Dems have a chance to take back the House, if they can field the right candidates [View all]

[Fast Walker 52]

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/trump-gop-house-majority-jeopardy-221004

Democrats already had reasonable odds of flipping a dozen or so House seats. But DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Luján recently started highlighting “reach” districts, like those of Rep. John Mica in Florida and Rep. Steve Knight in California, that broaden Democrats’ target list enough to take back the chamber — if local candidates can take advantage of the sudden opportunity. Strategists are now turning their attention to moderate suburbs around Detroit, Minneapolis, Washington and other areas where House Democrats have struggled in recent years but Trump has already shown weakness.

(snip)

One major question mark for Democrats is whether they have the candidates to ride a wave, if Trump generates one in their favor. With the filing deadline approaching in Colorado, Democrats still don’t have a candidate in GOP Rep. Scott Tipton’s district, which the party targeted as recently as 2012 and which has a substantial Latino population. Bill Phillips, the Democratic candidate in Mica’s Florida district — one of the seats Luján mentioned last week — had less than $20,000 in his campaign account to start the year. In key California districts, Democrats face primaries and feuding between local activists and the national party.

(snip)

Democrats need to net at least 30 seats to retake the House — the same number they flipped to take the majority in the 2006 wave. But John Lapp, who ran the DCCC’s independent expenditure program that year, said this year was starting to feel familiar. “The type of people who came in during 2006 — when the campaign broke late and they were able to ride that wave — I think it’s the early stages of that,” Lapp said.

A potential path toward 30 seats, once thought to be outside the realm of possibility, has become clearer for Democrats in recent days. Luján ducked when asked whether Democrats could win back the House at a news conference last week, but his committee is actively preparing to compete in districts that weren’t on the radar months ago. Democrats are targeting seats with “high numbers of independent voters, socially moderate voters, millennials and minority voters,” Luján said.
“We are going to keep recruiting through filing day because of this momentum that has been created by Donald Trump,” Luján added.

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Let's see if the Dems can actually snatch victory from the jaws of defeat for a change. Everyone knows the current GOP-led congress is a disaster and needs to go.