There’s actually only 36 names on this list of vulnerable seats issued by the DCCC:
| Michael Arcuri | Toss-Up |
| John Boccieri | Lean Dem |
| Leonard Boswell | Lean Dem |
| Allen Boyd | Lean Dem |
| Bobby Bright | Lean Dem |
| Chris Carney | Likely Dem |
| Travis Childers | Toss-Up |
| Gerry Connolly | Lean Dem |
| Mark Critz | Lean Dem |
| Kathy Dahlkemper | Toss-Up |
| Joe Donnelly | Lean Dem |
| Steve Driehaus | Toss-Up |
| Chet Edwards | Toss-Up |
| Bill Foster | Toss-Up |
| Gabrielle Giffords | Lean Dem |
| Debbie Halvorson | Lean Dem |
| Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin | Lean Dem |
| Steve Kagen | Lean Dem |
| Paul Kanjorski | Toss-Up |
| Mary Jo Kilroy | Toss-Up |
| Ann Kirkpatrick | Lean Dem |
| Larry Kissell | Toss-Up |
| Suzanne Kosmas | Toss-Up |
| Betsy Markey | Toss-Up |
| Jerry McNerney | Lean Dem |
| Harry Mitchell | Lean Dem |
| Glenn Nye | Toss-Up |
| Bill Owens | Lean Dem |
| Tom Perriello | Toss-Up |
| Earl Pomeroy | Toss-Up |
| Ciro Rodriguez | Lean Dem |
| Mark Schauer | Toss-Up |
| Ike Skelton | Lean Dem |
| John Spratt | Toss-Up |
| Harry Teague | Toss-Up |
| Dina Titus | Toss-Up |
…there’s an open seat that they’re funding, which makes it 37. The Politico article claims that the 28 million that the DCCC is using for triage in these races is for 40 districts, so there’s still a faint hope for 3 more incumbents. For the other 57 Democrats that Cook lists as not being assured of their seats*… well, the Likely Dems are going to have to work it out for themselves. As for the 47% of the Lean Democrats and the 40% of the Toss-ups who are apparently not worth bailing out; I guess that they’re just going to have to die well, and remember that their sacrifice will not have been in vain.
Even if nobody in the Democratic party will bother remembering their names after Election Night.
Moe Lane
PS: Bear in mind, by the way, that the DCCC is allocating money in a manner that suggests that they are assuming absolute disaster. There’s not even a pretense for trying to fight on the offense, and the list indicates that they’re as scared for their established legislators as they are for their freshmen. I look forward to hearing the glum, post-election behind-the-scenes explanation of how they created this list; I (no doubt fondly and ridiculously) imagine that fistfights almost broke out over it…
*For those keeping track, this was the first update of Cook in a month. They shifted 10 seats (all Democratic), 8 in the GOP’s favor. Of particular note: one became Safe D, three formerly Safe D were upgraded to Likely D, and two got moved to Toss-Up.
Likely D is the most optimistic phrase in the democrat vocabulary. Which 3 moved from Safe?
NC-07, IL-17, GA-02. NJ-06 went the other way, dammit.
http://www.cookpolitical.com/ratings_updates
Thanks! Bobby Schilling (IL-17) was interviewed by the Independence Caucus this month to be vetted for their endorsement. Don’t know much about their group other than they contribute reinforcements for GOTV, etc. The only candidate endorsed for ’10 in Illinois so far is Joe Walsh.