More bad news for Democrats, from Democrats.
Midterm politics by numbersPosted: September 6th, 2010
From CNN Senior Political Editor Mark Preston
Washington (CNN) - There are 57 days before Election Day and Democrats and Republicans are preparing closing arguments to try and convince voters as to why their respective political party should control Congress.
Republicans will need a net gain of 39 seats to take back control of the House and a pick up of 10 seats for the Senate majority. One high level Democratic campaign strategist predicted that "up to 30 seats" are "now probably" lost in the House, while Republicans could pick up "8 seats" in the Senate."
Democratic leaders are telling colleagues to localize their races as well as argue that they are seeking solutions to fix the economy, while accusing Republicans of asking people to cast their votes in anger."
"The economy is not going to get demonstrably better," before Election Day, said the Democratic strategist, who would only speak freely about the challenges facing the Democrats on the condition of anonymity. "But Democrats are trying to fix it, and Republicans haven't offered a plan."
A senior Republican strategist acknowledged that in fact the election is primarily about the Democratic Party and broke it down to this formula: "Looking at this election, 80 percent of it is about them, and 20 percent is about us," said the strategist, who would also only speak under the cloak of anonymity.
The GOP strategist noted that Republican candidates are being told to "nationalize the election and try to make it a referendum on President Obama." The Republican strategist also sought to minimize Democratic charges that the party hasn't offered any solutions and noted that the much hyped Republican policy agenda – often compared to the 1994 "Contract with America" – will be unveiled later this month.
While the GOP is clearly in the hunt, elections are all about timing, and savvy Republicans realize that peaking too soon could take away that valuable momentum needed as they head into Election Day.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/06/midterm-politics-by-numbers/#more-120799
