Rep. Roy Blunt said he expects Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic nominee for President and thinks her candidacy could help Republicans win back battleground House seats in Congressional districts across the country.
Blunt's comments came in response to a question about whether he has decided to support a Republican candidate for President. He refrained from an endorsement, and didn't mention any of the Republican candidates, but quickly turned to Clinton's candidacy.
"It looks like to me, Mrs. Clinton will be the nominee," Blunt said. "I think she drives up votes in all districts and in Republican districts, we'll probably have more Republican opportunities than we had in the past. And in Democratic districts, we may have more Democratic opportunities than we had in the past," Blunt said.
Blunt said there are 61 Democratic House members in districts that President Bush won two times. He said there are only 8 Republican members in districts that John Kerry carried in 2004.
He said he doesn't think it's an uphill battle for Republicans to make inroads in the House. And he seemed to infer that a Clinton candidacy would help the G.O.P. up and down the ballot in 2008,
"I do hear a lot of discussion about Mrs. Clinton and how polarizing she is and some Democrats think she is, so you've got to look at the impressive campaign she's put together and see what happens," Blunt said. "I think it's going to be a very close presidential election."
The G.O.P. Congressional advantage in 2008? They aren't in power. "My belief is we'll do much better in an election that's about us and them than we did in an election just about us. And that's the way politics almost always is," Blunt said.
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