Van Hollen: '10 Won't Be Like '94 -- We'll Be Better Prepared

[NJmaverick]

It's about the ground game, the base, and using the Republicans' weaknesses against them--and even then it will be a hard slog.

In the clearest articulation yet of his strategy to avoid huge losses at the polls this November, the chairman of the House Democrats' re-election committee, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) says vulnerable members will be better prepared than their counterparts were in 1994, when a huge wave of Republicans swept into office and took control of Congress. And this time around, the Republicans have a number of problems of their own: Sarah Palin, the radicalized tea party movement, an association with Bush-era economic policies, and, more generally, a sense among the electorate that they don't represent a real alternative.

"To the extent that there's a national message, the message will be, again, do you really want to go back to the Bush economic policies, because one thing is pretty clear is that that's question is fresh in voters minds," Van Hollen told me and two other reporters after a breakfast roundtable discussion this morning. "When you ask them who's responsible for the huge deficits, they still appropriately lay more of the responsibility ."

In response to a question from TPMDC, Van Hollen said that the Democrats' health care victory has measurably bolstered the energy of the activist base of the party--though it's unclear what impact passage of the law has had on the GOP base, which will ultimately determine whether Democrats can shrink the enthusiasm gap this November.

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