October 15, 2010 07:33 PM UTC

Democrats Still Looking at House Losses; But Some Gains, Too?

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• by: Colorado Pols

From our friends at “The Fix“:

A new poll of battleground districts shows Republicans still poised to make big gains in November although the outlook has brightened somewhat for Democrats since the summer.

The NPR News poll, which surveyed likely voters in 86 competitive districts held by Democrats and 10 held by the GOP, found that Republicans now lead Democrats 47 percent to 44 percent on the generic congressional ballot, down from Republicans’ 49 percent to 41 percent lead in June.

The poll, which was conducted jointly by Democratic pollster Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and GOP pollster Public Opinion Strategies, also found that in Democratic-held districts 41 percent of likely voters approved of the job President Barack Obama is doing while 55 percent disapprove; in Republican-held districts that are being targeted by Democrats, 51 percent of likely voters approved of Obama’s handling of his job while 46 percent disapproved.

Overall, the survey provides some — but not much — good news for Democrats less than three weeks out from Election Day.

It lands, however, less than 24 hours after the Cook Political Report upped its projection for GOP gains in the House.

“Overall, given the status of these Toss Up races and the length of the Lean Democratic column, Democrats’ chances of losing at least 50 seats are now greater than their chances of holding losses under 45 seats,” wrote Cook Political Report House Editor David Wasserman.