Democrats could lose 50 to 70 seats in 2010

Politico:

House Democrats are warning the party faithful of a difficult election cycle ahead, with as many as 70 party-held seats in danger.

"We have a daunting challenge ahead in the 2010 midterm elections," Democratic House campaign chief Chris Van Hollen says in a year-end Web video thanking supporters. "Many of our new members are from conservative areas with long histories of Republican representation. We are looking at potentially 70 — 70 — threatened Democrats who will need our support."

While House race watchers are predicting a difficult cycle for Democrats, Van Hollen's 70 figure may be on the high end.

The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan handicapping guide, places 48 Democrats in prospectively competitive races. And Democrats are expected to have targets of their own in 2010, with Cook placing 34 Republicans on its watch list.

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Over the past two election cycles, House Democrats picked up 51 seats....

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This may be just to scare some money out of donors who may be feeling complacent after the Obama victory. But there is good reason for concern. Democrats won many of these districts by running conservatives who are going to have a hard time hiding with Democrats in control of everything. It may have been fun blaming Bush for everything that goes wrong, but now Democrats are going to have to take responsibility. The will also be facing the traditional loss of 20 to 30 seats anyway that normally effects the party in charge in a mid term election.

With Obama and Pelosi pushing a liberal agenda, the conservative Democrats will be under tremendous pressure to back them.