Dems have a good week
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Washington (CNN) -- Democrats know the history: 2014 is all but certain to be a tough year. But there is a sense among some top Democratic strategists that the political climate is shifting in ways that could keep the midterm climate from turning from bad to disastrous.
Perhaps it is wishful thinking, and it is important -- very important -- to note how things look in April is often not how they turn out come November.
But Democrats just in the past week have received a few nuggets of potentially helpful news:
* Friday's Labor Department report showing the economy added 192,000 jobs in March.
* Enrollment in the President's health care plan crossed the 7 million mark at the first big deadline to sign up.
* A slight but potentially important uptick in President Barack Obama's approval rating. Gallup's daily tracking poll had this key midterm barometer at 45 percent on Friday, a near 2014 high and up from 39 percent in early February. (President George W. Bush had a 38 percent approval rating in November 2006 -- his second term midterm election -- and Democrats gained 30 House seats).
Plus, Democratic-leaning SuperPACS are beginning to spend more money, and in a few notable cases testing a new strategy of punching directly back at the source of millions of dollars in conservative spending that helped turn the early 2014 climate decidedly in favor of the GOP.
Not that Democrats should be popping -- or even ordering -- champagne. To be clear, top party strategists still expect to lose seats in both the House and the Senate. The goal, though, is to keep the House losses to single digits and to deny Republicans the net gain of six seats the GOP needs to take control of the Senate.
The principal driver of midterm election seasons is the President's approval rating; the closer the incumbent gets to 50 percent, the better Democrats feel about avoiding a November bloodbath.
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