The road to a House Majority just may begin in
New York where Bloomberg reports that no less than six House seats may turn blue, thanks to help at the top of the ticket from Hillary Clinton and Elliot Spitzer.
The Democrats' prospects for winning control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November may rest with two high-powered New York politicians who aren't even running for seats: Hillary Rodham Clinton and Eliot Spitzer.
Clinton, who's likely to win easy re-election to the Senate, and Spitzer, the state attorney general who is leading in polls to become the next governor, might help the Democrats pick up as many as six New York congressional seats -- more than one-third of the 15 they need nationally to gain a House majority.
The two are so strong politically that they may lift Democratic candidates across the state, said Lee Miringoff, director of the Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College in Poughkeepsie. Spitzer, 46, led potential Republican candidates by margins ranging from 18 to 66 percentage points in a Qunnipiac University poll last month; a Marist poll earlier this year found that 54 percent of New Yorkers ``definitely'' plan to vote for Clinton, 58.
``It could turn into a Democratic year in New York, which might then have an impact on down-ballot races for Congress,'' Miringoff said.
And where are these seats? Pretty much where we've been talking about for some time.
Challenging Sweeney
Gillibrand is seeking the Democratic nomination in New York's 20th District to challenge four-term incumbent Republican Representative John Sweeney.
Democrats are also targeting seats held by Republicans Sherwood Boehlert, Randy Kuhl, Tom Reynolds, James Walsh, and Sue Kelly, said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He said Democrats may have an advantage because of a flagging economy in upstate New York, and will be helped by the candidates at the top of the ticket.
``Hillary Clinton and Eliot Spitzer are get-out-the-vote magnets for the Democrats,'' Emanuel said in an interview.
Boehlert isn't seeking re-election after 12 terms and Democrats are focusing their hopes on Oneida County District Attorney Michael Arcuri to win a district that Bush carried with just 52 percent of the vote in 2004.
This is a case where greed just may be a good thing. If Hillary does indeed want to run for president, I'm sure she would want to rack up as big a victory as possible, and be able to take patial credit for whatever seats we pick up in the state along with the State Senate. The tsunami begins there, and should roll through Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado and California!!
