Number of Competitive House Races Shrinking

All summer long we've been hearing that more and more House races had become competitive, nearly ensuring a takeover by the Dems this fall. However, there's a change going on out there and the GOP is making sure the word gets out. Polls are starting to move their way and 14 races that were once competitive are now considered safe for the GOP:

While Democrats and many independent analysts say that the field of competitive races in the House is growing, Republican officials yesterday claimed that some GOP lawmakers can rest easy.

Seizing on recent news reports, the Republican National Committee (RNC) distributed a list yesterday declaring that 14 once-competitive House GOP seats are no longer endangered.

The RNC and the Republican campaign chief in the House both point to the decision by national Democrats not to fund Democratic candidates in seats throughout the country.

One of the things causing this change is that at least five of the Dems chosen challengers were defeated in their primaries, thus leaving weaker candidates to face GOP incumbents. Rank and file Dems don't seem too interested in following the dictates of the Democratic National Committee, and instead are choosing more radical lefty candidates which don't stand as good a chance in the general election.