By Rachel Kapochunas, CQ Staff

Though the national tide continues to move in the Democrats’ favor, Congressional Democrats recently added one of their own to the list of vulnerable incumbents: Rep. David Scott of Georgia’s 13th District.

And, due to recent events, CQ Politics is changing the rating of the district from Safe Democrat to Democrat Favored. The rating means Scott retains significant advantages but an upset cannot be ruled out.

District demographics and history should have guaranteed an easy win for Scott. He won in 2006 with a 40 percent landslide over the same opponent he has this time: Deborah Honeycutt, a physician. Honeycutt, like Scott, is African-American in a district where blacks made up 41 percent of the population, according to the 2000 census. John Kerry received 61 percent of the vote there in 2004 and Barack Obama ’s candidacy is expected to draw more Democratic African-American voters to the polls this cycle.

But a Democratic poll released last week by Cooper and Secrest Associates Inc. showed Scott with a small 5 percentage point lead over Honeycutt.

Scott campaign spokesperson Michael Andel told CQ Politics Monday that the poll confirmed their suspicions. “Anecdotally and some [congressional] members showed us that people were listening because they thought she was a Democrat,” Andel said. A group “Democrats for Good Government” appears on some of Honeycutt’s mailers and Democrats argue she has not clearly identified herself as a Republican in her literature.

Honeycutt told CQ Politics that accusations she is veiling her party affiliation are simply “desperation from a campaign that’s in panic mode.”

Honeycutt campaign manager Michael M. Murphy noted Thursday that Honeycutt ran in 2006 as a Republican, voter guides and sample ballots list her affiliation, and she served as an alternate to the Republican convention this summer.

Murphy added, “She does not like the label. She would like people to look at her as someone that wants to go to Washington to work for them.”

Honeycutt said she has no knowledge of Democrats for Good Government or their membership.

“In the last few days, because it’s been evident by a poll taken by Democrats that I’m within five points of the outgoing incumbent, there has been an onslaught of lies and misrepresentation and basically scare tactics going out,” Honeycutt said.

Scott released a radio ad Wednesday that aligns Honeycutt with John McCain and positions her as an opponent of Obama. The ad’s voiceover repeatedly mentions her party affiliation.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, of which Scott is a member, held a conference call Monday to defend Scott’s three-term tenure in Congress and hit back at Honeycutt. Honeycutt has labeled the lawmaker “corrupt,” argues he has been ineffective and “divorced himself” from the community. Additionally, CBC members have taken offense to a flier disseminated in the district regarding civil rights leaders which labels them as having sold “their souls for the money,” according to the CBC.

Last week, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee began making independent expenditures on the race for the first time this year. The committee has put $57,000 into the race from Oct. 23 through Oct. 29.