“FOLEY FACTOR” AND IRAQ CRIPPLE GOP...

Developing...Major TV News Network Pursuing Story On GOP Rep. Kolbe’s Involvement With Congressional Pages…

Jim VandeHei and Chris Cillizza October 9, 2006 at 10:45 PM
READ MORE: George W. Bush, Dennis Hastert, Mark Foley, Iraq

Republican campaign officials said yesterday that they expect to lose at least seven House seats and as many as 30 in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, as a result of sustained violence in Iraq and the page scandal involving former GOP representative Mark Foley.

Democrats need to pick up 15 seats in the election to take back control of the House after more than a decade of GOP leadership. Two weeks of virtually nonstop controversy over President Bush's war policy and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's handling of the page scandal have forced party leaders to recalculate their vulnerability and placed a growing number of Republican incumbents and open seats at much greater risk.

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