Cook Predicts GOP Pick-Up of 48-60 House Seats

|| The non-partisan Cook Report is predicting a GOP majority next week. ||

Don’s Get Cocky, Kid.

With only 39 seats needed for a majority,

Republicans have to be smiling from ear to ear…

After hearing the Cook Report’s prediction of big mid-term gains.

The Cook Political Report’s pre-election House outlook is a Democratic net loss of 48 to 60 seats, with higher losses possible.  A turnover of just 39 seats would tip majority status into Republican hands.

The midterm maelstrom pulling House Democrats under shows no signs of abating, if anything it has intensified.  Whereas fewer than a third of Democratic Senate seats are up for election, House Democrats are suffering the full violence of this national undertow.  Over a quarter of the entire 255-member House Democratic caucus have trailed GOP opponents in at least one public or private survey, and nearly half have tested under 50 percent of the vote in at least one poll.

At this point, only 190 House seats are Solid, Likely or Lean Democratic, while 198 seats are Solid, Likely or Lean Republican, and 47 seats are in the Toss Up column.

While there are certain to be at least 43 new members of the House thanks to 41 open seats and two vacancies, between 40 and 50 incumbents (over 95 percent of them Democrats) are likely to lose their seats, making for possibly the largest freshman class since 1992.

In the past, Cook’s numbers have been very accurate,

But nothing is set in stone.

One can still hope that his predictions turn out to be a little low.