The Hill News

Democrats are looking at the kind of losses this cycle that would return them to numbers they enjoyed in the House following the 2006 elections, a top party lawmaker said Thursday.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) chairwoman in charge of incumbent retention, pegged the party's expected losses in the House in the low 20s -- enough for her party to hold the majority.

"I think we're going to keep the majority, but maybe retract it back to around 2006 levels, when we won the majority," she said on the liberal Bill Press radio show.

Democrats controlled 233 seats in the House after winning back the chamber in the 2006 midterm congressional elections. They increased their majority by 21 seats in 2008 to 257 seats.

Wasserman Schultz suggested that Democrats will likely give back that number of seats this cycle.

She denied Republicans' optimism that enough seats w! ere in play to hand the GOP the 39 or more seats they need to win the majority.

"There are not 45 or 46 seats in play right now," she said.

Many leaders in both parties have been less willing to offer hard predictions of how many seats they'll win or lose, at risk of setting tough expectations for their own party.

Wasserman Schultz suggested that the key to victory would be keeping Democratic incumbents races focused on local issues, and not allow the GOP to national the elections and make it about President Obama or Democratic leaders in congress.

"When we're able to keep these races local," she said, "then Democrats are going to hold the majority."