I don't know. Koch and Beckstein both might suffer for being a bit too high-profile in the news. Meanwhile, note that on 27 January, there will be elections in another state, too: Lower Saxony, Schröder's former domain. Lower Saxony is currently headed byr PM Christian Wulff (CDU/Anden-Pakt), who is much widely popular and keeps a much lower profile than Koch, but may 'get more done'. And polls show that unlike his colleagues in Hessen and Hamburg, he is on track for re-election, with a barely reduced comfortable majority for his CDU-FDP coalition.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}