National GOP eye two Washington house seats

Gary Langer, owner of Langer Research and director of polling for ABC News says 92 Congressional House seats are in play across the country and two of them are in Washington state.

Langer said they are the Second Congressional District where incumbent Democrat Rick Larsen is fending off a strong challenge from Republican John Koster;  and the Third Congressional District, where Republican Jamie Herrera is leading Democratic opponent Denny Heck for the seat left vacant by Brian Baird.

The race for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democrat Patty Murray, Langer says is rated a toss-up by both parties and is one of the reasons Michelle Obama is making an appearance to bolster Murray’s war chest.

But, while the race is rated a toss-up, trends don’t bode well for Republican challenger Dino Rossi.   “This is a challenging race for Rossi to win,” Langer said.  It’s the least likely of the toss-up seats to go to Republican.”

Langer pointed out that Democrats have a five percent majority in Washington and that “Vote By Mail” increases turnout and greater turnout favors Democrats.

But, nationwide, Republicans seem to be in the ascendancy.

Langer said the voter’s mood is one of anger and frustration and that frustration tends to motivate people to vote.   His polling shows that swing voters are leaning towards Republicans and are likely to show up.     And, likely voters are trending to favor Republicans by about 13 percent.

However, neither party is well-liked.   “Sixty percent of voters still blame President Bush for the bad economy and people don’t think that either democrats or republicans can  do a good job of fixing the economy,” Langer said.