Double-digit losses in store for House Dems in 2010 elections?

The “experts” are saying it’s entirely possible (h/t: Memeorandum):

After an August recess marked by raucous town halls, troubling polling data and widespread anecdotal evidence of a volatile electorate, the small universe of political analysts who closely follow House races is predicting moderate to heavy Democratic losses in 2010.

Some of the most prominent and respected handicappers can now envision an election in which Democrats suffer double-digit losses in the House β€” not enough to provide the 40 seats necessary to return the GOP to power but enough to put them within striking distance.

Top political analyst Charlie Cook, in a special August 20 update to subscribers, wrote that β€œthe situation this summer has slipped completely out of control for President Obama and congressional Democrats.”

“Many veteran congressional election watchers, including Democratic ones, report an eerie sense of dΓ©jΓ  vu, with a consensus forming that the chances of Democratic losses going higher than 20 seats is just as good as the chances of Democratic losses going lower than 20 seats,” he wrote.

At the mid-August Netroots Nation convention, Nate Silver, a Democratic analyst whose uncannily accurate, stat-driven predictions have made his website FiveThirtyEight.com a must read among political junkies, predicted that Republicans will win between 20 and 50 seats next year. He further alarmed an audience of progressive activists by arguing that the GOP has between a 25 and 33 percent chance of winning back control of the House.

β€œA lot of Democratic freshmen and sophomores will be running in a much tougher environment than in 2006 and 2008 and some will adapt to it, but a lot of others will inevitably freak out and end up losing,” Silver told POLITICO. β€œComplacency is another factor: We have volunteers who worked really hard in 2006 and in 2008 for Obama but it’s less compelling [for them] to preserve the majority.”

Read the whole thing for more compelling information which suggests that next year could be the year of the beginning of the GOP comeback … provided, of course, that the party stick to its guns in getting back to its core principles, and nailing Obama and his Democrats in the House and Senate on the monstrous healthcare bill, cap and trade, and other policies that will hurt “the little guy” far more than it will help him.

If the party could turn this around next year, it’d be pretty amazing, especially considering that for all intents and purposes right now, it is leaderless.

Read more via Rick Moran, who has a good analysis on various scenarios that could work for the GOP over the next few election cycles, depending on certain factors and how things trend.

Comments are closed.