With four weeks left in the campaign, GOP strategists, speaking on background, have begun to outline a highly gloomy view of the House election for their party.

They are all but writing off GOP open seats in Arizona, Colorado, Texas and Florida (the one previously held by Foley).  Party officials said that three GOP incumbents in Indiana are trailing in private polling and that seats thought safe suddenly appear imperiled.  These include the open Florida seat vacated by Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.), who is running for senator.  "It is unquestionably closer than we would like," said Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.).

In a sign the political environment is getting worse for Republicans, political handicapper Charlie Cook now lists 25 GOP-held seats as a tossup — seven more than before the Foley scandal broke Sept. 29.  Stuart Rothenberg, a nonpartisan expert on House races, has raised to nine the number of GOP seats tilting Democratic or likely to switch hands.

Majority Action, a group designed to help Democrats retake control of the House, is sponsoring a radio ad in which a narrator says: "Another scandal in Washington, and our Congressman Tom Reynolds is right in the middle."  Two public polls show Reynolds trailing his Democratic challenger, Jack Davis, in a race neither side considered very competitive a few weeks ago.


That's the Congressman Tom Reynolds that also heads the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee.  That Tom Reynolds.