Pro-Life Gains May Grow as Vulnerable Abortion Advocates Increase

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 27, 2010   |   11:05AM   |   Washington, DC

The latest analysis of the races for the House of Representatives not only shows that the pro-life movement will likely pick up enough seats to take control of the chamber but the number could be increasing.

Most analysts say the House is more likely than the Senate to change hands from pro-abortion Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic allies of pro-abortion President Barack Obama.

Republicans must win 39 seats to gain control to install a pro-life leader, likely pro-life Rep. John Boehner, in Pelosi’s chair.

But new evidence shows potentially more seats in play where abortion advocates may be in jeopardy.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is making a last ditch effort to protect incumbent lawmakers, but its movement shows it is leaving districts where its candidates are thought to be too far gone (such as pro-abortion Rep. Betsy Markey in Colorado) and moving to districts where previously safe incumbents are now vulnerable.

The DCCC yesterday purchased $21.6 million worth of air time in 66 districts and the ads are helping pro-abortion representatives once thought to be safe:  Reps. Gerry Connolly in Virginia, Gary Peters in Michigan, Bruce Braley in Iowa and Raul Grijalva.

And Obama is now campaigning for Rep. Tom Perriello in Virginia in a seat once thought to be immune form takeover.

Only three of the candidates out of 66 targets were Republicans — meaning the Democratic campaign committee is concerned that potentially more than 60 lawmakers are headed out the door, not included districts where it has given up.

On the other side, the National Republican Congressional Committee upped its investments in television commercials to include 63 districts.

“We’ve stretched into six House races that haven’t been competitive for Republicans in more than 15 years,” Jonathan Collegio, the group’s spokesman, told USA Today.

That enthusiasm is coming across in emails to conservative and pro-life advocates.

“With just days to go until Election Day, we are faced with a historic opportunity to take control of Congress awayfrom Nancy Pelosi and put a stop to the Democrats’ reckless job-killing agenda,” the GOP committee told supporters in a fundraising email. “Republicans intend to seize this opportunity.”

At a campaign stop, pro-abortion Vice President Joe Biden warned of the potential for a Republican takeover. “If we lose in the House or the Senate, we’re now in a position where we are in a stalemate,” he said. “Our most powerful weapon will be a veto pen.”

A new report in The Hill, the newspaper that covers Congress, talked about the potential for greater gains.

It suggests at least 46 Republican pickups “plus whatever the party gets out of another 40 or 50 seats that some experts believe are in play.”

“Longtime Democratic incumbents are a seriously endangered species. … Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.) is down 10 percentage points, while Reps. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.) and Chet Edwards (D-Texas) are each losing by 12. Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.), who is serving his 13th term, is trailing by five,” it notes.
 
Mark Penn, whose firm, Penn Schoen Berland conducted polling for the newspaper, said “our entire series of polls points to something in the range of a 50-seat gain for Republicans.”

Democrats lost 52 seats in the 1994 election that saw a similar response to the pro-abortion, pro-government control of health care (promoting rationing and abortion) that ex-President Bill Clinton attempted to push through Congress.

Pollster Stuart Rothenberg wrote Tuesday that Democrats face the potential of “a political bloodbath the size of which we haven’t seen since the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”

University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato also predicted the House will flip after GOP gains of more than 50 seats.

“You can’t change the fundamentals,” he told The Hill. “At this point I just don’t see any way Democrats can cobble together enough districts to hold the House.”