GOP leader John Boehner won’t say which 100 House seats are in play

Minority
Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) believes there are 100 House seats in play
this election year, but he won’t say which races he is talking about.

The top-ranking House Republican told The Hill Wednesday that
“there’s no formula, but it’s pretty clear which ones they are.”

Other GOP leaders have predicted that Republicans will win back the
House this fall, but most have refrained from offering specific numbers.

Republicans
would need to win about 40 seats in the fall to regain control of the
House. They suffered a major setback Tuesday when Democrats retained
the late Rep. John Murtha’s (D-Pa.) seat in a special election.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who is involved in the Republican outreach
effort to cultivate candidates this election cycle, surmised that
Boehner‘s
100 seats come from the districts that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) won in the 2008 presidential election, and districts held at some time by the GOP
since 1994.

Boehner
has stressed that he is not predicting Republicans will win 100
seats, but that 100 are up for grabs. Asked for a reaction to Boehner’s
claim during an interview on Wednesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
told The Hill, “Let him think that.”

Pelosi later said more than 200 House Democrats will “easily” be reelected in November.