Obama High-profile Democrats in GOP-leaning House races could aid Obama in core battleground states

DES MOINES, Iowa — Republican-leaning areas in states vital to President Barack Obama’s re-election prospects are drawing top-tier Democratic congressional candidates who, even if they lose, could help turn out the vote and boost Obama’s chances of winning a second term.

The best example of the trend is former Iowa first lady Christie Vilsack, challenging GOP Rep. Steve King in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District.

Loading...
Comments
Weigh InCorrections?


Personal Post

Christie Vilsack, the wife of former two-term governor Tom Vilsack — now Obama’s agriculture secretary — moved more than 100 miles away from her home to run in a largely rural tract of GOP-heavy northern and western Iowa, where Obama lost in 2008 despite winning the state.

“That race is a great example of one that will help the president,” said Tad Devine, a senior adviser to 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry. “There will be a strong correlation between Obama and Vilsack voters. It’s about the composition of the electorate.”

Other key matchups are in Colorado, Florida, Ohio and Virginia. Obama carried these four states four years ago while losing to Republican John McCain in the individual counties that make up the districts.

The president is counting on heavy turnout in strong Democratic districts. He also hopes to improve the odds of beating Mitt Romney by cutting into the likely Republican nominee’s edge in GOP districts in key states by not allowing the incumbents to coast to re-election.

These five states with such House races are important to Obama because he won them four years after Republican George W. Bush’s narrow re-election as president in 2004. Along with Nevada, which has no similar House race this year, they form the core of the battleground that Obama is defending and that Romney hopes to cut into in the race for 270 electoral votes needed to win the Nov. 6 presidential election.

Bush narrowly carried Iowa in 2004 by running up big margins in the counties King represents. The outspoken conservative faced nominal competition for re-election that year. He spent his campaign money in the final weeks on radio ads touting his opposition to gay marriage in an effort to drive social conservatives to the polls, which helped push Bush over the top.

Obama aides declined to comment on campaign strategy.

Democrats, with 190 members in the Republican-controlled House, think they can net the 25 seats needed to retake the majority the party lost two years ago. House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio described his challenge this way: “What I’m trying to do is to wake some people up and realize that we’ve got a challenge here, and we’ve got 242 Republicans, incumbents, all up for election, 53 of them in pretty tough races.”

Democrats count Vilsack and the others in battleground states as more than token challengers, even if they still face uphill races.

— In Florida, Orlando Police Chief Val Demings is challenging first-term Republican Rep. Daniel Webster in the 8th District, a GOP-leaning one that surrounds Democratic-leaning Orlando in central Florida. McCain carried the district with 52 percent in 2008. Bush carried it in 2004 with nearly 58 percent.