DNC Weighs Accelerated Spending In State Legislative Races

The Democratic National Committee is waging a last minute injection of as much as $20 million into state legislative races in key states, hoping to take advantage of Democratic momentum this cycle.

A senior Democrat familiar with the conversations said: "We are looking at options, races, where we can be helpful, as we did in 2006. This is the time when some races pop."

DNC chairman Howard Dean has made it a priority to help Democrats win down the ballot, so that if Obama wins the presidency, Democrats will have a larger majority in Congress. But with states planning to redistrict their congressional boundaries in 2012, control of state legislative chambers is all the more important, people close to Dean said.

In 2006, a last minute injection of $35 million from the DNC into House, Senate and state legislative races helped the party gain eight state legislative chambers.

Some of this year's cash could be sent to U.S. House races; most would be earmarked for races further down the ballot.
This year, having plucked the low-hanging fruit, Democrats have set their sights on tougher pulls, like New York's state senate. "It's the biggest toss-up on the map," says Matt Compton, a spokesperson for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.

Other targets for Democrats include: Ohio, Wisconsin, Delaware and the Texas House, where Democrats are five seats away from the majority; the Obama campaign has added organizers to help them.

Currently, Democrats control 27 state senate chambers and 30 state house chambers; Oklahoma and Tennessee are split down the middle, and Nebraska, with its unicameral legislative, is a special case.  Democrats are playing defense in New Hampshire, Indiana and Pennsylvania.

Lou Jacobson, a political forecaster with Stateline.org, rates on 11 chambers as toss-ups, seven of them with Republican and four with Democratic majorities.