Dems sprinkle caution on tub of optimism

Democrats can’t seem to contain themselves about the 2008 election, even when they try hard to.

The heads of Democrats’ House and Senate campaign efforts sought to dial back expectations Wednesday, while at the same time broaching the possibility of a 60-seat Senate majority and another wave of seats in the House.

{mosads}Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) reiterated throughout their joint press conference that they are fighting their battles largely in Republican-leaning territory and that their colleagues shouldn’t get, in Van Hollen’s words, irrationally exuberant.

Schumer said the map he’s confronting is the reddest for Senate Democrats “in a very long time,” with targets in the traditionally conservative Deep South, Great Plains and Mountain West.

But even as he attempted to exercise some caution, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) chairman talked openly about the possibility of a filibuster-proof majority in 2009, which would require a pickup of nine seats in November.

Previously this cycle, Schumer has been squeamish even talking about such gains.

“Could things change? Sure,” Schumer said. “I don’t want people to think we are definitely going to get to 60 votes. That’s very hard.”

But then the two-term DSCC chairman suggested that it was very much a possibility, comparing it to his party’s six-seat gain in 2006.

“It’s about as likely at this point today as getting six seats was at this point two years ago, which means very unlikely. But it happened. Who knows? Maybe it can happen again.”

Van Hollen echoed Schumer by saying that his Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) was moving into redder territory than “we ever have before.”

The first-term chairman continued to focus on simply gaining seats and won’t put a number on his potential gains. But he updated previous estimates Wednesday when he said Democrats are playing offense in 40 to 50 districts and defense in about 25 — the latter being a figure he hopes to reduce by Election Day.

“We will pick up seats in the next election; I think even our colleagues on the other side are beginning to recognize that,” Van Hollen said. He then sought to play down the idea that House Democrats would experience another wave election after picking off 30 seats in 2006.

He said he’s warning fellow members about complacency, which Republicans blamed for many of their losses in 2006.

“Because of the talk out there about another big wave, we think a lot of people are getting ahead of themselves in that regard,” Van Hollen said.

Van Hollen also said the DCCC’s massive cash advantage over Republicans — it stood at $54.7 million to $8.5 million at the end of June — is misleading, because Republicans will have plenty of help from outside groups like Freedom’s Watch.

Schumer, as per usual, was the less guarded of the two. He said things have gotten continually better in most of the states he is fighting over, citing polling gains in Alaska, Colorado and New Mexico.

He said the difficult electoral map should be partially offset by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s (Ill.) ability to run competitively in those states.

He has also talked effusively about a tectonic shift in the political landscape, in which Democrats have an opportunity to take advantage of a seminal moment.

But then he tried to walk that idea back a little as well.

“I have one huge caveat: If we get in in 2009, and we don’t solve people’s problems, they’ll kick us out as quickly as they put us in,” Schumer said. “The big challenge — bigger than the election — is actually getting things done.”