Read the full story in Roll Call

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, facing a tough political environment and the prospect of defending dozens of competitive seats, will announce today the 13 candidates it has selected for the “Red to Blue” program that targets GOP-held districts.

The rollout is the latest signal that the DCCC is still trying to play offense in open seats and challenger races in competitive areas even though the party is expected to lose seats in November.

“These candidates have come out of the gate strong and the Red to Blue Program will give them the financial and structural edge to be even more competitive in November,” DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) said in a statement. “These candidates are generating excitement back home and are making the case to voters that their commitment to creating jobs and standing up for the middle class is far better than turning back the clock to the failed Bush policies of the past.”

The first round of candidates includes Ami Bera in California’s 3rd district; Paula Brooks in Ohio’s 12th district; John Callahan in Pennsylvania’s 15th district; John Carney in Delaware’s at-large district; Suzan DelBene in Washington’s 8th district; Raj Goyle in Kansas’ 4th district; Roy Herron in Tennessee’s 8th district; Bryan Lentz in Pennsylvania’s 7th district; Rob Miller in South Carolina’s 2nd district; Steve Pougnet in California’s 45th district; Dan Seals in Illinois’ 10th district; Tom White in Nebraska’s 2nd district; and Lori Edwards in Florida’s 12th district.

Two of those candidates are running in districts held by Democrats: Tennessee’s 8th and Pennsylvania’s 7th, a pair of competitive open-seat races.

Tags: Bryan Lentz, John Callahan

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 8:42 am and is filed under Front Page Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.