Washington (CNN) - Rep. Chris Van Hollen predicted Thursday that the Democratic Party would have lost between 15 and 20 more House seats in the midterm election had money and resources not been diverted away from some candidates in the closing days to help bolster other endangered incumbents.
"To provide flexibility, the DCCC made some very wrenching and tough decisions regarding resource allocation," Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a five page memo to House Democrats. "While painful, these decisions ensured we had finances available to defend many members from the onslaught of outside spending in the final weeks of the election."
"We saw a convergence of events that created a perfect storm against the Democrats," Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." "What this was all about, and understandably so, was a referendum on 9.5 percent unemployment… We had not made enough progress."
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Washington (CNN) - The man tasked with maintaining Democratic control of the House told reporters that it is "a mistake" to announce a Republican takeover of that chamber.
"I think that's a mistake," Rep. Chris Van Hollen said in response to learning that some news outlets had begun declaring a GOP victory in the House.
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(CNN) – History and recent polling suggest Democrats will most likely lose their majority in the House in Tuesday's election. But according to the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the chamber “is not a lost cause.”
“I think all these Washington pundits are going to be surprised,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I believe Democrats are going to hold onto the House.”
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(CNN) - Rep. Chris Van Hollen –- the Democrat tasked with maintaining control of the House -– says it is a sign of his party’s strength that several Democrats are touting their opposition to President Obama ahead of the midterm elections.
“We're proud of the fact that we have an ideologically diverse caucus. We have a whole range of different political viewers. What they're talking about is their independence on certain issues,” Van Hollen, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told CNN’s Candy Crowley on State of The Union.
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Washington (CNN) - Bush-loving extremists.
That, in simplified form, was the label hung on Republicans Friday by the Democrat charged with spearheading his party's 2010 House election campaign.
Saddled with a sagging economy and lower presidential approval ratings, Democratic Congressional Campaign Chairman Chris Van Hollen laid out his party's apparent plan of attack for the looming midterm elections.
Addressing reporters, Van Hollen cast this fall's campaign as less a referendum on President Barack Obama and more a choice between much-needed change and a return to the policies of former President George W. Bush and a Republican Party increasingly under the sway of extreme Tea Party activists.
"I can assure you that despite the Washington summer political chatter, reports of the House Democrats' demise are greatly exaggerated," he declared.
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Washington (CNN) - The Democrats' point man for holding onto the party's majority in the House admitted Friday that the reach and intensity of conservative talk radio and television will be a "challenge" this fall but said voters will be smart enough to see through the "outrageous rhetoric on the right."
Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, took specific aim at Fox News personality Glenn Beck, who is headlining a "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington this weekend alongside Sarah Palin.
The rally, to be held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, is being billed as a "non-political event." Van Hollen called that claim nonsense.
"It's blatantly political," the Maryland Democrat said in an appearance at the National Press Club. "I mean, come on. You have seen Glenn Beck and a lot of the talk show hosts on Fox News out there talking about this election for the last 15 months since the day President Obama was elected president.
(CNN) – With midterm elections less than three months away, outspoken members of both political parties tried Sunday to blame the nation's economic woes on the fiscal policies supported by their rivals.
In an interview on CNN's State of the Union, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, accused congressional Republicans of "gambling" with Americans' retirement savings.
"If you privatize Social Security … the end result will be that that money is not there," Van Hollen told CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley. "There is not a stable source of retirement money because we'll be literally gambling it on Wall Street. And that has been a long-held position of our Republican colleagues."
Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California dismissed the accusations as "scare tactics" designed to distract Americans from the 9.5 percent unemployment rate.
"Republicans want to secure it [Social Security] and make it there for the future," McCarthy said. "One of the reasons why it's actually losing money right now is because there are so fewer jobs out there and fewer people are paying in."
Watch the debate, after the jump:
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