Congressional Republicans at Risk in Northeast

I have long believed that only crushing electoral defeats will bring change to the Republican Party and, hopefully, lead to the Christianists being thrown under the bus where they so rightly belong. Moreover, the GOP members of Congress need to be severely punished for the blind rubber stamp approval they have given to the Chimperator and Emperor Cheney. The damage to the country has been severe and so should be their electoral punishment. Fortunately, things are not looking good for the GOP and I find it heartening that even in Virginia's 2nd District the incumbent GOP Congresswoman is engaged in a very competitive race where the Democrats have a serious chance of winning in November. Like too many in the GOP, Thelma Drake has generally voted in lock step with the Chimperator. Here are some highlights from the New York Times:

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WASHINGTON — Across the increasingly Democratic Northeast, Republicans are in danger of losing half a dozen or more Congressional seats in November, as even districts once considered safe have become vulnerable to well-financed Democrats, according to political analysts and members of both parties.

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The Republican Party’s challenges in the nine-state Northeast region are a reflection of what the party faces across the country as it is being forced to defend dozens of Congressional seats that are now considered competitive at a time when the party has limited financial resources, political analysts said.

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Meanwhile, all but 2 of the 11 Congressional Democrats who won office in 2006 in the Northeast appear headed into the general election campaign in a strong position, the analysts said. . . . As a result, Democrats are in a strong position to expand their dominance in the Northeast region, where they already hold 60 of the 81 Congressional seats and hope to improve their numbers even further by aggressively contesting Republicans for eight more seats. In the midterm elections of 2006, Democrats picked up 11 seats in the region.

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Democrats are also being helped by a growing concern among voters about the state of the economy and continuing doubts about the war in Iraq, strategists say. Democrats are also doing very well in their fund-raising efforts. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has $54.6 million on hand, compared with $8.4 million raised by the National Republican Congressional Committee.

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[T]he challenge that Republicans face nationally is especially large in the Northeast because that is where polls show President Bush to be the most unpopular. . . He said a stark sign of how hard the situation is for Republicans was on Staten Island, where several prominent Republicans declined to run for the seat vacated by Mr. Fossella, which had long been considered a virtual lock for Republicans.