SINKING THE CONGRESSIONAL DEMS

It wasn’t too long ago that the DNC folks were giddily predicting Democrat majorities for the House and Senate this November. The darkest gloom has replaced the giddiness. It’s dawned on them that Kerry is singlehandedly sinking their hopes.

No Democrat candidate in a tight Senate or House race is asking for Kerry to come and campaign for him. Not even Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle – who instead is running TV ads with pictures of him and President Bush! Republicans are running well in blue states, like Mike Ferguson in New Jersey, who barely won in 2000. The RNC is even targeting formerly solid Democrat seats like David Wu and Darlene Hooley in Oregon.

The key though, say the RNC folks in charge of the House and Senate campaigns, is the “depressed vote.” As one RNC staffer tells TTP: “There are going to be lots of Democrats in red states who figure voting for Kerry is useless since Bush is going to win big in their state. So they just don’t bother to vote at all, thus depressing the vote for Dem House and Senate candidates as well.”

Bottom line: the odds are ever-growing that Republicans will expand their majorities in the House by six to ten seats and the Senate by two or three.