Democratic held
Ohio 6 -- Strickland*
(And this one is listed only because the Democrat idiotically messed up his ballot access filing.)
Republican Held
Colo. 7 -- Beauprez*
Iowa 1 -- Nussle*
Ind. 8 -- Hostettler
Ind. 9 -- Sodrel
N.Y. 24 -- Boehlert*
Ohio 18 -- Ney
Pa. 6 -- Gerlach
Texas 22 -- DeLay*
(*) indicates an open seat.
On Ney, the most recent change from "lean Republican" to "no clear favorite", CQ writes:
A close past association with now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff has put long-popular Republican Rep. Bob Ney at risk as he seeks a seventh term in Ohio's 18th District.
The Democrats' intent to aim squarely at Ney's Achilles' heel was inherent in a TV ad released Monday by Chillicothe Mayor Joe Sulzer -- which says "a culture of corruption in Washington" has rendered the government incapable of curbing rising gas prices and the outsourcing of Americans' jobs to other countries, issues troubling many voters in the mainly working-class 18th.
Of course, we don't win back the House with eight wins, but it's a sign that the GOP is playing far more defense than we are. I still think we'll make incremental gains, but retaking the House in a wave election will take strong leadership and clear and inspiring rhetoric from the Democratic leadership. We're thankfully seeing signs of that starting to happen.