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By: Carl Hulse - IHT Washington - Outspent and under siege in a hostile political climate, congressional Republicans scrambled over the weekend to save embattled incumbents in an effort to hold down expected Democratic gains in the House and Senate on Tuesday.
With the election imminent, Senate Republicans threw their remaining resources into protecting endangered lawmakers in Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Oregon, while House Republicans were forced to put money into what should be secure Republican territory in Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia and Wyoming.
Sensing an extraordinary opportunity to expand their numbers in both the House and Senate, Democrats were spending freely on television advertising across the campaign map. Senate Democrats were active in nine states where Republicans are running for re-election; House Democrats, meanwhile, bought advertising in 63 districts, twice the number of districts where Republicans bought advertisements and helped candidates.
"We are deep in the red areas," Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said on Sunday. "We are competing now in districts George Bush carried by large margins in 2004."
What seems especially striking about this year's congressional races is that Democrats appear to have solidified their gains from the 2006 midterm elections and are pushing beyond their traditional urban turf into what once were safe Republican strongholds, creating a struggle for the suburbs.
Trying to capitalize on economic uncertainty, House Democrats are taking aim at vacant seats and incumbents in suburban and even more outlying areas - the traditional foundation of Republican power in the House. With many of the most contested House races occurring in Republican-held districts that extend beyond cities in states like Florida, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio, Democrats said expected victories would give them suburban dominance.
The same is true for Senate Democratic candidates, who are seeking to nail down swing counties outside urban centers and move the party toward a 60-vote majority. That majority could overcome a legislation-obstructing filibuster, if party leaders could hold the votes together.
Among open House seats Democrats say they have a good chance of capturing include those being vacated by Representative John Kuhl Jr. in New York, Ralph Regula and Deborah Pryce in Ohio, Jim Ramstad in Minnesota, Jerry Weller in Illinois and Rick Renzi in Arizona.
Incumbents Democrats believe they can defeat include Representative Joe Knollenberg in Michigan, Tom Feeney and Ric Keller in Florida, Don Young in Alaska, Robin Hayes in North Carolina and Bill Sali in Idaho.
Democrats say they have been able to peel away suburbanites by emphasizing Republican culpability for the economic decline, a point they say House Republicans helped make themselves by initially balking at the $700 billion bailout and sending the markets into a tailspin that depleted retirement and college savings accounts.
"Suburban voters are angry that their quality of life and standard of living is under attack," said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and a leading advocate of Democrats trying to broaden their appeal in the suburbs.
The partisan spending gap was stark. As of last week, Senate Democrats had spent more than $67 million, compared with $33.7 million in advertising spending by Republicans.
In the House, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had spent $73 million, compared with just over $20 million for the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to campaign finance reports.
Most of the House Republican money was spent on behalf of incumbents or in districts where a Republican is retiring, emphasizing how much the party was playing defense. By contrast, House Democrats spent most of their money in the last month going after Republican seats in Colorado, Nebraska, Washington, West Virginia and elsewhere.
Representative Thomas Davis 3rd, a retiring Virginia Republican whose own suburban seat is likely to go Democratic on Tuesday, said Republicans simply faced too many disadvantages heading into Election Day, including a lopsided number of retirements in the House and Senate, an unpopular president and an economic collapse.
"You like to see a fair fight," said Davis, a former chairman of the Republican congressional campaign committee, "but basically we are playing basketball in our street shoes and long pants, and the Democrats have on their uniforms and Chuck Taylors."
Neither of the national Senate campaign arms was advertising in Colorado, New Mexico or Virginia, indicating that Republicans were virtually ceding those states, where members of their party are retiring, to the Democrats. Senate Democrats were also optimistic about the prospects of unseating Senator John Sununu in New Hampshire and Senator Ted Stevens in Alaska, where Stevens campaigned despite being convicted on felony ethics charges.
Democrats said they saw themselves with the advantage in Minnesota, North Carolina and Oregon, giving them a reasonable chance at claiming eight seats and enlarging their Senate majority to 59 if they hold their current seats.
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