WP:Growing Number of GOP Seats In Doubt

[cal04]

Vulnerability Seen In Unusual Places

When some of the country's top political handicappers drew up their charts of vulnerable House incumbents at the beginning of this year, Rep. Thelma D. Drake (R-Va.) was not among them. Now she is. President Bush carried her district with 58 percent of the vote in 2004, but strategists say his travails are part of the reason the freshman lawmaker now has a fight on her hands. He swooped into town briefly Friday for a closed-door fundraiser for Drake but made no public appearances.

Drake, who won with ease two years ago, is not alone. With approval ratings for Bush and congressional Republicans at a low ebb, GOP strategists see signs of weakness where they least expected it -- including a conservative, military-dominated suburb such as Virginia Beach -- and fear that their problems could grow worse unless the national mood brightens.

Some Republican veterans of the 1994 GOP takeover of Congress see worrisome parallels between then and now, in the way once-safe districts are turning into potential problems. Incumbents' poll numbers have softened. Margins against their Democratic opponents have narrowed. Republican voters appear disenchanted. The Bush effect now amounts to a drag of five percentage points or more in many districts.

The changes don't guarantee a Democratic takeover by any means, but they are creating an increasingly asymmetrical battlefield for the fall elections: The number of vulnerable Democratic districts has remained relatively constant while the number of potentially competitive Republican districts continues to climb. Stuart Rothenberg, editor and publisher of a political newsletter, now has 42 Republican districts, including Drake's, on his list of competitive races. Last September, he had 26 competitive GOP districts, and Drake's wasn't on the list. "That's a pretty significant increase," he said. "The national atmospherics are making long shots suddenly less long."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/19/AR2006051901921.html

[Tiggeroshii]

1. Very good news. n/t

[stepnw1f]

2. Could We Be Getting the Senate back As Well?

Imagine having the Senate and the House? Could happen...

[AX10]

7. It is very possible.

[napi21]

3. Well, this is no big surprise. That's what happens when you support

an idiot no matter what he asks for! Live by the sword and die by the sword!

[dobegrrrl]

4. Drake

Thelma Drake did not attend her own fund-raising dinner with the boy idiot!!!!
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :woohoo: :rofl: :rofl: :woohoo: :woohoo: :bounce: :bounce: :toast: :toast: :rofl: :rofl: :bounce: :bounce: :
:nopity: Poor old Thelma! :sarcasm: :kick:

[Dudley_DUright]

5. Isn't that like not attending your own funeral?

Apparently she had a previous engagement. :rofl:

[kaygore]

6. I was supposed to picket but got tied up--Where was Thelma?

A fairly large group of us met at her Virginia Beach headquarters last week and delivered a petition and tore up a big check representing the money she has received from special interest groups--a MoveOn affair.

I hadn't heard yet how big the crowd of protesters was today across from Bob Stanton's house where the fund raiser was held.

And...where was Thelma??? She is a real Bush puppet. I don't think that she has the capacity to think on her own.