GOP 2008 prospects in House improve

Donald Lambro:

Republican campaign strategists and independent election analysts say that after five months of contentious House Democratic rule, the Republican Party's once-bleak congressional prospects for 2008 have markedly improved.
The Democratic Congress' job approval score is now worse than President Bush's, plummeting to 23 percent, a drop of eight points since April. House Democrats have been forced to retreat in the face of a furious assault by Republicans on pork-barrel spending, an issue that hurt the Republican Party in November. And Republican recruiting has produced plenty of candidates eyeing weak Democratic freshmen in Republican-leaning districts that swept them into office last year.
"Republican recruiting seems to be progressing at a reasonable pace. GOP strategists have about half a dozen seats that they know the party should never have lost ... and eight of the nine most vulnerable House seats currently are held by Democrats," elections analyst Stu Rothenberg wrote last week in his Political Report newsletter.
Strategists at the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) confirm that a larger than expected number of House seats are now being targeted by the NRCC and that a surprisingly larger-than-expected number of seasoned candidates from state legislatures and other elective offices are coming forward to challenge Democrats who took over Republican districts.
"A lot of Republican candidates are seeing an opportunity for higher office for the first time in a while. They've been waiting in the wings with a lot of pent-up ambitions, hoping that a Republican incumbent was going to retire, and now see that it's held by a Democrat," said NRCC press secretary Ken Spain.
"These candidates are smart and realize that 2006 was a wave election and it's highly unlikely that Democrats will get back-to-back cycles like that in a row," he said.
...
"Recent polling suggests that [the Democratic] Congress's standing has slipped again, and Congress's apparent inability to deal with immigration reform could add to public frustration," Mr. Rothenberg said in his newsletter.
"At the same time, the defeat of immigration reform could well be a net plus for congressional Republicans, many of whom can and will run against 'amnesty' and illegal immigration next year," he said.
...
In Texas's 22nd District, which gave Mr. Bush 64 percent of its vote in 2004, Democrat Nick Lampson won by a slim margin, even though his Republican opponent was not on the ballot. "This is probably the GOP's best opportunity to take back a district they lost last year," Mr. Rothenberg said.
"In order to win back the majority, we don't have to conquer new territory. We just need to reclaim old territory," Mr. Spain said.

It is likely that Lampson will not even defend this seat since he has alienated voters with his vote to lose the war. He is making noises about a futile run against John Cornyn who has been pretty popular especially with his stand on immigration "reform." The story also mentions the Mark Foley district in Florida as very winnable for Republicans.