The House GOP is seriously working on a large-scale playing field for this midterm election, Roll Call reports, with the National Republican Congressional Committee having now reserved a total of $35 million in advertising for 55 districts.
The NRCC had previously reserved $22 million in 41 districts, and has now expanded that even further.
Notably, only one district among the 55 is currently held by the GOP — that of Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), who is running for Senate in Illinois and vacating a district that was previously won by both Barack Obama and John Kerry in presidential elections.
Of course, there is another way to look at this, too. In 2006 and 2008, Republicans lost a total of more than 50 districts, with the Democrats taking over nearly every seat they possibly could. As such, the GOP is in a position where they have nowhere to go but up. And lucky for them, they’re in a political environment where they’re expected to really go up.
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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