WaPo:
Top Democrats said yesterday that they are planning to significantly expand the number of GOP House seats they will target during the final 20 days of the campaign but that financial disputes and fundraising problems are hindering the effort.
Democrats said private polls have convinced top party officials that they could pick up 40 or more seats -- nearly double their internal projections from a week ago -- if they spend enough money on television advertising for long-shot races. Strategists James Carville and Stan Greenberg are among those pleading with party leaders to go deep into debt to run ads in as many as 50 GOP-held districts.
Inside, how you can help.
DCCC Chair Emanuel has signed off on expanding the playing field, now targeting what were, a short time ago, considered safe Republican seats. Emanual thinks as many as 58 seats are in play.
...Carville, Greenberg, Emanuel and others are now arguing in private deliberations that Democrats have a historic chance to not only win the House but also capture enough seats to build an effective governing majority. They are telling donors that it is worth the risk to shoot for a 40-plus seat gain, which would give Democrats a large enough majority to guarantee that they could move legislation and carry out investigations of the Bush administration.
"You would be crazy not to get your donors to do whatever they can and borrow what you need" to run ads in every competitive race, Greenberg said. Based on his polling, Greenberg is telling party leaders that it is not unrealistic to envision a 41-seat gain, which would give Democrats the same governing majority Republicans had after their 1994 takeover.
"I am saying this is a twice-in-a-lifetime environment," Carville said. "You try to maximize it."
According to VandeHei, "It would be virtually impossible to expand the number of House seats with fully competitive races without taking some money away from efforts to win back the Senate." Though later in the piece it's admitted that the DCCC could simply take out loans as the DNC recently has in helping with Senate races.
Here's how you can help:
DCCC has a list of 25 Emerging Races, featuring candidate bios, opponent bios and links to candidate websites where you can contribute / volunteer.
Many of the candidates from the list will no doubt be familiar to you. Quite a few have received widespread press here at DKos long before the D-Trip felt they were worth your serious dollars and time. The list of candidates include:
Jason Altmire (PA-04) vs. Melissa Hart
Charlie Brown (CA-04) vs. John Doolittle
Francine Busby (CA-50) vs. Brian Billbray
Jack Davis (NY-26) vs. Tom Reynolds
Jay Fawcett (CO-05) vs. Doug Lamborn
Judy Feder (VA-10) vs. Frank Wolf
Larry Grant (ID-01) vs. Bill Sali
Peter Goldmark (WA-05) vs. Cathy McMorris
John Hall (NY-19) vs. Sue Kelly
Dr. Tom Hayhurst (IN-03) vs. Mark Souder
Larry Kissell (NC-08) vs. Robin Hayes
Scott Kleeb (NE-03) vs. Adrian Smith
Jim Marcinkowski (MI-08) vs. Michael Rogers
Eric Massa (NY-29) vs. Randy Kuhl
Jerry McNerney (CA-11) vs. Dick Pombo
Dave Mejias (NY-03) vs. "Asshole" Peter King
Maxine Moul (NE-01) vs. Jeffrey Fortenberry
David Roth (CA-45) vs. Mary Bono
Dan Seals (IL-10) vs. Mark Kirk
Bob Shamansky (OH-12) vs. Pat Tiberi
Ellen Simon (AZ-01) vs. Richard Renzi
Charlie Stuart (FL-08) vs. Ric Keller
Tim Walz (MN-01) vs. Gil Gutknecht
Victoria Wulsin (OH-02) vs. "Mean" Jean Schmidt
John Yarmuth (KY-03) vs. Anne Northup
In addition, the following races (not listed by the DCCC or among the 'Netroots Endorsed') warrant further support as possible Democratic gains. CQ
lists each of the following as Republican favored races instead of safe Republican:
Phyllis Busansky (FL-09) vs. Gus Bilirakis
Dave Loebsack (IA-02) vs. Jim Leach
Mike Weaver (KY-02) vs. Ron Lewis
Mike Stagg (LA-07) vs. Charles Boustany
Coleen Rowley (MN-02) vs. John Kline
Tessa Hafen (NV-03) vs. Jon Porter
Paul Hodes (NE-02) vs. Charlie Bass
Paul Aronsohn (NJ-05) vs. Scott Garrett
Mike Callaghan (WV-02) vs. Shelley Moore Capito
There are many more worthy of our collective attention, but I'll stop there. If you have any races in particular you'd like to spotlight, post in the comments.
For an excellent overview of the latest House polls and a tiered composite analysis of the House races, check out yesterday's diary from Superribbie here.