Politico Magazine Publishes Vic Fazio, Al From Views on 2014 Election Landscape

January 6, 2014

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Politico has published the views of 15 political observers on the elections of the midterm year, among them Akin Gump senior adviser and former Calif. congressman Vic Fazio and Akin Gump consultant and founder of the Democratic Leadership Council Al From.

Fazio outlined a Democratic to-do list: “In order for the House Dems to win back the majority, they must hold seats they won in 2012, like the Dold seat that Brad Schneider won after the Illinois redistricting. They must also pick up seats they should have won in California, like the Miller and Valadao districts, which they will be better organized to win in 2014.”

He also noted that the Democrats need to pick up swing seats in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Iowa and pointed to Kay Hagen’s re-election as not only “crucial to holding the Democratic majority” but also to determining “whether the purple state of North Carolina will bounce back to blue status in reaction to the GOP’s legislative overreach.”

In his analysis, From noted, “To me the most interesting aspect of the 2014 midterm election is what, if any, clues it offers about how the parties will position themselves in the buildup to the presidential election in 2016. With that in mind, barring a national tide, we’re unlikely to learn much from the House elections….But in statewide elections for governor and senator, the two parties might actually learn some things that could prove useful as they prepare for 2016.”

In this regard, he characterized as potentially illuminating results in legislative races in swing states such as Ohio and Florida and in industrial states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan as well as in gubernatorial races in Illinois, Colorado and Arkansas.

From closed by noting, “In the Senate, the question to me is whether Democrats can retain a foothold in the South…Keeping a strong moderate base in the Senate will help Democrats two years from now to shape a message that appeals to swing voters in the political center who most often decide presidential elections.”

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