From subscription only Hotline:With less than two months to go before the 11/04 elections, House Dems are ready to launch an "aggressive" and "carefully targeted fundraising program" aimed at steering a total of $2.6M to more than a dozen of their "most urgent races."

The R2B program -- named for the effort to move House districts from "red to blue" when it comes to Congressional representation -- has a goal of raising $200K each for 13 Dem candidate across the country during the next two weeks.

The fundraising drive, which is scheduled to end 9/20, is being spearheaded by House Min. Leader Nancy Pelosi (D) and DCCC Chair Robert Matsui (D). The plan depends "heavily" on Pelosi's ability to tap her nat'l network of donors. She will unveil details of the program to Caucus members this week, as they return from the 8/04 recess.

The Dem candidates who will benefit from the program are:

• Paul Babbitt (AZ-01)
• John Salazar (CO-03)
• Dave Thomas (CO-07)
• Jim Sullivan (CT-02)
• Diane Farrell (CT-04)
• John Barrow (GA-12)
• Tony Miller (KY-03)
• Patty Wetterling(MN-06)
• Richard Romero (NM-01)
• Lois Murphy (PA-06)
• Ginny Schrader (PA-08)
• Brian Higgins (NY-27)
• Don Barbieri (WA-05)

This is a good list, and I really like seeing Ginny Schrader on the list. My only problem with the list is that I wish it were at least twice as long, and preferably three times as long. If we pick up all of these seats and keep every single close Dem-held seat, then we still only take a 218-216-1 advantage in the House. This simply does not provide us with a wide enough margin of error to have a realistic chance of making Nancy Pelosi third in line to the Presidency during this election cycle.

I know there are many other races that deserve special attention, and in 2006 I hope that groups such as MoveOn, ACT, and SEIU that have been so aggressive in 2004 will be willing to put out the same effort to retake the House in 2006. The Kerry campaign alone has managed to gather over $300M for this election cycle. With just half that money, we could produce $1.2M for 125 competitive House races. In 2006, Democratic efforts in the House need to increase exponentially.