Republican, Democratic party chiefs see victory in battle for the House
In dueling appearances on the Sunday morning news shows, the heads of the Democratic and Republican parties made the same prediction — After the Nov. 2 elections, our guys will control the House.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele says his party’s going into the final campaign stretch on a winning combination of momentum, excitement and energy.
“There is a vibration out here that is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, Steele said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I think you’re going to see a wave, an unprecedented wave on Election Day, that’s going to surprise a lot of people,” Steele said.
“As I like to say, we’re 38 seats and we need to get to 39 seats to… get control (of the House). But I think we’re more than there,” the RNC chief said.
The Senate’s going to be a bit tougher, Steele said, but he’s not ruling out a takeover there too.
“If this wave continues the way it’s going… I think you could see the Senate as well goes to Republicans,” he added.
from Summit Notebook:
Democrat: believers of 2010 Republican majority in “la la land”
Congressman Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, says the November 2010 midterm elections will be difficult, but anyone who believes Republicans will wrest majority control of the House of Representatives is living in "la la land."
The midterm elections will be viewed by many as a referendum on the policies of Democratic President Barack Obama.
"It is going to be a very volatile, political environment," Van Hollen said at the Reuters Washington Summit.
He pointed out that since the days of President Abraham Lincoln, only twice has a new president's party picked up seats in the first midterm election -- in 1934 (when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president) and 2002 (when George W. Bush was president).
"So other than those two times, the president's party has lost seats and the average losses are fairly dramatic," averaging about 35 seats, Van Hollen said.
Right now there are 256 Democrats and 177 Republicans, and two vacancies in the 435-member U.S. House of Representatives.
"So we told our members to be prepared, no one's going to be surprised," Van Hollen said.
Republican Mike Castle seeks Biden’s old Senate seat; Will Biden’s son run too?
Republican Mike Castle ended months of speculation on Tuesday by saying he will run to fill U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s unexpired Senate term from Delaware.
The announcement raised again the questions: Will Biden’s son, Beau, run for it, too? And if so, when will Beau announce?
Beau Biden recently returned from a nearly year-long deployment in Iraq as a member of the Delaware National Guard. He is back at his job as Delaware’s elected attorney general.
The younger Biden has been widely expected to seek the Senate seat ever since his dad vacated it to become vice president. The seat is now held by Ted Kaufman, a former Joe Biden staffer, who has said he will not run to finish the term that expires in 2014.
A campaign between Beau Biden and Castle — a nine-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives and a former Delaware governor — would likely set up one of the most hotly contested and expensive Senate races in the nation.
Stakes are high.
The contest will help determine if Democrats retain their 60-vote majority in the 100-member Senate — one big enough to clear Republican procedural hurdles.
