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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has released a list of top targets looking ahead to the 2018 elections, and California's Republican delegation is a big part of it.

As Democrats continue to lick their wounds from the beating they took on Nov. 4, many liberals are shocked, appalled, and depressed. Yet, they are hopeful that 2016 will present opportunities to retake the majority, but a lot of uncertainty remains. For starters, we have two years until the next election; that’s an eternity in politics. But, for now, the field doesn’t look terribly bad for Republicans. At the same time, we could see Kay Hagan and Mary Landrieu, who appears to be heading for defeat in the Louisiana runoff, return to Washington (via Politico): The GOP has a bigger cushion...

Republicans have pulled within one point of Democrats in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 40% would vote for their district’s Democratic candidate while 39% would choose the Republican. Support for Democratic congressional candidates fell two points this week, while support for GOP candidates gained one point to tie its highest level this year so far. Three weeks ago, Republicans took a two-point lead over Democrats, their first in several years, but that quickly reversed the following week. Democrats began the year holding a six- or seven-point lead over...

Nevada County has completed 85 percent of its uncounted ballots and the three days of tallies have cost us 1,350 votes of the 1,500 loss that we expected. However, El Dorado and Sacramento returns have been much higher than expected, so it now seems unlikely that we will dip into negative territory any time during the counting of the remaining ballots. As of tonight, our lead has narrowed to 691 out of 338,307 ballots counted, or 0.20 percent. But there are only 1,792 ballots left to be counted in Nevada County, and Nevada County is the only county remaining that...

Two veteran warriors battling to represent the 12th Congressional District appear locked in the closest race in the district in years. Democratic Rep. John Murtha leads retired Army Lt. Col. William Russell by a little more than 4 percentage points, within the Susquehanna Poll's 4.9-point margin of error. The poll of 400 likely voters was conducted for the Tribune-Review on Tuesday, amid uproar over Murtha's statement that some of his constituents are racist. Stanley Shemanski, 67, a retired meat cutter who lives in Apollo, said he's undecided about the congressional race. He doesn't know much about Russell, but he's upset...

NBC's "Today" show has yet to report on the scandal surrounding Florida Democrat Congressman Tim Mahoney paying off a former mistress, but on Wednesday's show David Gregory did find time to report on Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann being in "hot water," for her criticisms of Barack Obama on last Friday's "Hardball." Furthering the story his NBC colleague Chris Matthews started with Bachmann's "Hardball," interview, co-anchor Matt Lauer introduced the Gregory piece: "Call it a million dollar mistake. A controversial congressman, congresswoman went on television and said some things she probably regrets. And her remarks, then helped her opponent raise a...

Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-Ore.) announced Thursday that she will not be running for reelection, becoming the first Democrat from a competitive seat to announce her retirement this election cycle. “I have decided to pursue different professional opportunities in 2009 and will not be filing for election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008,” Hooley said in a statement.

FIFTH DISTRICT REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE ED POWELL TODAY CONDEMNED THE CENTRAL AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT (CAFTA) Winston-Salem, NC – Republican 5th District Congressional candidate Ed Powell announced today that he is absolutely opposed to the newly announced Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Powell said, “We should have learned our lesson from NAFTA and the awful Chinese experiment that the only people who win in these trade agreements are the Wall Street chieftains who have sold the Fifth District workers down the river in the textile and furniture industry. These big-time Wall Streeters, who have one of their own running...

<p>Republican Tom Feeney holds a comfortable lead over Democrat Harry Jacobs in their expensive, and increasingly nasty, race for Congress, a new Orlando Sentinel/WESH NewsCenter 2 opinion poll shows. With less than a month until Orange, Seminole, Brevard and Volusia county voters decide who will represent the new 24th District, Feeney, the Republican, holds a 19 percentage point lead over Jacobs, the Democrat. Worse news for Jacobs, an Altamonte Springs attorney, is that Feeney enjoys the support of 51 percent of the voters in the heavily Republican district.</p>

Democrats look to Arizona in '02 By Stephanie PaterikThe Arizona RepublicMarch 10, 2002 Arizona will be the quot;epicenter for Democratic victoryquot; in this year's congressional elections, said House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, who was in Phoenix on Saturday night for a Democratic Party fund-raiser. quot;I think this is our year in Arizona,quot; he said at a news conference before delivering his keynote speech at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner at the Arizona Biltmore. quot;Redistricting turned out exceedingly well. We think we have a great chance to win at least two seats, maybe even more.quot; Arizona will gain two congressional seats this year,...