advised Mr Brown to take his holiday (in Suffolk) and then hold a general election.
Parents hoping to make a safe choice when shopping for a booster seat for their children are in luck.
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Yes, the FAA, like everyone else in the aviation business, knows that kids are safe flying only when they have their own seat and an approved restraint.
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It's the third time in recent months that Democrats have taken a seat in a district that had long been safe for Republicans.
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