While the hard-fought campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is attracting major media coverage, the Democrats' prospects for big gains in the U.S. Congress appear to be quietly improving. The AP's Charles Babington reports that, with the recent announcement that Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) won't be running for reelection, the number of current House Republicans calling it quits in November has reached 26. That's 26 potential Democratic pick-ups. Babington further reports that some in the party are considering targeting "as many as 50 House seats now held by Republicans."
And things are looking good on the financial end:
Campaign money, usually a Republican strong suit, is flowing to the Democrats this season. In the most recent reports, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had $34 million on hand, compared with $4 million for its GOP counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Of course, back in January, the NRCC had a couple more million in their coffers. They subsuquently burned it in an unsuccessful effort to help out Jim Oberweis's special election campaign against now-Rep. Bill Foster in Illinois' 14th District.
The action is not all in the House, however. Babington identifies strong Democratic efforts to take over Republican Senate seats in New Hampshire, Minnesota, Alaska, Oregon, and Maine.
More after the jump ...
Louis Jacobson, writing for Stateline.org, also sees the potential for a major down-ticket shake-up in statehouse elections across the country. These contests are particularly important because they could determine which party has the most influence over the upcoming congressional redistricting:
What's at stake, in part, is that eight states, including major ones such as Indiana, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin, have divided control of their legislatures, at least one chamber that could flip party-control in 2008 and a system that allows lawmakers to redraw congressional districts in conjunction with their governors after 2010. In each case, seizing control of a chamber could significantly shift the dynamics of redistricting. And in another big state, Texas, Democrats are looking to secure a place at the redistricting table by winning the state House.
In considering what lies ahead, Democrats across the country are pointing to Foster's upset victory in the 14th as an indication that they can make major advances into GOP territory in November.
From Babington's article:
Foster's win in Hastert's old district "sent a political shock wave across the country," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Republicans called it an isolated contest, but Van Hollen said, "The ingredients that helped Foster are elsewhere," in competitive races throughout the nation.
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