The Cook Political report has released a new batch of ratings for competitive House races.
The two Washington state races that make the list are WA-1, the seat being vacated by Rep. Jay Inslee for his gubernatorial run, and the new WA-10. (Here is a map of the new Washington state Congressional districts.)
WA-10 is rated Safe Democratic, and Cook’s Partisan Voter Index (PVI) for the district is D+5.
WA-1 is rated Lean Democratic, with a PVI of D+3.
These ratings have been stable for awhile.
Nationally Democrats have 20 seats rated as lean or toss-up, Republicans have 32. Just a month ago, Democrats had 23 and Republicans had 29.
Update: Here is a graph of the count of lean/toss-up seats since the beginning of the year:
The trend in this graph lends credibility to suggestions that Democrats may win back the House in 2012….
An mproving economy will help President Obama get re-elected (which increasingly looks like a slam-dunk as Republicans continue to implode), but also could help GOPers retain House seats, as less voter angst usually translates into less determination to “throw the bums out.”