House Dems could pick up 20 or more seats this year, building on remarkable successes winning three special elections this year in long-held Repub districts: Mississippi Travis Childers (54%) beat Greg Davis (46%) in a district Bush carried with 63% in 2004; Louisiana Donald J. Cazayoux Jr. (49%) beat Woody Jenkins (46%) in a 2004 59% Bush district; Illinois Bill Foster (52%) beat Jim Oberweis (48%) in a 2004 55% Bush district held by former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert for 21 years.
The San Francisco Bay Area’s nearest competitive Congressional races include Congressman Jerry McNerney (CA-11), a top target of the Repubs, and Dem challengers Charlie Brown (CA-4), Bill Durston (CA-3) and Jill Derby (NV-2). You can meet and support them all at a Sunday June 1 Champagne Brunch Reception, details at http://www.democracyaction.org…
• Congressman Jerry McNerney knocked off Environmental Enemy #1 Richard Pombo in 2006, brings renewable energy expertise to the House and constituent services to his district, and now faces former State Assemblyman, former State Board of Equalization conservative Dean Andal.
• Lt. Colonel Charlie Brown (USAF-retired), a decorated Vietnam veteran with a son serving multiple tours of duty in Iraq, and a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Red to Blue Candidate, nearly beat (2006 49%-46%)and subsequently drove out corrupt incumbent John Doolittle (R), and now likely faces opportunistic ultra-conservative Tom McClintock, a Southern California carpetbagger.
• Dr. Bill Durston, former Vietnam Marine platoon leader and now emergency room physician, has been endorsed by Progressive Democrats of America and faces Dan Lungren, a Bush lock-step voter, in a district that now has the smallest Republican advantage of any GOP-held California Congressional District.
• Jill Derby, born on the Flying Flapjack Ranch and running to bring Nevada values to Congress – independence and straight talk – has a rematch (2006 50%-45%) with first-termer Dean Heller after her year as Nevada Democratic Party Chair registering 30,000 new Dems in this critical Swing State – her voters will be Presidential voters in this critical election year.
Overall, Dems have 33 House seats in potential jeopardy (6 toss-ups), and the Repubs 43 (13 toss-ups), per the Cook Political Report http://www.cookpolitical.com/r… The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza also ranked House races at http://blog.washingtonpost.com…