One of the coolest things about McCain pulling out of MI is that it’ll put more state legislative races in play (we currently have a narrow majority in the state house, and should expand that majority this year).
But apparently MI’s not the only state where Democrats may pick up state seats.
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 2010, 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.
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.
Very cool. Nice to see Rove’s permanent Republican majority go up in flames from top to bottom.