. . .will be an important factor in the 2010 fall elections.  All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs and 36 of the 100 Senate seats will go before the voters.

The Economist reports that both Democratic and Republican pollsters think that Democrats are in for a thumping:

"Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told the Washington Post recently that the party was spending $50m on efforts to galvanise the first-time voters of 2008 to vote again in November.

Still, money counts for much less in so-called “wave” elections, those in which voters choose to send a powerful demand for a change of direction to the party in power. Over the coming months the Democrats will try to block any such wave by emphasising local issues while the Republicans cast the mid-terms as a national referendum."

Read the rest here.