Dems' Red-To-Blue, Round 2

House Democrats this week announced the second round of challengers the party will back as part of its Red-To-Blue program, an operation that provides material and advisory support to candidates the DCCC thinks has a strong shot at winning GOP-held seats. The program can raise big bucks for a candidate; in 2006, they averaged more than $400,000 per campaign for the 56 targeted seats.

This time, thirteen top recruits will join the eight candidates touted in round one, which the DCCC launched in late January. Several are familiar names for House watchers, though others are first-time candidates running in districts the party did not think were in play until last year.

Several candidates are making a second bid at a seat they narrowly missed in 2006, including Darcy Burner, who lost to incumbent Dave Reichert in Washington; Christine Jennings, who missed beating now-freshman Republican Vern Buchanan by just a few hundred votes in Florida; Larry Kissell, who came up barely short of North Carolina Rep. Robin Hayes; Eric Massa, a slight loser to Randy Kuhl in upstate New York; and Dan Seals, who gave a surprisingly close race to suburban Chicago Rep. Mark Kirk.

First-time candidates are targeting some incumbent Republicans who represent marginal districts and who will never get an easy race. Robert Daskas, a Clark County prosecuting attorney, is giving Republican Rep. Jon Porter a tough challenge in a suburban Las Vegas seat that Al Gore won in 2000. State Representative Steve Driehaus is facing off with Ohio Republican Steve Chabot in his Cincinnati-based district. And Republican Chris Shays faces another tough race, this time from non-profit group director Jim Himes, in Connecticut.

The party is still trying to expand the playing field, targeting several other races where Democrats have not been a factor in recent years, seats that could be more difficult to pick up this time. Of the five candidates on that portion of the list, three are women with experience in government already. Former Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes is challenging Republican Sam Graves in a district that surrounds the city. Anne Barth, as we wrote yesterday, is taking on Shelley Moore Capito in central West Virginia. And former State Rep. Suzanne Kosmas is challenging Republican Tom Feeney in wealthy Orlando suburbs east to Cape Canaveral.

The two remaining Red-To-Blue targets come from Michigan, which Democrats have big hopes of winning after recent gains in the state legislature and after re-electing Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm despite an ongoing economic crisis in the state. State Senate Democratic Leader Mark Schauer is taking on first-term Rep. Tim Walberg, who beat out a more moderate Republican incumbent last year in what is rapidly becoming a swing district. And former State Lottery Commissioner Gary Peters is challenging Joe Knollenberg in his northern Oakland County seat. Knollenberg outspend his Democratic opponent nearly eight to one in 2006 and won by just six points.

The Red-To-Blue program certainly doesn't guarantee success -- many challengers from last cycle are not members of Congress today. But if the party can keep funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars into these and more races to come, House Republicans may have even more difficult situations on their hands. Democrats, though, have their own troubles: What Speaker Nancy Pelosi called an "embarrassment of riches."

Pelosi wrote a letter to colleagues this week, Politico's Patrick O'Connor reported, urging them to pour more money into the DCCC's coffers and to expand the wide fundraising lead the committee already enjoys over the NRCC. "At this point," Pelosi wrote, "we simply cannot afford to fund all the races we will have." She cited Bill Foster's victory in the Illinois suburbs as proof of the positive landscape the party faces.