The ongoing economic crisis coupled with the aggressive assertion of Democrats' massive fundraising advantage has significantly broadened Republican vulnerabilities in the House and made a 25-plus seat pickup a very real possibility.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, sensing the once in a generation opportunity for huge seat gains, has taken out a $15 million bank loan -- a cash infusion that will allow them to go after a far broader number of newly vulnerable Republican incumbents.
Independent political analysts like Stu Rothenberg and Charlie Cook have upped their predictions of Democratic gains in recent weeks -- with a 20-seat Democratic gain now seen as the floor for November.
Most strategists -- in both parties -- privately believe Democrats are positioned to pick up well more than 15 seats especially given the developments of the last few weeks. During that time, the bottom, which many GOP operatives believed had long ago been reached, dropped out further with seemingly safe incumbents like Reps. Dan Lungren (Calif.), Dana Rohrabacher(Calif.), Dean Heller (Nev.), Lee Terry (Neb.) and Peter Roskam (Ill.) now in real races.
If the likes of Lungren et al. wind up losing, Democrats could well score seat pickups of 35 or more in 19 days time -- a wave that would drop Republican into weak minority status at the start of 2009.
In other words, although we only list the 25 seats likely to switch party control in our House Line this week, the playing field has the real potential to be much larger (and worse) for Republicans.
