Dem Campaign Chief Bracing for Electoral Wave: ‘Is It a Concern? Yes’

US House of Representatives(WASHINGTON) — Less than three weeks from Election Day, the top House Democratic campaign official, Rep. Steve Israel, says there’s “concern” that a Republican electoral wave could be coming this fall.

With a new ABC News/Washington Post poll showing President Obama’s approval rating at a career low of 40 percent and House Republicans holding a seven-point edge over Democrats on the generic ballot, Israel characterized the electoral landscape as “tough and unpredictable.”

“Am I fearful? No. Is it a concern? Yes,” Israel, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said of the prospects of a GOP wave during a briefing for reporters on Capitol Hill. “We assumed going into this midterm election that the generics would be very tight and planned accordingly. Whether a wave erupts remains to be seen.”
 
Nevertheless, Israel pointed to internal polling showing 32 competitive House races, with Democrats playing offense on 18 seats but also scrambling to defend 14 vulnerable incumbents.

“We anticipated the worst from Day One,” Israel, D-N.Y., said. “The first thing I see every morning when my eyes flutter open is 29, which is the average loss [of House seats] to the president’s party in a second midterm, so we knew that the exposure could be 29.”

Still, Israel refused to predict how many seats his party could lose and emphasized he expects Democrats, who have outraised Republicans, to keep the matchups competitive up until Election Day on Nov. 4.

“We never assumed the best. We prepared for the worst,” Israel acknowledged. “Irrespective of what is happening in the world and irrespective of where the president’s numbers may be, every single one of our incumbents is either ahead, or up by the margin of error, or tied. That’s because we have three words: prepare, prepare, prepare.”

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