CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE
Dec. 20, 2007 – 1:53 p.m.
Blunt Handicaps GOP Prospects Next Year
Looking toward the 2008 elections, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt was optimistic Thursday about Republican prospects for retaking control of Congress.
“Republicans around the country have reason to believe we’ll fight the tough fights,” the Missouri Republican told a roundtable of reporters.
With filing deadlines approaching in many states, Blunt noted that 61 Democrats serve in districts President Bush won in 2004. In contrast, only eight Republicans, including Christopher Shays of Connecticut, serve in districts that favored Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry that year.
Blunt argued that in those ambiguous districts Republicans only need to pick up 16 of the Democratic seats and hold on to eight of their own to regain the majority. Or, he suggested, they could pick up 24 and ignore the eight.
“Don’t tell Chris Shays I said that,” Blunt said with a laugh. Shays won a tight race last year with just 51 percent of the vote.
But if fundraising is any indication, the Republicans will have their hands full just trying to stay competitive next year.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee continued its strong fundraising pace in November, hauling in $4.1 million in receipts for the month compared with $2.7 million for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
The DCCC spent $2.7 million in November, leaving it with $30.6 million in cash on hand, according to FEC reports. The NRCC, meanwhile, spent $2.9 million — more money than it raised for the month. It lags way behind the Democrats in cash on hand, with just $2.3 million.
Comments
What Blunt forgets is that if a Democrat wins the Presidency, a lot of these Bush districts will be voting Dem at the Presidential level, making it close to impossible for Republicans to pick up those seats.
Blunt also forgets that when citing those districts that Bush won but now have Democrats representing, they are talking about 2004. They seem to conveniently forget about the more recent 2006 election when Bush's popularity was in the low 30's , not the upper 40's like in 2004. They forget two more years of the Iraq war, trying to privitise social security, spying on Americans, and all those other reasons those districts voted Democratic last year. If anything , things have gotten worse and Bush is even more unpopular than last year. Keep dreaming Blunt.
Blunt is correct. The Democrats in charge of the House have accomplished nothing! They want to raise taxes, cozy up to the ACLU who want to weaken American strength to stop terrorist attacks, and they care more about demeaning our soldiers and cozying up to the hate america moveon.org. Many of these Democrats have voted in lock stetp with San Fran Pelosi and that will now not fly!
I wish Blunt all the best. Do your best. It is time for us to have proper order in our Congress. I hope Republicans will win the house, senate and the Presidency. We are with you all the way.
Blunt's analysis reminds me of Rove's math, in which he predicted victoryin 2006. It is a GOP SOP to always try to predict sunshine regardless of the actual weather forecast. And the other posters show many of the same tired, Repelican points: look for scapegoats through name calling - "liberal moveon.org"; blame the Democrats for the repelican filibuster record in the Senate, etc.
I hope GOP will loose everything and everywhere: Presidency and many more House and Senate Seats. The ideal will be if Senate will have Fillibuster-proof majority in Senate and big majority in the House. Ideal will be to make GOP irrelevant Party fin the Goverment or the sake of this nation.
The country is moving left because lack of funding for critical programs. SCHIP had approval of 81% of Americans. More Americans are now a part of the "we" society instead of the "me" society. Plus the Republican party membership is now down to 25%. I also think that the Senate will have at least 58 Dems after this election and pick up another thirty in the house. GO PROGRESSIVES.
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