Pollster: Republicans Will Take House From Pro-Abortion Democrats in Election

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 18, 2010   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Pollster: Republicans Will Take House From Pro-Abortion Democrats in Election

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 18
, 2010

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Pollster Scott Rasmussen, who runs one of the most respected polling firms in the nation that is closely tracking the November elections, predicts Republicans will pick up 55 seats in races for the House of Representatives. That’s well over the 39 needed to recapture the chamber.

Last week, Ipsos pollster Cliff Young projected a 227-208 split for the GOP.

Should GOP candidates pick up that amount, the November election will have resulted in a landslide victory for pro-life advocates.

With pro-abortion Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, currently controlling the House, the pro-life movement has been on the defensive as friends of pro-abortion President Barack Obama railroaded abortion funding and a pro-abortion health care bill through Congress.

That could change next month and Republicans, who will undoubtedly elect pro-life Rep. John Boehner to become speaker, would pick up the House for the first time since 2006.

Rasmussen said the bigger question is not whether the GOP will win the House but whether they will also capture the Senate, where several election battles in states like California, Nevada, Colorado, and Washington pit strongly pro-life against strongly pro-abortion candidates.

“Republicans should have 48 seats [after the elections next month], Democrats 47, and five seats could slide either way,” Human Events reports Rasmussen saying last night.

Rasmussen considers California, Illinois, Washington, West Virginia, and Nevada all too close to call at this point.

The pollster said the poor economy and the strong opposition to the health care bill, which contains no provisions stopping abortion funding throughout, has helped Republican candidates fare better this election cycle.

Amy Walter, the ABC News political director, has a similar outlook for the Senate.

"The path to the majority runs through Nevada, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Washington state, California, and Connecticut. For Republicans to win the Senate they need to win 7 of these 9 states," she said.

She also agrees Democrats are very much in jeopardy of losing the House and may lose many more seats than are necessary for Republicans to win a majority.

"In the House, many key House races have seen some tightening, but it’s not enough to make Democrats feel all that much better. Democrats have 63 seats in serious danger compared to just four for Republicans, she said. "There are still far too many Democratic incumbents under 50 percent in the polls. Republicans continue to enjoy an “enthusiasm advantage” among voters."

"Political prognosticators like Charlie Cook see the prospects for Democratic losses to be worse than 1994, when they lost 52 seats," she added.

Despite the polling evidence and the predictions from pollsters and election experts, Obama’s top spokesman said he doesn’t think Democrats will lose their control of the House — and will keep the Senate, too.

Press secretary Robert Gibbs told NBC’s "Meet the Press" over the weekend that Democrats have done "a remarkably good job in a tough political environment."

The House now has 255 Democrats, 178 Republicans, and two vacancies. In the Senate, there are 57 Democrats, 41 Republicans and two pro-abortion independents who usually vote with Democrats.

 

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