House Democrats Prepare for Steep Uphill Battle

ABC News’ David Chalian Reports: House Democrats are preparing to battle history. After picking up a total of 51 House seats over the course of the last two election cycles, nearly all of the low hanging fruit for Democrats is gone as they prepare to head into the 2010 midterm elections. Add that to the fact that many of those newly elected Democrats are not sitting in reliably Democratic districts (49 Democrats currently represent districts won by John McCain in 2008) and it is clear to see why the House Democratic campaign chief will likely be playing more defense than offense over the next 18 months.

“Historically, 2010 is going to be a very tough year for us if the historical pattern holds because a new president’s party tends to lose lots of seats, so we take that challenge very seriously,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Chairman Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told ABC News’ “Top Line” on Tuesday.

In the post-World War II era, the party controlling the White House in the president’s first midterm election has lost an average of 22 seats.

However, Rep. Van Hollen is not willing to give up on offense entirely and is already running DCCC radio ads pressuring potentially vulnerable Republicans on their vote against President Obama’s stimulus bill.

“We saw in the special election in New York 20, when Scott Murphy, who was a total unknown in the political world, was able to win a special election against the Republican leader in the new York Assembly,” said Van Hollen. “[The stimulus] was the key issue. That was the decisive issue. That’s where the debate took place, and people said they want a member of Congress that’s going to work with the president on the economic recovery plan, and not someone who’s just going to say no,” he added.

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The National Republican Congressional Committee has been working to keep Democrats on the defensive over Speaker Pelosi’s recent charges that the CIA lied to her in a September 2002 intelligence briefing and the ethical cloud surrounding Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA).

Politco recently published a report about Rep. Murtha’s outreach to his fellow House Democrats by sending notes thanking them for their support as he battles daily headlines about investigations.

Chairman Van Hollen was unaware if he had received such a note from the embattled Rep. Murtha.
“I’m not sure whether I did or not get a thank you letter from John Murtha, but let me point out that on the first day that the Democrats took over in 2007 from the old Republican Congress, we enacted a huge slate of reforms: greater transparency, greater accountability in the earmark process,” said Van Hollen.
“We do have a responsibility to ensure that we police our own members in a sense. And the fact of the matter is, you know, the ethics committee is currently undergoing review of some members,” added Rep. Van Hollen in a response that offered nothing of an embrace or a defense of Mr. Murtha.
The chairman also promised a strong and competitive Democratic candidate to seek to replace Rep. John McHugh (R-NY) in an expected special election in upstate New York now that President Obama has nominated McHugh to serve in his administration.

“That seat has been traditionally a Republican seat. It has a 46,000 Republican advantage, but as we saw in New York 20, we can compete in those districts. Clearly it’s an uphill battle because you had an entrenched Republican infrastructure there. But, that having been said, we’re going to be looking at candidates, and I’m sure that we will have a very strong candidate to compete in that district,” he said.

We also chatted with Republican strategist and message guru Kevin Madden about the Sotomayor nomination and the various potential 2012 contenders for the Republican nomination lining up at the starting gate.

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Tags: battle, Democrats, house, Prepare, Steep, Uphill

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